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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: No ordinary vehicle dealership Seekins Ford-Lincoln-Mercury meets the challenges of Alaska’s extreme climate and remote geography Alan Bailey Petroleum Directory Contributing Writer
Customer service brings a whole set of unique challenges when operating a car dealership in Alaska's Interior and north. Supplying, maintaining and repairing vehicles in a vast area with few interconnecting roads and with some of the world's most extreme weather requires specialist knowledge and an innovative approach to business.
Seekins Ford-Lincoln-Mercury has been operating in the Interior since Ralph Seekins purchased the Fairbanks-based Ford franchise from Jim Thompson Ford Sales in 1977.
"Our market area is probably one of the largest ... of any Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership in the United States, as measured in square miles," Steven Angel, fleet sales manager for Seekins Ford, told Petroleum News. "It extends north of the Alaska Range to the Arctic Ocean, from the Bering Sea to the Canadian border — we try to service all of the people in that area."
When in 1982 Seekins Ford outgrew the original Jim Thompson Ford site, the company started construction of its current facility at 1625 Old Steese Highway, Fairbanks.
"We're located on about 10 acres and when we first built the dealership ... about an acre of that was under roof," Angel said. In the mid-1990s Seekins Ford added some new facilities to the site, including a fast lube shop for quick-turnaround routine maintenance.
"We have an average of probably 100 to 110 employees at any given time." Seekins said. "We sell in the neighborhood of 1,800 to 2,000 vehicles per year." Large inventory To be able to respond rapidly to customer needs, Seekins Ford carries a large inventory of both cars and spare parts — it typically takes about 90 days to obtain a vehicle from the Lower 48, Angel said.
"We can provide vehicles on hand ... what I would consider to be work-ready vehicles," Angel said. "At any given time we've got chassis cabs and work vans and things like that on site."
And on the maintenance and repair side of the business, the company's well-stocked parts inventory helps ensure that a customer's vehicle can be fixed and back on the road as quickly as possible.
Weather extremes With a huge temperature range between summer and winter, Angel sees the weather as the biggest issue when selling and servicing cars.
"The winter is probably the biggest challenge," Angel said. "We've learned some tricks here in keeping vehicles going that probably other dealerships aren't faced with."
Sometimes an unexpected design issue will only emerge when a vehicle is located in Alaska. For example, the use of dissimilar metals in the radiator assembly of some types of vehicles once caused the radiators to leak when standing in extreme cold.
In fact, the vehicle manufacturers sometimes use Alaska as a test bed for cold weather conditions.
"Ford ... has used our facility in the past to do cold weather testing," Angel said, "... we have helped them make changes to vehicle designs ... it could be something as simple as a bypass for automatic transmission cooler lines." Vehicle outfitting Seekins Ford's expertise in coping with the Alaska weather also comes into play when outfitting vehicles for use in Alaska conditions. For example, the company often winterizes vehicles so that they will start in extreme cold or withstand storm-force winds.
"The Ford super duty is probably the most popular vehicle on the North Slope right now," Angel said. "We install items like door straps, so that when someone opens the door a gust of wind doesn't catch it and fold the door back up against the fender."
As well as outfitting for the weather, the company takes pride in its high level of expertise in working with its customers to specify custom vehicle outfitting for specialist applications.
"So if somebody, say, wants a boom truck or they want a flatbed or utility box ... we can arrange to do that and actually help them spec. those vehicles," Angel said.
The company's experts know what type of upfit has been done and which outfitting companies do what kind of work.
"If we have the vehicle in stock, typically we can have an upfit done ... and have that vehicle back within just a very short period of time — sometimes as little as seven days," Angel said.
Commercial sales and service On the commercial side of its business, Seekins Ford serves a wide range of businesses and government entities. Although some customers like to lease vehicles, many commercial customers purchase vehicles through retail contracts. Seekins Ford can also arrange Ford extended service plans for the maintenance and servicing of commercial fleets.
"A lot of the oil companies on the North Slope take advantage of that program," Angel said.
Customers on the North Slope can also enjoy the benefits of local servicing and warrantee repairs — VECO and CONAM Construction Co. now operate warrantee stations on the Slope for Seekins Ford.
"All the warrantee claims and things like that are done by those two companies are administered through us," Angel said. "We handle the paperwork for that." Services to remote areas Seekins Ford maintains a sales presence in Barrow and has done some business in Nome, Kotzebue and some of the smaller Alaska communities. However, servicing vehicles in remote villages may require some unusual transportation arrangements.
"We've got a (Cessna) 206 on floats that we can use ... and in certain instances we have gone out and done repairs on vehicles that were under warrantee out in some of these villages," Angel said.
During the summer the company sometimes uses barges to ship vehicles for servicing or repair.
"We've had vehicles that have been barged into Fairbanks," Angel said. "We've fixed them ... and taken them to the barge line for shipment back to the customer." Skilled personnel Seekins Ford's excellent services depend on the company's cadre of skilled staff. Sales consultants, for example, participate in a Ford certification program.
"The Ford Motor Co. has a program in place to certify their sales people and we go through that training here," Angel said.
All technicians go through certification in particular types of repair.
"Probably the biggest challenge on the service side of any dealer ... is finding certified technicians," Angel said.
As well as retaining its experienced technicians, Seekins constantly encourages new people to enter the trade, especially through the Ford Motor Co. ASSET program. The ASSET program gives aspiring automotive technicians an opportunity to complete a 24-month associate degree university course. Ford trains instructors for the program and provides vehicles, a curriculum and training equipment. The sponsoring Ford dealership pays students for on-site training with its own qualified technicians.
"The program is through UAA in Anchorage," Angel said. "They'll take a lot of classroom study and then they'll come back up here and they'll work alongside one of our service technicians, then they'll go back down again ... to Anchorage."
Angel emphasized the importance to the company of employing technicians who can repair things right the first time.
"If it's 50 below zero outside and I've got your furnace repairman's van sitting out here in my shop and I can't get that thing to run and your furnace goes down, then you'll see how important that is as well," Angel said.
Editor's note: Alan Bailey owns Badger Productions in Anchorage, Alaska.
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