British Columbia Kenworth dealer moves to larger facility

Updated Apr 16, 2014

Inland Kenworth has relocated its Campbell River dealership to a new full-service facility with twice the space of its previous location and a building design with improved lighting and state-of-the-art equipment to speed parts and service support.

The new 20,000 square-foot facility is located at 2900 North Island Highway about 1 kilometer north of its previous site, and 155 kilometers north of Nanaimo off British Columbia Provincial Route 19A, which is Vancouver Island’s main north-south route. In celebration of the new dealership, Inland Kenworth – Campbell River will host an open house and grand opening from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 10.

“Our new facility features a parts inventory control system that helps the parts department stay well-stocked with quality Kenworth proprietary and TRP all-makes parts,” said Falko Heuser, branch manager of Inland Kenworth – Campbell River. “Desktop computers and wireless notebooks designated for each service bay help service department technicians improve service work scheduling and tracking. The service department also has a new lighting system that provides technicians a bright work environment allowing them to see more clearly when working on customer’s trucks and equipment. These updated features and added capacity improve our customers’ experience.”

The new building features a 6,000 square-foot parts department with a large parts warehouse and a 10,000 square-foot service department optimally designed with 5 drive-throughs and 10 service bays for work on commercial trucks and trailers and off-road equipment. This allows technicians to move trucks and equipment in and out of each bay more efficiently without disrupting service work in the other service bay. One of the drive-throughs can also be used as an indoor wash bay to wash a full truck and trailer combination. “Because of their efficiency, the drive-throughs allow us to get trucks back on the road making money faster than we did at our previous location,” Heuser said.

Inland Kenworth – Campbell River has two parts delivery trucks that make regular trips to truck fleets and operators, particularly logging companies with timber harvesting operations in more remote parts of Vancouver Island and in the Powell River area, across the Georgia Straight on the B.C. mainland. And the dealership has four remote service trucks that provide logging companies, contractors and other truck operators service work on their trucks and other equipment.

During the economic slowdown several years ago, Inland Kenworth kept its prior Campbell River dealership — which has been in business for more than 35 years – open while other dealers closed their local facilities and waited for the recovery before reopening them.

“After we moved to our new facility, community leaders thanked me on behalf of our company not only for the decision to keep this dealership open, but also for making such a large investment in the community’s future,” Heuser added. “They told me how important our company’s business is to the Campbell River economy, particularly to the forestry, mining and construction industries. It’s a good feeling knowing that our neighbors appreciate and value us for being an integral part of this community.

“We take a certain pride in making decisions that are not only good for our business, but also for our communities,” Heuser said. “That’s why we chose to celebrate our grand opening on a Saturday so that we can provide Campbell River a family-oriented celebration, complete with a barbecue, fun activities for the children as well as a vendor fair, truck rodeo and equipment obstacle course for adults.”

Inland Kenworth – Campbell River is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The phone number is 250-287-8878. Alan Kelly is service manager and Stan Mattice is parts manager. The new full-service dealership is part of a Kenworth dealer network of more than 345 locations in the United States and Canada. Besides the Campbell River dealership, Inland Kenworth operates 20 locations in British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, Arizona, California and New Mexico. Inland Kenworth is a member of the Inland Group.