(Note: A Courtesy Delivery, for those of The Others who might be reading this, is a car or truck sold by a national fleet company that is delivered to their client by a new car dealer for a nominal fee.)
All hail the Courtesy Delivery! All hail that institution that makes fleet managers everywhere think their actually doing something! Now don’t get me wrong. In my years in this business I have worn many hats including a stint as a fleet manager. So I’m a veteran of many courtesy deliveries myself. It’s been about twenty years since I’ve done one, but I’m certain it hasn’t changed.
Doing a Courtesy Delivery is a little like being a bottom-rung hooker. There’s not much money in it, and you can feel a little cheap when it’s done. There’s just something distasteful about delivering a vehicle for a couple of hundred dollars or so, knowing that someone else has made the gross.
The dealers are usually ambivalent about the whole thing. Many hate it and for good reason because there’s not much money in it. Some flat-ass refuse to do one.
This being said many dealers put up with it as just a part of the business. They get the PDI (pre-delivery inspection) money from the manufacturer, make a little money and sleep better at night knowing that a few courtesy deliveries helps keep all those rowdy fleet guys out of the bars on lazy afternoons.
One problem with courtesy deliveries is that after a while the fleet guys confuse them with as real car deals, which they are not. I went to work at a dealership once where a guy pointed at a painted up van for a local company. “That’s my account,” he told me proudly. Now in my brain having an account meant you went out and got the business and sold them a car. It wasn’t until later that I realized that his “account” was a bunch of courtesy deliveries!
At Hayward Ford back at the dawn of my automobile journey, I worked with a guy named Jack Allan. Jack was a truly sweet man, not a mean bone in his body. Jack was the fleet manager, and along with his normal duties he did courtesy deliveries—a lot of courtesy deliveries. He was another guy who chose to think of them as real deals.
Jack’s office was at the far end of the lot, and he had to walk past our offices on the used car lot in order to go to the business office. Every once in a while we’d be standing out there at the railing hawking for an up when Jack would walk buy. He’d hold a sheaf of papers in his hand and crow, “PH&H! Another twenty-five deliveries!”
Now Jack had one thing right. If you’re going to do courtesy deliveries, do a lot of them. If you can get into bed with a large fleet company and maybe do a couple of hundred per year, you’ve something. It’s akin to my to my philosophy of if you’re going to give new cars away, give a lot of them away (and hope you get a lot of nice trade ins!).
I remember one time I was courtesy delivering a Chrysler Fifth Avenue to an executive of a company. Got the car ready, filled out the forms, but when the guy (who had arrogant bastard written all over his face) came in, he took one look at the car and announced he hated the color. It got interesting when he demanded that I get him a different car. When I explained that I wasn’t actually selling him a car, I was simply delivering a car that was sent to me from a dealer back east, he became indignant and had a mini-tantrum in my office. Apparently he was confusing me with someone who gave a shit.
I have to admit I was enjoying all this. It was a chance to screw with a customer’s mind without getting into trouble. After grinding on me for a full ten minutes on why I couldn’t deliver the one he liked better that was on our lot, he turned red and left. A week later a transporter came and picked up the Fifth Avenue, never to be seen again.
So all hail the Courtesy Delivery! It’s the magic pill that tries to fool you into thinking you’ve sold a car when you actually haven’t. It can be an object of ridicule from the retail guys, a necessary evil for the dealer, a good thing for the service department. But a lot of times it just makes you feel like a fool.
Talk to you later,
David
6 comments:
What a great article. We have been looking for a fleet company. That is how I came across your article. Thanks so much for such an interesting read. I had no idea that some car companies can deliver the car to you. Thanks for sharing.
love it!!
Still not real clear on what exactly is a "courtesy delivery". The process, so to speak. You state what it is NOT. But you never get around to saying what it is.
It's when a company orders a vehicle for their employee to drive (such as Comcast, Mary Kay, or LabCorp) and it is then delivered to the nearest franchised dealer to deliver to said employee. This article is great, but we are charging $500 per delivery here at our dealership!
I've been blessed all my life to have had the same job for forty plus years. Earlier mostly sold thousands of units to Rental Companies. After 9/11, we steered away from that and more in to Commercial Mom and Pop Companies, while doing Courtesy Deliveries on a large scale 400 T0 600 a year. I've always tried to do my best and represent the Leasing companies in a professional manner. We pick up an additional 250 actual sales out of stock to these leasing companies, I've always told myself that why we do Courtesy Deliveries. Actually when you do as many as we do you have to look at a much bigger picture. When you offer them good service they come back, when you treat them with respect they will also buy their personal cars from your dealership. This article was written by the type of Salesperson we hope never works for our dealership. I'm proud of my dealership and to have worked for this family most of my life. God bless the Parks family. Praise God for His many blessings, especially landing this job for me in 1975.
That is truly a good summary of it.
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