Montana service department offers towing no matter how far away

Since it opened in 2002, American Ford in Glendive, Mont., has shown it will go to just about any length for its customers.

The dealership, in the eastern part of the state not far from the North Dakota border, provides towing to its service department — typically at no cost — to customers just down the street or those stranded hundreds of miles away.

"In eastern Montana it's so rural that we have to be able to go out and have a delivery or pick-up service for people that can't get here because their vehicles broke down," Kyle Johnson, general manager of American Ford, told Fixed Ops Journal. "There's not a traditional roadside service that goes 30 miles out to the country, so we fill that hole."

Johnson notes that his team doesn't perform any fixes on the road — and has no plans to start — and instead brings vehicles back to the 17-bay shop for repairs. He says the store uses a 2019 Ford F-250 to tow about seven to 10 vehicles per month and determines who needs to be picked up on a case-by-case basis — including the level of urgency required to get the vehicle in for a repair.

Since Automotive News first wrote about American Ford's willingness to go the extra mile in 2014, Johnson has made a couple of changes to the program. First, the store switched from a flatbed to a trailer for towing because it is easier to load and doesn't require a commercial driver's license to operate.

The store also added four loaner pickup trucks wrapped in a red, white and blue American Ford print. The lineup has two Ford F-150 Raptors, one F-150 Crew Cab and one F-250 Super Duty Crew Cab.

While the store has always offered loaner vehicles, Johnson says most of his customers require a personal vehicle with four-wheel drive, especially if a customer's main vehicle will be out of commission for a while. Plus, he says customers are excited to drive the rolling advertisements.

"If we have a farmer or rancher, that's their main truck in the shop and they need something to get back into the ranch or to pull a trailer," Johnson said. "A lot of folks in eastern Montana, they drive a pickup or four-wheel-drive type vehicle because that's what they need to get back to the country where they live. Or if they live in town but need to travel for work, a two-wheel-drive vehicle just won't get them there."

As for how far American Ford will go for a tow, Johnson says he once put the truck, trailer and a loaner truck on standby when a customer was stranded in Great Falls, Mont., which is about 350 miles west of Glendive. While Johnson's team ended up not needing to go, he says his store is willing to go that far for a customer.

He adds that the dealership doesn't charge for the service for customers who bought a vehicle at American Ford, and even for those who aren't customers but are only a few miles away. For everyone else, Johnson says rates vary based on the distance and type of vehicle.

Loyalty goes both ways for American Ford. Johnson says the service department, staffed with six techs and a lube tech, is consistently scheduled two to three weeks out for service. He notes the store averaged 400 repair orders per month in 2019.

Eighteen years later, American Ford's vehicle delivery service, and now its new lineup of loaner vehicles, will continue to be an important representation of how the dealership values its customers, Johnson says.

"Just understanding where we live and what people's expectations are really drives the program," he says. "We started doing it from day one basically, and it's never even been a thought to not provide that as a service."