Seeing a wealth of business readily available in Rochester, New York, Carrier Transicold of Upstate New York recognized that being a part of the community would make securing that business an easier task. To make the company available to local motor carriers and food distributors, its parent company, Penn Detroit Diesel Allison (DDA) of Philadelphia, opened its eighth refrigeration sales and service location there in December 2001.
Located almost due west of Syracuse, but on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, Rochester is roughly halfway between Syracuse, home to another branch of Carrier Transicold of Upstate New York, and Buffalo. With the move west to Rochester, Carrier Transicold of Upstate New York now serves the entire middle of New York from the boundary between the Rochester and Buffalo dealerships south to the Pennsylvania border and east to the far side of Binghamton.
“The customer population in Rochester is a great deal like that in Syracuse,” says Bob O'Gorman, branch manager for both the Syracuse and Rochester locations. “It's about 75 miles in either direction to Buffalo or Syracuse. Early in our planning, we considered staffing Rochester with a mobile service operation. However, we realized that most customers would rather have units under repair take up space at our facility instead of having one of our technicians occupy one of their service bays. We decided that we needed a physical presence to generate business; customers would not endure the time and expense of driving 75 miles to Syracuse for purchases or service.”
A number of Penn DDA locations provide truck engine and transmission work as well as refrigeration sales and service. In Rochester, the company is concentrating on refrigeration sales and service. Future plans call for expansion into light maintenance for Detroit Diesel engines and Allison transmissions.
Located on Mushroom Blvd, minutes off I-390 and easily accessible, the Rochester location sits in a previously existing 15,000-sq-ft building on 1.3 acres. The 12,000-sq-ft shop has two drive-through bays with space between for additional workstations. All told, the dealership has room for 10 trailers inside the building. Service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Rochester dealership is staffed by O'Gorman plus a salesman, parts manager, service manager, and two refrigeration technicians. Staffing is projected to rise to 10 personnel by the end of 2002.
“Our growth in this current economy has been strong and can be attributed to our efforts to try to understand current and future customer needs and then provide the products and services that respond to those needs”, says Jerry Tiffan, Penn DDA president. “The opening of the branch in Rochester is another example of responding to customers where a heavy demand for sales and service of Carrier Transicold products has been heard.”
Penn Detroit Diesel Allison is a full service distributor of diesel engines, automatic transmissions, generator sets, and replacement parts for a variety of heavy industrial and truck and bus equipment, with eight locations throughout Pennsylvania and New York.
