For more than 100 years, Levin Tire & Service Centers has been the go-to trusted experts you can rely on when your vehicle needs it the most. Whether it’s preventive maintenance, diagnosing a check engine light, or repairing a vehicle’s driving system -- Levin Tire does it all. Now, they’re taking it one step further for commercial vehicles.
This spring, Levin Tire’s Highland location will be adding six new repair bays geared towards commercial and heavy-duty vehicles. The project started in December 2019 and is currently more than halfway completed.
Chip LaRock, Commercial Accounts Manager at Levin Tire, played a vital role in the new expansion. After noticing the influx of delivery and commercial vehicles rolling into Levin’s Highland shop, LaRock saw a big demand for this opportunity but says no one had stepped up.
“I’m getting really excited just watching the development of it,” LaRock said. “I have companies telling me, ‘as soon as the lifts are in, call us.’ We [LaRock and Jeff Russell, General Manager of Levin Tire)] talked it over, and we’re now expanding the current building by adding six heavy-duty bays.”
LaRock says the racks in the bays will be able to handle 12,000 to 18,000-pound trucks that stretch up to 24 feet long.
“We’re going to have one of the few heavy-duty alignment machines in the area,” he added. “We’ll be able to align these vehicles, too, because not a lot of places have the capability to handle those types of vehicles.”
The new addition will allow Levin Tire to better serve all the service businesses out there that have a fleet of vehicles.
“Customers have been told that it’ll be two or three weeks before they get their trucks back once they’ve dropped one of their fleet vehicles off at a dealership because there would only be one guy working on it,” LaRock said. “If you have 70 fleet vehicles and one’s down, it’s not that big of a deal, but a lot of these smaller and locally-owned businesses only have a handful of vehicles. They’re already stressed out enough and the last thing they want to hear is their work truck is going to be down for two to three weeks. When one’s down, they must restructure their entire schedule to accommodate their customer base. One of our main goals in doing this is to speed up the service time a vehicle is down for the customer.”
For customers, this means they will no longer have to take vehicles to a tire place to get new tires, another place for brakes, then a different shop for an oil change - Levin Tire offers all these services.
“When it’s all complete, we will have a total of 16 repair bays, so this will be one of the largest repair facilities in Northwest Indiana,” LaRock said. “At that time, we will also have multiple National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Certified Technicians. Being staffed with certified mechanics, we’re going to be a one-stop-shop and able to accommodate both retail and commercial customers.”
LaRock has been with Levin Tire for nearly 14 years. Throughout his career at Levin Tire, he has spent most of that time leading the company’s service department, and now, he will be the company’s very first commercial accounts manager.
“I like the idea of taking the company to the next level,” LaRock said. “During my time here, we’ve taken excellent care of our retail customers, now I’m going to be taking care of the commercial side of the business.”
To learn more information on Levin Tire & Service Centers and view a full list of the services they offer, visit their website or call 1(800)-475-5005.
