Rygor Commercials is a Mercedes-Benz truck and van dealership with 11 branches across the south of England. It provides specialist LCV sales and aftersales services across a large part of the country and its commitment to exceptional customer service is evidenced by maintaining vehicle uptime to the highest level. Combined with competitive pricing, the overall cost of ownership is reduced, enhancing customers’ profitability.
Keeping the customer moving throughout the past challenging 12 month period has been the company’s priority. Rygor has contributed to keeping 97.25% of Tesco’s home delivery fleets fully operational. By prioritising key workers, and operating all makes and models of van, it has also extended aftersales opening hours to cope with the increased demand.
During the pandemic, Rygor has offered free technical support to all emergency vehicles, keeping the essential services moving. In addition, its 24-hour on call mobile technicians have fixed 59,448 vehicles by the roadside this year, ensuring minimum downtime to businesses. Drivers have been able to enjoy a first fix visit within 24 hours of their booking enquiry. To help its customers further, Rygor commenced a vehicle collection and delivery service in addition to supplying parts to customers across the whole of the UK, helping them to avoid unnecessary travel and vehicle downtime, drastically minimising the disruption to their businesses. Rygor continues to invest in its own branch’s facilities, recently opening a new dedicated van aftersales centre in its Newbury facility.
Further developments to the site at Reading are in the pipeline throughout the coming months.
Despite having to adopt some new processes in order to offer its customers a contactless journey from test drive to handover (including a virtual vehicle tour), Rygor claims that its sales team has achieved a top position in the dealer network. Fully trained by the manufacturer, and dedicated specialists in their field, Rygor’s sales team offers prospective customers a professional, bespoke service tailored to their needs. Distance is no object, with Rygor supplying one vehicle to a customer 300 miles away who used the online sales system to secure their van.
Rygor has received numerous testimonials including this one from one Reading customer: “Absolutely top class from the team at Rygor Reading. Alex, Ryan, all the mechanics and staff who looked after me and put me back on the road when my van was dying, and I was in desperate need of help to get back to Manchester. These guys are an absolute credit to Mercedes and to themselves. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Any time of the day they are there to help. Thank you for everything.”
Summarising the company’s achievements in 2021, a Rygor spokesperson said: “We are proud of the way every Rygor team member has stepped up to provide excellent customer service throughout the past year, and it has been our absolute privilege to support our LCV customers through these recent challenging times.
The spokesperson concluded that, “Our customers are the backbone of our business, and we will continue to set standards for them.”
Highly Commended: FORS
FORS (Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme) is a voluntary accreditation scheme, which is dedicated to raising standards across the road transport industry. It allows members to evidence to their clients that they are conforming to the best practice in their method of operating.
FORS has a helpline, allowing members to seek guidance on any aspect of the scheme, providing peace of mind to those who have any queries and who wish to ensure that they remain compliant, particularly when operating during the pandemic. This helpline remained open during the worst of the outbreak, with operators working remotely throughout the UK.
All member training became available online, with 244 courses being delivered between April and December 2020.
Also adapting to a new way of operating, driver training courses were changed with some practical aspects being temporarily paused, however theory elements were
still maintained.
