The agricultural sector relies heavily on trucks and is one of the most significant segments of truck consumers in the nation, but there is only one solution that can help dealers target that market. On today’s Inside Automotive, we’re pleased to welcome the CEO and President of Certified Agriculture Group, Pat Driscoll, to tell us more.
Certified Agricultural Group is a vertically integrated marketing solution for dealers targeting the agricultural landscape. Driscoll says, “The bottom line is that we are a turnkey solution for dealers who want to touch the agricultural community, and it’s not just sales; we see fixed operation revenues to help dealers improve, as well.”
Driscoll adds, “Everything we thought we knew 10 years ago when we started, we didn’t. Especially pertaining to the dealership community. However, the parallels are uncanny.” What the group does to help dealers return to the vertically integrated language, has layers. Driscoll asserts it starts with the certified agricultural dealership (CAD), component. “We train dealers to hit educational benchmarks, and for dealers to become certified, they must take a four-hour training course. We require at least one person from each sale, service, and parts department to obtain a certification.” That way, no matter what department an agricultural customer is in, they can speak to someone who is certified.
After dealers are certified, they can display AgPack, a collection of global agricultural companies. The AgPack certification can be registered on the hood of new and used trucks and could save the consumer up to $30,000 in exclusive rebates and discounts on farm supplies.
The final layer of becoming certified is that dealers can upload their AgPack inventory onto AgTruckTrader.com, a certified agricultural website that displays new and used trucks for sale for agriculture.
Driscoll also explains that his group offers CADFI, an agricultural financing tool for dealerships to provide its consumers. The financing tool will alleviate the challenges of making payments through the various agricultural seasons.
Key numbers
According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
- 2.2 million farms utilize trucks.
- There’s an average of three trucks per farm or ranch.
- 45% of farmers replace one truck at least annually.
- Roughly 930,000 trucks are bought in any given year.
- 60% of trucks bought are new, and 40% are used.
According to Farm Journal Media:
- Agriculture represents heavy-duty trucks, the data shows the most purchased trucks (62%) by farmers in the ranch are the 1500 or 150 series trucks.
- 61% of farmers on a 2500 or 250 series truck.
- 32% on a 3500 or 350 series truck.
