Pohanka of Salisbury to open a new commercial service center

Pohanka of Salisbury is opening a new commercial service center to service large vehicles and trucks for businesses in the area. Keith Biggar, director of commercial operations, is heading up the new venture.

“Before we had no capacity for bigger, heavier trucks,” Biggar said. “Soon we’ll have a whole new building behind the Pohanka Commercial dealership off North Salisbury Blvd. that can handle those. We anticipate opening in August.”

A pre-existing maintenance building acquired in the purchase of the VW property is being revamped into a five-bay facility for the larger vehicles. Build-out has been expensive, especially since heavy lifts are required to handle several tons of weight up in the air for service.

Shown (l to r) are the Pohanka of Salisbury Commercial Service Center employees: Tate Marshall, Mike Fink, Eric Coady, Keith Mooner, and Keith Biggar.

The commercial service center will be based solely around businesses, municipalities, police departments and other agencies. “It won’t be your typical shop routine,” Biggar said. “Service will be more efficient, because time is money. We’ll provide added convenience and lessen down time.”

Pohanka currently offers mobile service for these bigger trucks — for routine maintenance on the road, on the job site, at home or at your place of business. “We’ll come to you,” Biggar continued.

“We also have a pick up and delivery service for when the job is something more major than routine maintenance. We’ll bring your vehicle to our shop, complete the work and drop it off when we’re finished.

“We have loaners as well. If we have to take your vehicle off the road for more than the usual time frame, we can provide a replacement, whether cargo van, service body, dump truck or standard pickup. We have all that here, on the lot, as close as we can provide to what you need.”

The Pohanka Automotive Group in Salisbury began as a single service repair facility in 1919 and has grown to 17 dealerships throughout Maryland and northern Virginia. Pohanka has been on the Eastern Shore since 1999. The group offers Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Mercedes, Honda, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Kia, Ford and Volkswagen in the Delmarva area.

Pohanka has more than 100 technicians in nine Delmarva dealerships who can service all models of vehicles, whether gas, diesel or electric engine.

Biggar said, “We have several gentlemen who are diesel techs already, mostly in the Ford service center. We’ll put them all together in the new commercial service center.”

To better serve the community, Pohanka is hiring technicians. “We have a tech training academy right here for in-house training of techs,” Biggar said.

Pohanka also offers Maryland state inspections in-house.

On the sales side, Pohanka specializes in outfitting new vehicles for commercial use. Biggar noted, “We have 15 outfitters we partner with for service bodies, dump trucks, state bodies, flatbeds, van interiors… We’ve been doing a lot of police vehicles with lights, cages and other equipment. We can outfit delivery trucks with shelving and special gear, even refrigerated and frozen units.”

The Pohanka name is known for trust, fairness and excellence, and that also extends to service. The new Commercial Service Center is just one more way that Pohanka is working to serve the community.

For more information about the new facility, contact Biggar at kb*****@****************ry.com or 410-219-0435.