Ryan Knight is the director of operations for Bill Knight Automotive, which owns multiple dealerships in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The group just opened its Ford Pro Elite commercial service facility, a 30,000-square-foot, 30-bay shop in Tulsa, dedicated exclusively to fleet and commercial service.
Driving the news: Knight said the new facility was the natural next step after years of growing a strong fleet sales operation without having service infrastructure to match.
“We had, for a long time, a really good fleet sales department,” Knight told Daily Dealer Live host Sam D'Arc. “We needed a way to keep the fleet customer coming back to us after the fact.”
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The strategy: By moving 12 fleet service stalls out of the retail facility, Knight created more bays for retail customers and a dedicated lane for commercial accounts that needed faster, more predictable turnaround.
His absorption rate goal for the new facility is 120%, up from the roughly 75 to 80% the Ford store was running before.
Knight also brought upfitting in-house, meaning the group now installs service bodies, flatbeds, shelving, and other commercial equipment on-site rather than sending vehicles elsewhere.
The change cut weeks or months off the delivery timeline for fleet customers who can't afford vehicles sitting idle, and now, fleet buyers know they're the priority.
"When they've got vehicles down, they need those vehicles on the road as quickly as they can get them," Knight said.
Why it matters: "The path to profitability is fixed," Knight said. "It's called fixed for a reason. The new car market, the used car market's up and down. The one thing day in and day out we need to rely on is our fixed operations."
Bottom line: Knight's build-out is a reminder that fleet and commercial services are still among the most overlooked growth levers in the business. That makes separating it from retail both operationally smart and financially strategic.
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