Nissan Canada aims to expand their commercial fleet business by offering a compelling comprehensive package.

Nissan is eager to change the Canadian commercial fleet landscape. Although the company has indicated a desire to reduce its rental sales, Nissan has a heightened focus to invest more time, energy and resources into initiatives that put commercial customers front and centre.

Nissan Canada’s goal is to grow their commercial fleet portfolio by providing the personalized level of service fleet customers demand and deserve, along with a robust lineup of vehicles that cater to the individual needs and wants of today’s fleet customers.

Dealer support

The journey for most commercial fleet customers begins at the dealership level. That’s why Nissan’s fleet team is currently undertaking a months-long cross-Canada initiative to reach out to local dealers in order to educate them about fleet.

“Many more dealers want to work with fleet customers, but they may not be sure on the best place to start,” ex-plains Marc-André Nault, VP of Sales Operations for Nissan Canada. “To ensure our retail partners are well-informed and fully equipped to best serve commercial fleet customers, Nissan Canada is offering training and insight to get them started successfully. We’re here to support them in their efforts, and to share best practices to help them succeed.”

With the right training, and proper understanding of the commercial fleet side of the auto industry, Nissan believes dealers have ample opportunity to expand their business footprints and step over into the fleet market.

“At Nissan, we embrace every custom-er’s unique situation, and that includes commercial fleet customers. We look for-ward to serving even more fleet customers by getting dealers on-board with this side of the business. We will offer dealer engagement and support at every turn to ensure this is a successful endeavour for both commercial fleet customers and dealers,” Nault adds.

Nissan’s goal is to have someone at the dealership level—in locations where fleet makes sense—who understands fleet and can work with fleet customers. In some dealerships, that might be a dedicated fleet manager. In other stores, it might be a person on staff who has other responsibilities, but who can swap hats when needed to address the needs of a fleet customer who stops by to inquire about a Nissan vehicle.

Maintenance and service

Fleet customers have very specific service needs. That’s a given. To commercial fleet customers, a vehicle is not a luxury or a simple means of getting from Point A to Point B. Rather, it’s a tool that needs to be on the road, or the business isn’t making money.

With that understanding in mind, Nissan is committed to providing fleet customers with options that will allow them to service and maintain their vehicles before or after typical business hours.

“We’re planning extended hours for service customers, including weekend openings,” Nault explains. “Adding to the theme of convenience, with Nissan’s Express Service program, fleet customers can get their oil changed in less than 20 minutes. We want to be more accessible to these commercial fleet customers and we understand the exceptionally busy schedules some of them have.”

“And with our new Nissan Retail Concept, there will be more focus on commercial clients. We’re increasing service area capacity, which will allow our dealers to better service fleets.”

Vehicle lineup

Nissan’s vehicle lineup includes a diverse range of compact cars, medium-sized sedans, crossover vehicles, multi-activity vehicles, pick-up trucks, and work vans.

While vehicles like the Nissan Rogue remain a perennial favourite with fleet, other models, like Kicks, have had trouble keeping up with demand. “It’s been so successful that it was difficult for us to keep up with demand on the retail side,” Nault explains. “We had limited availability for fleet, but now production of the Kicks has increased, so we will be able to supply our fleet customers as well.”

Another key fleet vehicle is the Sentra, which is entering a new generation for model year 2020, and boasts a sporty design, and large suite of standard safety technology, which Nissan dubs “Safety Shield 360.”

“The all-new 2020 Sentra will debut in January at the Montreal Auto Show and will be available to order in February,” Nault adds. “Historically, Sentra has been a key player in the lineup, it’s the best-sell-ing Nissan of all time in Canada. We are very excited about the all-new Sentra. It has a stunning design, tons of technology, a comfortable ride and this culminates to a compelling value proposition for our commercial fleet customers.”

The all-wheel-drive Altima, ideal for our Canadian climate, is another favourite with fleet customers, as is the Qashqai. On the truck side, Nissan offers the Frontier and the newly-refreshed Titan, which also offers Safety Shield 360 fitted as standard. “The NV has also been very successful,” Nault adds, “We still have the best truck warranty in Canada—five years/160,000 km.”

Safety

The term which defines Nissan’s brand is deemed, “Nissan Intelligent Mobility,” Nissan’s vision for how vehicles are powered, driven and integrated into society. Nissan Safety Shield 360 is a big part of Nissan Intelligent Mobility, and is comprised of six advanced driver-assist systems: Intelligent Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, Blind Spot Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning, High Beam Assist and Rear Intelligent Emergency Braking.

Other available safety technologies include Intelligent Forward Collision Warning, Intelligent Around View Monitor, Intelligent Cruise Control, Intelligent Driver Alertness and Traffic Sign Recognition.

In addition, Nissan’s innovative Rear Door Alert, standard on all four-door models for 2020, prevents the kind of tragedies we’ve often read about in the news. The system uses door sequence logic, the centre instrument panel message display, and multiple horn honks to help remind drivers to check the rear seat for children or pets after the vehicle is parked.

With a growing dealership community catering to fleet, an extensive vehicle line-up, a compressive list of safety features and technologies, Nissan is determined to change the fleet landscape in Canada as they continue to serve the needs of today’s commercial customer.