Quality comes first
The Gear Centre and Pat’s Driveline, including Moncton shop, offer best of best in parts and services
By Kristen Lipscombe
From its humble beginning as a small Edmonton, Alta., service shop that first opened its doors in 1975 to now running 12 retail facilities and three major product distribution warehouses across the country – including right here in the Maritimes – Pat’s Driveline and The Gear Centre have successfully built and certainly earned their reputation for being the best of the best in Canadian power train, heavy truck and automotive parts and service business.
The company’s 12th location officially opened to the public in six years ago, right in the heart of Moncton, N.B., on Henri Dunant Street. Currently the only location in Atlantic Canada, Pat’s Driveline in Moncton is a full-service shop with a vehicle hoist and is authorized to sell and service Dana Incorporated’s top quality parts and is recognized as a Meritor authorized distributor and remanufacturing centre.
Pat’s Driveline is a member of umbrella company The Gear Centre Group, which was started and is still owned by Bob Gibson of Edmonton. These companies offer full drivetrain, power steering, along with driveline parts and service for both automotive and heavy truck customers across the Maritimes, explained Gear Centre Group Marketing Lead Steven Kneller.
“It’s one of the branches that has a Gear Centre and Pat’s Drive Line together in the same facility,” he said of the Moncton franchise, adding The Gear Centre has actually had a Moncton parts shop for about two decades but that it quickly expanded into a full-service, one-stop shop as the company’s customer base continued to grow across the Maritime region due to the company’s top-notch reputation.
“Expansion focused first on Alberta through the 80s and 90s,” Kneller said, which was followed by opening locations in British Columbia, and over time in both Ontario and New Brunswick.
“As we moved further east, the company was able to dabble in doing some more market research,” he said, and based on the success of their locations out west, moving the company east just made sense. Now, the company has locations pretty much from coast-to-coast, with further expansion always possible.
“Pat’s Driveline is able to offer our customers individual components and custom or OEM (original equipment manufacturer) driveshafts,” The Gear Centre website says. “We have the experience to engineer, design and manufacture power transmission systems for any size application.”
“At Pat’s Driveline, we believe quality is our most valuable asset,” the website continues. “Quality parts and components, quality manufacturing standards and of course, qualified and experienced staff are the ingredients needed to ensure that Pat’s Driveline continues to grow.”
Kneller, who has been with the company for a decade, re-emphasizes that quality has always been the Canadian company’s key to success. He also said that The Gear Centre and Pat’s Driveline try to provide as many high-quality services and parts as possible to a large variety of clients.
“Our mission… was to establish product lines and technical capabilities to service several different types of companies, whether it’s four-by-four clientele, or even just business owners, so basically fleet owners owner-operators of the trucks,” Kneller explained.
“We’re trying to provide them all with quality parts and service,” he said, adding it’s also important to specialize, which is why the company focuses on “the drive train side,” as one example.
“In the trucking industry, downtime is very costly for businesses,” Kneller said. “So, they can bring in their medium-duty truck or heavy-duty truck, or even their fleet of four-by-four pickups… and within 24 hours they are ready to go.”
Th Gear Centre and Pat’s Driveline send their mechanics for heavy duty training and certification so they can bring that expertise back to their branches across the country. In fact, the company has more than 150 skilled parts specialists and service technicians hard at work across the country.
“And we’re able to ensure that service is done at a top-notch rate to meet original equipment manufacturing standards,” Kneller said, so customers know for sure “they’re getting quality service and quality remanufacturing capability.”
For example, if a client “has a unit that’s brought in or a drive shaft that, they have it repaired, and can also even have custom design work done,” he said. “We can kind of run the whole gamut as far as providing that service for them.”
Their clientele also include hot rod, four-by-four and sports vehicle enthusiasts, Kneller said. “They want to have their equipment, or their vehicle checked as far drive chain maintenance, or preventative maintenance, for instance, and we have that full-service capability.”
Kneller said customers come don’t just come from across the country, either, with some clients calling up for parts from as a far away from Australia, Brazil and South Africa even. “So, we do have a global network.”
That means if you have older vehicles, with perhaps out of date drive chain warranties, Pat’s Driveline and The Gear Centre can likely help you find what you’re looking for to make your baby both beautiful and functional once again.
“We have good relationships and competitive pricing with our vendors and our suppliers,” Kneller said. “So, we’re able to transfer those savings onto the customers.”
More importantly, he said customers know that their vehicles will be repaired at OEM standards.
So, whether it’s your fun ride on the automotive side, or your heavy truck business, Pat’s Driveline and The Gear Centre can guarantee the high-quality service and parts you’d expect from the best of the best.
“The Gear Centre has evolved over the years to become Canada’s leading drivetrain parts and service provider for the automotive and heavy truck industries,” the company’s website continues.
“We will help you get the components you need with minimal downtime. All of our locations have service shops that can repair your heavy truck or automotive vehicle.”
“Pat’s Driveline has the largest inventory of its kind in North America,” its website says.
“Having the right part at the right time and the right price has helped us evolve into the industry leader we are today. Consolidated buying power, in-house engineering expertise and innovation make Pat’s Driveline the company of choice for all of your driveline requirements.”For more information, check out www.gearcentre.com and www.patsdriveline.com.
