Rotary's New Lift Eases Dealership Parking Shortages

Its service bay lifts are inside dealerships all over the country. Now Rotary Lift debuts a lift primarily for outdoors and for a new use — parking cars.

The new double-decker lifts stack and store vehicles. Such lifts are typically used in urban areas where parking is scarce. Rotary also sees potential among car dealers facing parking space shortages due to expanding inventory and more cars in for service.

“We believe there is a big untapped potential out there among car dealers,” says Gary Kennon, Rotary's vice president of business development. “All our research shows that dealerships are short of parking space both on the sales lot and at the service facility.”

The lifts cost about $6,000 per unit. Rotary is targeting dealerships in urban markets, but some small dealerships too, says John A. Rylee, marketing director for the Madison, IN company.

Twenty lifts at a time can be operated from one power unit. Extended-height models allow for SUV and van storage. Specially coated metal parts and galvanized platforms make them suitable for outdoor use.

Rotary Lift is a 78-year-old company that's entering a new phase of lift technology, says Rylee.

The company got its start after auto mechanic Peter Lunati, inspired by watching a barber's chair raise and lower, designed, built and patented the first fully hydraulic auto service lift in 1925.

Today's lifts are electronically operated with sensors, microchips and computer read-out screens.

“They are much more than ‘lifts’ made of steel,” says Rylee. “They are tools. It's a challenge getting that across. Young auto techs coming up are electronically savvy, and have a good understanding of that concept.”

Eric Howlett, Rotary's new president, says such modern equipment boosts service technicians' productivity “and keeps them in their bays as much as possible, which is where they want to be.”