Every year between November and December, thousands of motorists prepare for the Great Kiwi Holiday road trip. For independent workshop owners, this pre-holiday window represents one of the highest-revenue periods of the calendar year. However, capitalising on this requires more than simply opening your doors and waiting for bookings.
Vehicle owners frequently delay routine maintenance until right before a trip, which leads to last-minute repair rushes, bottlenecks for parts, and missed revenue. By taking a proactive approach to your pre-holiday servicing marketing and operations, you can smooth out workshop workflow, increase average repair order values, and secure customer loyalty well into the new year.
Here are some potential strategies to optimise your workshops results for the upcoming holiday season:
• Promote preventative vehicle checks early: Educate your current database on the risk of last-minute repairs. Encourage customers to book safety inspections four to six weeks ahead of their travel dates to ensure required parts can be sourced without delay.
• Bundle high-margin safety services: Frame your servicing around total peace of mind. Combine standard oil and filter changes with high-value safety checks.
• Leverage automated digital reminders: Reach out to existing clients who are due for service via SMS or email database campaigns. Direct communication to your established client list consistently yields the highest conversion rates with zero ad spend.

Some of the things you might include in your check, either because they are safety issues, or because they cover parts of the car that will be enduring extra loads and use over the holiday period could include:
• Cooling system – long trips with heavy traffic and stop start motoring in queues puts a heavy load on cooling systems, add a heavier load or towing into the mix and the system might get critical – cars stopped at the side of the road in holiday queues with the proverbial steam geyser coming out from the engine bay are not an uncommon sight during the summer holiday break. Test for leaks, flush and replace the coolant as required, check fan operation and drive belts as a minimum.
• Air conditioning – a lot of drivers don’t use their air conditioning over winter as they think it is just for cooling, so there may be operational or odour issues when they start using in summer, so now is a good opportunity to check the system operation and condition.
• Brakes, suspension and steering – with higher loads likely this is a basic safety check, we are fans of a basic spanner check as well to test security of all the key bolts in the suspension (must be from our motorsport and 4WD heritage!).
• Tyres – check tyre condition and inflation – most motorists don’t check tyre pressures anywhere near often enough, don’t forget the spare as holidays are when it may be needed – finding a flat spare at the side of the road will not make for a happy customer!
• Wiper blades – yes, it rains in summer and a good parts opportunity if they need replacing.
• Lights – standard WOF check that all lights work.
Obviously, there is more to check but this outlines some of the key areas to consider ensuring your customers have a happy holiday motoring experience.