A truck idles in slow Miami traffic, baking in the hot, humid sun. A less-than-ideal situation for any driver — but now imagine the cargo is a full load of fresh seafood on its way to some of the finest restaurants in the city.
 This is no fish tale. This could happen every day to any of the 15 drivers employed by Gary’s Seafood in Orlando, FL.
Gary’s Seafood, a wholesale seafood company in business since 1991, delivers by truck to many of the finest restaurants throughout Florida, and via air to top restaurants in cities as far-flung as Las Vegas, California, New York and Chicago. They pride themselves on providing the finest quality seafood, many times even shipping fish that were plucked from the ocean just the previous day.
To meet their high standards of freshness and customer service, Gary’s Seafood has cultivated a fleet to best handle its highly perishable loads. Each truck is fitted with a lightweight aluminum body and custom refrigeration unit, to help preserve the integrity of its fragile cargo.
 Randy Skocz, Fleet Manager for Gary’s Seafood, is responsible for maintaining a diverse 21-vehicle fleet, which includes pickup trucks, vans and nine cabovers, most of which are Mitsubishi Fuso FE140s and FM260s. He says that he prefers the 11-footers and lower profile trucks, since many restaurants have tight access areas that require a truck to be “easy in, easy out.”
“Every one of our drivers likes driving the Mitsubishi trucks,” Skocz says. “They’re easy to handle and decent on fuel.”
While acknowledging the importance of driver comfort, Skocz says that the primary reason he prefers Mitsubishi Fuso vehicles is their reliability. Fresh seafood is a heavy load, and combined with the ice on which it is packed, the weight can easily triple. With each truck logging between 80,000 and 100,000 miles annually, Skocz says that the average vehicle must be replaced every three years. Thanks to his excellent experiences with Mitsubishi vehicles, Skocz is now purchasing only Mitsubishi vehicles to replenish his fleet.
“With the amount of stress placed on our trucks, I liked that Mitsubishi offered the best warranty in the business,” he says. “It was a major deciding factor in purchasing Mitsubishi vehicles.” Skocz also has high praise for Diesel Specialists of Orlando, where he purchases all of his Mitsubishi trucks, saying he feels he gets “the best service in the business.”
Jeff Smith, sales manager at Diesel Specialists, has worked with Skocz for 5 years, and is assisting in the expansion of Gary’s Seafood’s Mitsubishi fleet. “What we do for Randy, and what we do for all our customers, is give them the personal attention they need,” Smith says. “In many cases, we try to perform same-day service so that the truck is not out of commission for long.”
For Skocz, it all adds up to a first-rate experience with Mitsubishi.
“When I’m looking for a new vehicle, I look for warranty, I look for reputation and I look for service,” Skocz says. “With Mitsubishi, I am getting the best of all worlds.”
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