About Voyager RV Centre

Our Mission is Simple

Founder Rod Friesen moved from Meadow Lake Saskatchewan in the early 1970’s, to the Okanagan Valley. After dabbling in used vehicle sales and repairs, as well as the gas station business, Friesen decided to enter the RV business. On April 24th, 1984, Voyager RV opened on the site of an old gravel pit lot in the small town of Winfield. That first day of business, there were just five consignment RVs for sale with a double-wide trailer for an office. "I got quite a few consignment motor homes in the early days, and that was my inventory" explains Friesen. "Along with my first employee Reg Pixton, who still works for us, we scoured the local classifieds, magazines, and back alleys for anyone who had an RV for sale. I told them that we were starting what could become B.C.’s largest RV dealer, which got them pretty excited. Things just started to grow from there."

Today there is a two story office building and parts store, plus over 350 RVs displayed on over 12 total acres of sales and overflow storage lots. There is now a total of three service and detail shops, featuring twenty-five RV service bays, indoor and out. Although Rodney is still the owner, his son Jason Friesen is now Vice President and handles daily operations for the family business. Since early 2004, Jason has held this position and has helped mesh the past and present. "Dad built such a great company brand and reputation during the early years, which made my transition really smooth" explains Jason. "We’ve just had to continue to work the newly available technologies and RV innovations into our existing Voyager culture, as we continue to grow here in the Valley. It’s a pretty fun business to be in." Both father and son explain that the over 60 employees working for the company are the real magic. "Our management and staff are amazing!" Jason explains. "We look to hire great people who fit our unique culture, who we can then train to become great at doing their job the Voyager Way. We then have them focus on making a great customer experience be the number one focus. Our team is really on board with this, and are empowered in each of their jobs to make decisions to help make this happen."

Currently, the internet has changed the way we do business. Internet and email have become crucial to Voyager RV’s business. Currently, sales that started or ended with shopping our website and/or contacting us via a Website form or email, are responsible for over 80% of their sales and growing. "We understand that the customer uses internet for everything, including in a big way when shopping for RV’s?" Jason explains. "We as a staff choose not to resist these great online tools, but rather to embrace them. Our website is optimized for every device, and we update it every single day. We're constantly looking to improve on our site, making it easier to search through the RV inventory, and to get the answers a customer needs." As a result of this focus, Voyager RV’s customer base has become North America wide. In addition, Voyager RV was instrumental in the formation of North America's leading RV Classifieds site - RVT.com.

Looking to the future, Voyager RV hopes to further grow their Sales, Parts, Finance and Service capacities to support their customers, past & present. Jason also mentions that they'll continue to focus on not being your 'status-quo' dealership experience, and making sure that they drive the company with the focus on what's best for the customer, not necessarily what's best for the short-term financials. "We did away with Hidden or Surprise Dealer Fees a couple years back, which despite it being a 'profit-center' that most other dealerships utilize, we felt was the right thing to do. Our customers really appreciate this transparency. We also instituted an industry-first 10-Day No Hassle RV Exchange policy, which has been great peace of mind for customer's to be sure they make the right choice for their new RV."