There is an intentionality that defines operations at Premier Truck Group. The 37-location dealer organization, a Penske Automotive Group company, doesn’t have its roots as a humble one-bay shop, nor did it evolve into its current form after initially serving another market that changed.
No, at Premier Truck Group, every decision from its name on down has been carefully selected to ensure the multi-national dealer group is able to promise comprehensive dealer solutions to any potential customer. Premier Truck Group isn’t trucking’s oldest dealer group, but it does aspire to be the best. And as finalist for the Successful Dealer Award for the first time in 2021, its case for the accolade is a good one.
Premier Truck Group was founded nearly a decade ago when Penske Automotive chose to enter the truck dealer space. The company already owned one of the world’s largest automotive dealer groups and largest North American fleets, and it was able to “draw on the expertise and knowledge” from both business units to develop a strategy to enter the market, says Ron Long, executive vice president, sales and marketing.
The company’s first acquisition was Around The Clock Freightliner in 2013, and other locations quickly followed. In 2016, Premier Truck Group became the first U.S.-based Freightliner dealer group to expand into Canada, adding Ontario-based Harper Truck Centres. Earlier this year the company acquired former Successful Dealer Award finalist Kansas City Freightliner and just this week, McCoy Freightliner, bringing its total rooftop total to more than three dozen.
Every Premier Truck Group facility is led by a general manager who leads day-to-day operations, installs corporate objectives and promotes the company's customer-centric culture.
Long and Ryan Hadley, executive vice president, fixed operations, say Premier Truck Group’s various expansions have been carefully determined to grow the company’s footprint in the most efficient manner possible. Premier Truck Group doesn’t have locations in every market its customers frequent, but it does have a national network that can provide service from the Oregon coast to eastern Ontario and as far south as Texas. With many national fleet customers, Hadley says Premier Truck Group is stationed across many “major thoroughfares” in the North American market.
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