Dave Scheer earns CVSN President’s Award

Dave Scheer accepts the President’s Award at the 2016 CVSN Aftermarket Distribution Summit Monday in Vancouver.Dave Scheer accepts the President’s Award at the 2016 CVSN Aftermarket Distribution Summit Monday in Vancouver.

For the second time this year, the independent aftermarket has honored one of its best.

Dave Scheer, CEO at Inland Truck Parts, and 2016 IHS Automotive Aftermarket Industry Hall of Fame inductee, was presented with the Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network (CVSN) President’s Award Monday at its annual Aftermarket Distribution Summit in Vancouver.

Scheer entered the independent aftermarket at Inland Truck Parts more than 40 years ago and was named the company’s president in 1995. He’s spent the duration of his career striving to strengthen both Inland Truck Parts and the independent aftermarket at large.

In accepting his award Monday, Scheer thanked his family, CVSN, the independent aftermarket at large and the wonderful staff at Inland Truck Parts for allowing him to achieve so much.

“When you spend 40-plus years at a single company within a single industry you learn a lot about the industry and the people within it,” he said. “The kindness and consideration becomes very apparent when you’re in a group like this.

“I’ve learned a lot from you, and I thank you.”

In addition to his 2016 accolades, Scheer also was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008 and was the first Truck Parts & Service Distributor of the Year in 2002.

While at Inland he’s expanded the business to nearly 30 locations across the Midwest, helped develop the company’s dedicated technician training center—the only one in existence in the independent aftermarket—and has been an industry leader in the heavy-duty right to repair movement.

In presenting Scheer the award, Marc Karon at Total Truck Parts and Scheer’s colleague in the leading the aftermarket’s right to repair movement, was most congratulatory: “Dave is inspirational. He has made a difference in so many of our lives.

“Nobody in this industry deserves this more than you.”

And Scheer still isn’t done. In accepting the award, he challenged the aftermarket distributors leaders in the room to continue proactively leading their businesses to ward off challenges from the OE dealer channel.

“We are very good at what we do, [but] we undervalue what we deliver to the marketplace. We have to differentiate ourselves through product and technical knowledge,” he says, adding, “The independent aftermarket hasn’t been known as someone who has been willing to spend money on training. We have to get away from that. We have to be willing to spend money.”

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