Here’s what you need to know:
- The HDA Truck Pride Annual Meeting was held last week in San Diego. During the meeting, President and CEO Tina Hubbard touted the network’s growth to more than 1,000 distributor and 550 service locations.
- Educational sessions at the conference also emphasized AI integration, SEO evolution and the REPAIR Act, urging members to fight for diagnostic access and report telematics limitations.
- HDA Truck Pride announced a partnership with CVSN’s OnRamp program to build talent pipelines from community colleges and presented EDDY Awards to Phinia, Ohio Diesel and Six Robblees’ Ruben Garcia.
The HDA Truck Pride network came together in unison to celebrate continued growth despite a challenging year last week at its 2026 Annual Meeting in San Diego.
Featuring a packed product expo, robust group of breakout sessions, vital general session, member and supplier meetings as well as networking activities, charitable giving and more, the event was once again an excellent experience for all associated with HDA Truck Pride.
“While the road has been long in some stretches — the market has been hard. Parts are harder to source. Margins are tighter. Workforce is thinner. And yet, here we are,” HDA Truck Pride President Tina Hubbard told attendees during the general session on April 28. “That choice — to be part of this network, to invest in this community, to show up for each other — is what makes this organization worth belonging to. Not programs. Not pricing. It is our people.”
Calling back to discussions of growth and opportunity from the group’s 2025 Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Md., Hubbard excitedly shared HDA Truck Pride now stands more than 220 members strong, with over 1,000 distributor locations and 550 service affiliates.
She added over the last year the group also has expanded its product and service access, with more programs, more suppliers, better data and more ways for members to say yes to customers.
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The general session also enabled the group to showcase its deepening community and the trust being built across its networked. Hubbard said the trust built between members, suppliers and anyone else associated with the network cannot be manufactured. It is earned.
And the event featured many opportunities to build that trust.
Sunday kicked off with welcome dinner and live auction and the annual Giving Rally Cornhole Tournament, featuring a fundraiser for the Automotive Aftermarket Charitable Foundation (AACF) that supports families in the industry when they need it most.
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Joe Brooks and Dan Harbut with Acme Truck Brake & Supply won the cornhole tournament, with Grote’s duo of Matt Forner and Rick Pate finishing second.
Monday was another busy day, featuring a load of strong educational sessions and the annual product expo. The expo filled the exhibit hall with energy as new product announcements and business discussions were held throughout.
A busy slate of six educational breakout sessions gave distributor and service attendees the chance to learn about many solutions to better support their operations.HDA Truck Pride
The breakout sessions also covered many key topics for the modern heavy-duty aftermarket. They were:
- AI DIY: Steps to Creating AI As A Core Competency In Your Organization
- Breach Point – The Moment Everything Changes
- Get Found. Stay Trusted: SEO and AI Evolution
- More Than Just Parts: Solutions That Keep You Moving
- Unlocking Speed, Margin and Operation Control
- Where People Thrive, Profit Follows
Back in Tuesday’s general session, HDA Truck Pride also dedicated time to ponder the future of the independent aftermarket, and what the group is doing to ensure its longstanding success.
CVSN Executive Director Edward Kuo spoke of his group’s new OnRamp program, which will bring industry awareness directly to community colleges, creating a pipeline from the classroom to the commercial vehicle aftermarket. It’s a move HDA Truck Pride supports and believes is the long-term thinking the industry requires.
Hubbard then noted that for HDA Truck Pride and its members, now is the time to build the workforce pipeline and fight for the right to serve customers today and into the future.
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Also covered during Tuesday’s session was Right to Repair, specifically, the REPAIR Act, with Hubbard again urging engagement from HDA Truck Pride members to get involved, join the fight by sending letters to legislators and reporting incidents where technicians are unable to repair trucks due to diagnostic and telematics limitations.
Hubbard also emphasized how everything HDA Truck Pride does is organized one integrated strategy and four key pillars, with each one making the other stronger.
During the Annual Meeting the group also presented three education awards, now christened as the EDDY Awards, to people and organizations committed to workforce education and professional development. Winners were:
- Education Supplier of the Year: Phinia, or Delco Remy. Justin Schaffer accepted on behalf of Phinia.
- HDA Truck Pride Top Member Company: Ohio Diesel. Ron and Lisa Syverson accepted on behalf of Ohio Diesel.
- HDA Truck Pride Top Learner Award: Ruben Garcia with Six Robblees’ was recognized for personal tenacity, dedication to learning and the kind of leadership that comes from choosing each day to improve. In a world that rewards the people who do the work, HDA Truck Pride said Garcia is exactly the kind of person this industry needs more of.
The San Diego setting proved a wonderful location for this year's meeting, an enabled attendees to enjoy the locale while talking business.HDA Truck Pride
Finally, this year HDA Truck Pride also celebrated its late 2025 “Brain Bash 4 Cash” learning contest, and recognized the winning team, the “Mudflap Mafia” from Toledo Spring. Mark Rubini accepted on behalf of Toledo Spring.
In closing the event, Hubbard told attendees, “HDA Truck Pride is a great place to be, because of you. The people in this room. Every member who chose to invest. Every supplier who chose to partner. Every staff member who chose to show up. Every person in this room who chose to be here. You built this. And we are only getting started HDA Truck Pride is built to last. Built to grow.”
