David Thompson, president, TEC Equipment, Inc., Portland, OR, is the 2007 American Truck Dealers Truck Dealer Of The Year. The dealership has locations in Oregon, California and Nevada and operates three full-service body shops and offers leasing at five of its locations.
But having multiple locations was not what gained Thompson the award. Rather it was the innovative things he has done at his dealership.
“What it takes to be successful today, and what it will take in the future, is top level service in every offering we have. Part of that is the need to expand our offerings. Dealers can’t just look at what they did in the past. It used to be that you sold new trucks, you did parts and service, you dabbled in used trucks and maybe you had a finance and insurance (F&I) department. Some people had body shops,” he said.
Today Thompson said you have to be fully committed to F&I. He has 14 people in his F&I department and nine people in his insurance company.
He has his own insurance agencies in three cities.
“The name of the game for the future successful dealer is expanded offerings. We will have to take apart the truck owner’s expense sheet and look at the pie and see how it is broken up. We need to participate in as many of his recurring business expenses as we can. For us that is offering insurance, and we also are in the fuel business. We are selling around 90,000 gallons of diesel fuel a month at a discount only for our customers.”
In addition, TEC Equipment finances close to 60% of what it sells in-house-new and used trucks. And the insurance business follows. “The customer has just trusted you enough to buy a truck from you. He trusted you to finance it. Why not have his insurance business in the same pot?”
