It started with one store. A GMC dealership in Houston in 1965. And that’s how it was for a while.
But Marvin Rush was never going to be satisfied with one store. The commercial trucking sector was destined to grow. He knew it, and he wasn’t going to miss his chance to follow it. Rush knew if he could build a dealer business capable of meeting the needs of the many segments in the burgeoning industry, customer demand would come.
He was right.
In 1992, with four facilities spread across Texas, Marvin and his leadership team — which by then included sons Rusty and Robin — pledged to turn his business into a billion dollar company by 2000.
“We didn’t have a clue how we were going to do it,” says Rusty Rush, who now serves as the company’s chairman, president and CEO.
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But once the goal was set, there was nothing left to do but shoot for it. Four years later, with a network of nine stores, the Rushes did what many previously thought unthinkable. They took their business public.
In three decades since, not a single commercial truck dealer operation has followed in their footsteps (Premier Truck Group is public due to its position within Penske Automotive). Marvin Rush passed away in 2018 but Rusty says his father’s drive to consistently grow in service of his customers remains at the forefront of his legacy.
A finalist for the Successful Dealer Award for the first time in 2026, Rush Truck Centers now stands as the biggest commercial truck dealer group in North America. With 167 stores, the company’s footprint and corporate offering are unmatched. If you drive a truck, Rush can help you.
“When you’re selling and servicing commercial customers, that’s a 24/7/365 job, and that’s how we treat it,” Rusty says. “You have to understand these customers are using these trucks to put food on the table. It’s a revenue-producing item. And we’ve always tried as an organization to take that approach and support it in a proper fashion.”
“God gave you two ears and one mouth,” adds Jody Pollard, COO. “As an organization, we really listen to our customers to keep us sharp in how we need to get better as an organization, where we need to invest in the right solutions — whether it be technology or people — to ease their pains and make it easy to do business with us.”
In many cases that means finding answers to questions few have considered. Rush’s size forces the business to adapt to market changes earlier than most. That’s unquestionably a challenge, but it’s one Rusty says the company takes on willingly.
He notes “if you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes,” and says he’d rather the company always be pushing the industry forward than waiting for someone else to solve a growing market problem.
“You can’t be afraid to run up front,” he says. “We are always going to be looking for ways to continue pushing the envelope.”
In the marketplace, the company’s RushCare Concierge fleet maintenance and customer experience team supports more than 350,000 customer interactions annually, while its Rig Tough aftermarket brand is among the most expansive private label lines, and anchors more than $400 million in parts inventory companywide.
Rush is equally inventive internally — particularly when it comes to employee training and development. With more than 8,000 employees, comprehensive training is required to ensure Rush’s solutions-based value proposition is consistent at every store.
RushNEW serves as the company’s onboarding program and Fuel50 is its career planning platform. Rush also has a high-impact leadership development program, apprenticeship and mentoring programs for new technicians and leverages its Rush University learning platform to drive required and elective training across the network.
Michelle Zormeier, Rush’s vice president of human resources, says the company totaled more than 385,000 hours of training in 2025.
Then there’s the Skills Rodeo. Over the past two decades, Rush has brought its best technicians together annually for a skills competition and recognition event, which in recent years has expanded to also include contests in truck sales, parts sales, collision/body shop service and more. More than $2 million in cash and prizes have been presented to Rush associates over the event’s history.
“Our technicians are the heartbeat of our dealerships. They’re the ones who really keep our motto and our purpose going,” Pollard says.
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That motto, “the customer is the boss,” is one company’s had since Marvin’s early days. As are its driving principles, which are inscribed on a coin Rush associates are asked to carry with them while on the job.
Rusty views both as the company’s compass, always pointing it forward. Being publicly traded gives Rush access to capital it may not have otherwise, but money on its own does not ensure success. That takes effort.
“In this business you always feel you’re not doing as good a job as you could, but I sometimes believe that’s the driver to continue to try and do a better job,” he says. “If you thought you were doing a good enough job, you wouldn’t strive as hard to do a better job. And we always want to be better.”
The Successful Dealer Award is sponsored by Automann, Interstate Billing Service, National Truck Protection and Premium 2000 and Procede Software. The 2026 Successful Dealer Award will be presented Oct. 6, at a private awards banquet in Nashville.
