TDTruck Dealer of the Year
Transcription
TDTruck Dealer of the Year
T D Truck Dealer of theYear 2013 Volvo Trucks. Driving Success. ® another sign of outstanding performance. Congratulations on being nominated for Truck Dealer of the Year. Once again, Volvo Truck dealers are well-represented on the list of nominees for the 2013 ATD/Heavy Duty Trucking Truck Dealer of the Year award. Todd Schaub exemplifies Volvo Trucks’ commitment to excellence and we commend each of the nominees for their exceptional performance. ©2013 Volvo Group North America, LLC Todd Schaub Dealer Principal S & S Volvo Lima, OH T D Truck Dealer of theYear 2013 Growing through customer service ATD/HDT Truck Dealer of the Year nominees talk about growth, trends and taking care of the customer. The top executives and owners from six truck dealerships across the country were nominated by their peers for the annual Truck Dealer of the Year Award, presented by American Truck Dealers and Heavy Duty Trucking. The award recognizes excellence in business practices, industry leadership and community service. The winner and finalist were chosen by a panel of professors from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. www.truckinginfo.com Deborah Lockridge • Editor in Chief A s fleets keep trucks longer and truck dealers can no longer rely on truck sales as the main driver of their business, leading dealers are growing, adding products and services, and figuring out new ways to partner with truck owners and better meet their needs. A number of this year’s nominees for the American Truck Dealers/Heavy Duty Trucking Truck Dealer of the Year took advantage of the recession to actually grow their businesses. Truck Dealer of the Year Andrew “Drew” Linn Jr., president and dealer principal of Southland International Trucks in Homewood, Ala., bought his fifth location, in Huntsville, in 2007. He built a new body shop in 2009 and added trailer sales and service in 2011. “We’ve been able to build a new building every year for the last four years,” he says. “We’ve done that to get better service for our customers, providing more service bays and a better experience for them while they’re here, and to give our employees a better place to work.” FEBRUARY 2013 • HDT T D Truck Dealer of theYear Although that growth has slowed some, he says, Southland International plans to expand to another part of the state in 2014 and will do a major refurbishment and expansion at one of its existing locations this year. Finalist Steve Bacalis says the recession weeded out some of the weaker dealers. “A lot of our competition has fallen by the wayside because they weren’t healthy enough to endure the recession,” says Bacalis, president and CEO of Tom Nehl Truck Co. in Jacksonville, Fla. The dealership recently added the Western Star and the Detroit brands to its stable, which also includes Freightliner, Sprinter, Volvo and Isuzu, plus Capacity of Texas yard/spotter trucks. The recession also helped halt the pattern of fleets trading in trucks every three or four years to the point where there was such a large number of used trucks that some were shipped overseas, he says. “Many used trucks were shipped to Eastern Europe or Asia, so we lost our parts business on those trucks,” he says. Today, customers are keeping trucks longer, which may mean fewer truck sales, but more parts and service business. At Kenworth of South Louisiana, the boom in the shale oil and gas business has helped triple gross revenues, assets and number of employees since 2007, while profits on an annualized basis for 2012 were 20 times greater than 2007. The dealership includes four full-service facilities, in Gray, Port Allen, Harahan and Carencro, La. 2013 At S&S Volvo in Lima, Ohio, dealer principal Todd Schaub has experienced great success the last several years with an unusual long-term demonstrator program. After completing the buy-out of the business, Schaub used some of those extra funds to place four trucks into the dealer’s leasing company. He lets potential customers use one of these trucks free for a month if they agree to a few basic conditions, such as running it with both the best and worst drivers in the fleet and agreeing to an exit interview. “In most circumstances, we determined that my product was very similar [in fuel economy] to their existing product for their 20% best drivers,” Schaub explains. “However, our product was significantly statistically better for the other 80% of their drivers.” As a result, most of the exit interview meetings resulted in at least a small order, with additional orders later on. Some customers were so happy with the Volvos they decided to replace their entire fleet – but they probably never would have tried them if Schaub hadn’t deposited a free trial unit on their doorsteps. At Horwith Trucks, a Freightliner and Western Star dealer in rural Northampton, Pa., CEO Sheila Horwith says sales are picking up as fleets work to replace trucks they held on to longer during the recession. “Now they’re at a point where they don’t have much option but to start updating, and concerns about the 2010 products are largely going away,” she says. In addition, as the driver shortage gets worse, “part of the reason for wanting to update their equipment is because it does attract people,” Horwith says. “I get a report on all our shops every morning on my iPhone, on every job ticket that was written. I can call a customer before he calls me if I see his truck has something that needs to be done.” Parts and service Another big growth area has been parts and service. When asked what customers are looking for from their dealer, Bacalis says the big thing they are looking for is parts – and Tom Nehl Truck Co. delivers. Literally. “We have over 200 people in – Drew Linn, Southland International our dealership, and half of our people work for the parts depart“I think our greatest examples of progress or improvement,” he says. There are 10 trucks delivering parts every ments have simply been the management of growth,” says day, and the company opened two more branches during the President Scott Oliphant. He believes the pursuit of nonrecession to be able to reach out to customers. traditional growth opportunities “gives us a distinct advantage “Across the board, all of our customers need parts, and over our competitors.” we’ve really invested in our parts department, our faciliThe company has a fabrication shop to upfit trucks with ties, our warehouses, our inventory,” he says. “We added a oilfield equipment, and heavy-duty wreckers, which keep 45,000-square-foot warehouse to be able to have the parts engine and body repairs coming into the shops. The dealer ofcustomers need.” fers trailers, leasing, and a used/rebuilt/salvage operation with a Bacalis predicts dealers will continue to focus more on full-time transmission and rear end rebuild shop. providing parts and service, financing and insurance, than on HDT • FEBRUARY 2013 www.truckinginfo.com selling trucks. “The main source of gross profit historically has been the new and used truck department, particularly the new truck department, but that’s not the case now,” he says. It’s the parts department. “We still want to sell all the trucks we can sell, but we’ve seen our market shrink, and trucks last longer. And I think that trend will continue. I think trucks will be built better, they’ll last longer, we’ll need to take care of them longer, and we’ll be in a unique position to take care of trucks.” At four-dealership group Sioux City Truck Sales in Iowa, President Brad Wilson says, “If customers aren’t going to buy a lot of new trucks, the best thing we can do is provide the services they need, especially parts.” Ten vehicles deliver parts from a sizable parts inventory. He also has been selling and building glider kits, something that had become nearly non-existent until a few years ago. ing efforts under way, they are limited to certain corridors and certain parts of the country. Horwith says a lack of fueling infrastructure will hold back interest in natural gas trucks for her operation – even though Pennsylvania is the site of a major shale gas region. “Anyone can sell one of these things the first time. The parts and service people keep them coming back.” Natural gas None of this year’s nominees is a big player in natural gas trucks – at least not yet. But most are seeing interest from customers and are preparing to be able to service trucks fueled by compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas. Sioux City Truck Sales has sold one natural gas truck so far. The customer hauls product for a fueling company that has truckstops that are putting in natural gas, and set up a deal to guarantee fuel prices because they wanted to have their product hauled by a natural-gas-powered truck. “It was a little bit of an eye-opener to bid and spec out,” Wilson says. “The fuel tanks alone were $38,000.” Right now the company is working outside if it has to service that and some other natural gas trucks, but it’s investigating what’s needed to upgrade the shop facilities. At Southland International, Linn says they have seen some interest but no orders yet. Nevertheless, “we think it’s coming,” he says, and they’re getting ready to be able to provide service for CNG and LNG trucks. In Jacksonville, Bacalis says two of its largest customers, Winn-Dixie and Raven Transport, are both extremely interested in adding natural gas trucks. The company already has sold some natural gas trucks through Vac-Con, which adds its custom-built sewer bodies to Tom Nehl chassis. Most of those trucks, he says, were ordered by Vac-Con customers in California, so his dealership hasn’t serviced any yet. But the company is preparing to make changes in its bays so it can service natural gas trucks. One of the stumbling blocks to natural gas is the need for a fueling infrastructure. While there are infrastructure-buildwww.truckinginfo.com – Scott Oliphant, Kenworth of South Louisiana Similarly, even in the oil and natural gas shale boom area served by Kenworth of South Louisiana, Oliphant says, there are a lot of questions about natural gas, but so far they have not delivered a single truck. “The very first question we ask our customer is, ‘Do you have a fueling station or the capability of adding one on site with the volume to make sense?’” Oliphant explains. “If the answer is no, and more often than not it is, that ends the conversation in my marketplace.” In Lima, Ohio, S&S Volvo is also in the process of making sure its bays and personnel are ready to service natural gas trucks. “While it certainly will never cover 100% of what we do – I think we’d be lucky to get to 20% in long haul – it is a big item,” Schaub says. “Anyone who hauls automotive freight (a major customer base in his area), they are being leaned on by their customers to have a certain percent of natural-gaspowered units.” Technology Whether it’s in the parts department, the shop, the back office or the marketing department, technology is playing an ever-larger role at a modern truck dealer. Steve Bacalis compares what’s happening with technology and diagnosing trucks, including the Detroit Virtual Technician system, to the Mayo Clinic, “where everything is connected on the computer and the doctor has access to everything. Our customers and our mechanics are going to have more access to more information more rapidly.” At Sioux City Truck Sales, employees are using iPads to do parts counts. A strap allows the user to hold it in one hand while entering quantities with the other, right there standing next to the parts bin, Wilson says. And it’s not just technology in the shop. Drew Linn says it’s been key to helping to effectively manage multiple branches. “With iPhones and iPads and computers, all the information we can receive has made it a lot easier for me,” he says. “I get a report on all our shops every morning on my iPhone, on FEBRUARY 2013 • HDT T D Truck Dealer of theYear every job ticket that was written. I can call a customer before he calls me if I see his truck has something that needs to be done. We just ward off a lot of problems. It keeps me in tune. Other reports, daily sales – it’s just at my fingertips.” 2013 Finding and growing people Finding technicians is a challenge, say most of the nominees. “We pretty much are growing our own technicians,” says Wilson. “We work closely with our local community colleges. At one store, the instructor that teaches diesel engines works for us in the summer to keep himself current. Then we get a good shot at his best students.” Students also work part-time as interns at Sioux City shops. At Southland International, Linn says, their greatest success in finding technicians and other employees is offering a bonus for current employees who recruit a new hire. If the recruit doesn’t stay, they don’t get the bonus. “If you need to make a decision, make a decision. And if it was the wrong one, we will try not to make that the next time.” WINNER ANDREW G. “DREW” LINN JR. President SOUTHLAND INTERNATIONAL TRUCKS HOMEWOOD, ALA. International, IC Bus – Todd Schaub, S&S Volvo “The majority of people we’ve hired in the last four or five years come from folks that are already here,” he says. These people are more likely to fit into the corporate culture and have realistic expectations because they know people who are already working there. And it means the existing staff is more likely to find that the new hires are someone they like to work with. Oliphant calls finding technicians a daily challenge. “My general manager spends a substantial portion of his week looking for and interviewing technicians,” he says. The company recently started hiring candidates with mechanical aptitude and putting them through an on-premise training program. New technicians are starting out in the leasing company, where they handle more routine maintenance tasks. From there, those with the right potential will be evaluated for moving into more challenging diagnostics and repair duties and moved into the dealer shops. “Anyone can sell one of these things the first time,” Oliphant says. “The parts and service people keep them coming back.” HDT • FEBRUARY 2013 Coaching a winning team O ne of eight children of a coal miner, Andrew “Drew” Linn Jr. did not grow up with a plan to become one of the country’s top truck dealers. In 1966, he needed a job while studying business in college. His uncle told him Birmingham (Ala.) International Harvester, where he worked, was hiring. Linn started out as a janitor and stockman. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, a photo of an International Harvester Travelall that hung in his boss’s office at that first dealership now hangs on the wall at the headquarters of Linn’s dealership group, South- www.truckinginfo.com land International in Homewood, Ala. Linn worked his way up through several International dealerships in Alabama and Florida, and then in 1977 became sales manager of Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Truck & Equipment. In 1982, he and a friend bought the dealership, with Linn becoming sole owner four years later. Southland International came into being in 1986, when Linn became president of the International truck locations in Homewood and Montgomery, Ala. “I was the little dealership that bought the big dealership,” he says with a grin. The Decatur, Ala., location was added in 1990, and in 1997 Linn bought out Navistar’s ownership interest. In 2007, they added Brazier International Trucks in Huntsville, built a new body shop in 2009, and added trailer sales and service in 2011. When you walk into the shop in Homewood, you can’t miss the sign that says,“Southland’s Goal is 100% Customer Satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with us in any way, I would like to talk with you.” Then it lists Linn’s work and home phone numbers. In reality, Linn says, he has gotten very few calls over the years, and he says that’s because of his people. “Our people take care of the customers. The last thing they want is for someone to call me. And they’re closer to the problem than I am.” Throughout our interview, Linn talked again and again about his people, and how as his career has advanced, it has become ever more rewarding to act as a mentor. The company invests a lot in training and tries to promote from within. Monthly half-day interactive “lunch and learn” sessions are held for truck, bus, trailer and parts salespeople, as well as department and upper level managers. In its “Customer Focus Learning Center” room, the dealership can do both in-person and virtual training. Quarterly meetings are supplemented by monthly interactive webcasts. As a resident of Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama, the college football national champions three of the last four years, it’s probably natural that Linn turns to a sports reference. “I spend more and more of my time coaching all these people, because the team’s getting bigger. I love the interaction with customers, but I love even more the interaction with the people here. The older I get, the more gratifying it is to see these people become successful.” Southland has service managers who used to be technicians. But realizing a great technician isn’t always a great manager, Southland is giving some of its best techs a taste of that responsibility by having them be lead men in the shop in Homewood, managing their teams’ time. www.truckinginfo.com “It all goes back to coaching at every level,” Linn says. Just as in football, Linn also recognizes the importance of special teams. A major portion of Southland’s business comes through two major truck equipment manufacturers who buy Southland trucks in order to add their own specialty bodies. To better serve these customers, Linn set up a team for each manufacturer, consisting of account managers with in-depth specification knowledge, a certified technician, and a logistics administrator to track proposals, orders, order changes, etc. “This team approach has allowed us to significantly increase truck sales,” Linn says.“ Other major customers include municipalities, including school bus sales, and medium-sized trucking companies. There’s also a strong medium-duty base, he says, people who haul their own products for their own businesses. “That’s a good thing about being an International dealer,” he says.“We have the whole gamut.” “Our people take care of the customers. The last thing they want is for someone to call me.” One not-so-good thing about being an International dealer has been the uncertainty over Navistar’s ability to meet 2010 EPA emissions standards. “We’re weathering the storm,” Linn says of Navistar’s struggles.“Things are a lot better today. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You’ve got to hand it to International; they tried a solution that would be easiest for the customer. Now we’re on to other things.” As for the quality of existing International MaxxForce engines, Linn admits there were some problems early on.“We’re not having near the issues that we did,” he says.“So we think we’ve turned the corner.” The judges note that this is the second time in a decade Linn has been nominated as Truck Dealer of the Year. He was nominated by Dick Ryan, president of Carolina International Trucks in Columbia, S.C., and a former ATD/HDT Truck Dealer of the Year. “Drew is a natural leader,” Ryan wrote in his nomination, “someone who has the skill to lead others with a steady and confident manner that is based on his respect for all people.” “It’s not rocket science,” Linn says.“It’s just doing the right thing.” For a slide show showcasing Linn and his operations, go to www.truckinginfo.com. FEBRUARY 2013 • HDT T D Truck Dealer of theYear Nevertheless, Oliphant says, his dealership spends a lot of time developing salespeople. And salespeople get a salary, not straight commission. “It costs me more money, but one, we keep salesmen during downtimes,” he says. “Two, it allows them to make a longer-term decision for the customer, because they intend to stay here a long time. Three, when there are problems that happen after delivery, they take ownership of it. “So I think at the end of the day, the customers have a better experience because we have better salesmen.” 2013 Managing multiple branches As dealerships grow into multi-location businesses, more dealers are relying on technology and on empowering teams to do the managing. At Tom Nehl Truck Co., Bacalis says, computers are helping to ensure greater consistency among locations. Video cameras offer the head office real-time views of what’s happening in various departments at other branches. The company soon will add Skype video calling to help bring a more personal touch to inter-branch relationships. regular management training. As a single-location dealer, Schaub hasn’t had to worry about how to manage multiple locations – but not for long. He is having active discussions about acquiring other locations. “It’s good for the manufacturer, it’s good for me,” he says. “Things are pretty darn good here right now, but my employees can pretty much run this place without me most of the time.” Like Linn and Wilson, Schaub believes in empowering his employees rather than all decision-making having to come through the top. He notes that he doesn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to make a deal, “and all my employees are empowered to do the same thing. If you need to make a decision, make a decision. And if it was the wrong one, we will try not to make that the next time.” Dealer diversification Many successful dealers have not only been adding locations, but also have been adding more offerings beyond truck sales and service, such as financing, leasing, adding trailer or yard spotter sales. “The only thing that’s grown faster than the dealerships is my leasing company,” says Schaub. “Most businesses don’t have a five-year plan, so you can provide them with that option, even though they pay a little more. And once someone has had our product and our service, it always segues into more sales.” They’re also looking into adding trailer lines. Horwith recently added the MAC – Brad Wilson, Sioux City Truck Sales trailer line, “just to have a little bit more to offer to our customers,” she While Linn also credits technology for helping mansays. “Your overhead hasn’t changed, and all your expenses are going up, so you need to diversify to continue to carry your age his locations, the real key, he says, is people. Southland International’s locations do not have general managers at each overhead,” she says. dealership. Instead, the parts manager, service manager and Southland International got into trailer sales a few years office manager at each dealership work as a team. ago, and is in the lease and rental business, the body shop Brad Wilson at Sioux City Truck Sales doesn’t believe in business and the school bus business. “Sometimes you become your best customers,” Linn says, general managers, either. noting that the 370-piece lease and rental business buys a lot “We have a director of sales, and a director of parts and of parts and service from the dealership. Same goes for the service, that provide operations oversight for all locations,” trailer business. he explains. “I believe we obtain more consistency in the way “It also solidifies relationships” with customers, he says, our stores operate. This makes our stores more responsive to and gives the dealership more opportunities to sell the same the customer, and the customer likes dealing with decisioncustomers more products and parts and service. makers that can resolve issues on the spot.” The customers’ experience is the responsibility of the “If you had told me 10 years ago I would have 370 pieces department managers, he explains. “We empowered those of rental and lease equipment, I’d have said you were crazy,” he department managers to handle problems. It’s not a ‘Mother says. Yet it’s all intertwined. Today, he says, “a dealer that doesn’t May I’ situation.” To help give them the tools they need, have an active used truck department is missing out, and rental managers from the four locations are brought together for and lease are the same way.” “If customers aren’t going to buy a lot of new trucks, the best thing we can do is provide the services they need, especially parts.” HDT • FEBRUARY 2013 www.truckinginfo.com Continuous improvement I n 1989, when Steve Bacalis took over majority ownership of Tom Nehl Truck Co. in Jacksonville, Fla., the company had a single location employing fewer than 60 people, with 38,000 square feet of facilities on 5 acres of land. Today, the company employs more than 200 people in four locations with a total of 178,000 square feet of facilities on 27 acres of land. “A lot of our competition has fallen by the wayside because they weren’t healthy enough to endure the recession.” Bacalis grew up in the business. His father, Gus Bacalis, was one of the original truck salesmen when Tom Nehl founded the dealership in 1958, and eventually became vice president. He’s continuing that tradition today with a third generation, his son and daughter, who are both part owners and work at the company. “I was fortunate to have my father, who continued to work in the company until he reached the age of 80, teach me how to sell trucks, and to have Tom Nehl, who was like a second father, teach me how to lead a dealership,” he says. The dealership pulls in transient parts and service customers with its locations on I-10 in Jacksonville and I-75 in Lake City. Big local customers include CSX and Winn-Dixie, and owner-operators pulling containers in and out of the Jacksonville ports also account for a good bit of business. The dealership’s AOR, with an average of 400-700 heavy-duty truck sales per year, is not a large market, but the company has always been profitable. It consistently has more than 40% market share for new truck sales, Bacalis says, and a 50%-plus market share for parts sales. It’s the only dealer in the AOR with a 24-hour parts and service department. The company took advantage of the recession and took over the Western Star franchise and the Detroit Diesel business. “We really benefited from the pruning that the recession did. It pruned away a lot of our weaker competition,” Bacalis says.“We were fortunate in being well capitalized. We could afford to make some acquisitions during the height of the recession.” www.truckinginfo.com FINALIST Steve Bacalis President & CEO Tom Nehl Truck Co. Jacksonville, Fla. Freightliner, Western Star, Sprinter, Volvo, Isuzu,Capacity of Texas In 2010, Freightliner instituted a continuous improvement program called Elite Support. Since then, Bacalis says, 83 of Freightliner’s more than 600 dealer locations have been certified as Elite Support Dealers. Both of Tom Nehl’s Freightliner locations are Elite Support Certified, and Bacalis says it’s the only dealer in the Freightliner network to have brought on a dedicated, full-time manager of continuous improvement. One of the innovative improvements the company made as part of the program was an electronic dispatch program giving its delivery people, outside parts salesmen and mobile technicians GPS-enabled phones and monitoring their locations throughout the day with real-time tracking software. It has improved customer service and saved about $150,000 because it allows the company to deliver more parts using fewer people. FEBRUARY 2013 • HDT T D Truck Dealer of theYear 2013 Customer satisfaction Over the years, fleets have often complained about the lack of responsiveness from dealers, especially when it comes to prompt repair. Today’s successful dealers are well aware of that, and have taken significant steps to address customer communication and satisfaction. At Southland International, signs ask customers to call owner Drew Linn – at work or at home – if they’re not 100% satisfied. Linn says that rarely happens, but it’s part of an overall culture of taking care of the customer. Part of taking care of the customer includes training. Southland has special “Customer Focus Learning Center” training rooms at its location in Homewood and a new one in Huntsville, which let the dealership train technicians, walk drivers through fuel-efficient driving techniques or do safety training. “Part of the reason for [fleets] wanting to update their equipment is because it does attract people.” – Sheila Horwith, Horwith Trucks At Kenworth of South Louisiana, Oliphant says, the key to dealing with customer problems is caring. “If they have a problem, fix it,” he says. “Mistakes happen all the time, and it’s the rare person who doesn’t understand that – but it’s how you deal with it. Sometimes it can just be as simple as communication. “Most customers just want to know three things: What’s wrong with it, how long it’s going to take to fix it, and how much it will cost. You give them that information, and they can make decisions.” n Nominees HDT • FEBRUARY 2013 Sheila M. Horwith CEO & Secretary Horwith Trucks Inc. Northampton, Pa. Freightliner, Western Star Todd Schaub Dealer Principal S&S Volvo Lima, Ohio Volvo, Isuzu, UD, GMC Scott Oliphant President Kenworth of South Louisiana Gray, La. Kenworth, Hino Brad Wilson President Sioux City Truck Sales Sioux City, Iowa Peterbilt www.truckinginfo.com CONGRATULATIONS DREW LINN, SOUTHLAND INTERNATIONAL ATD DEALER OF THE YEAR NOMINEE. Like us at International Truck, Drew and his team strongly believe that commitment to their customers is their #1 priority. In fact, there’s a sign hanging on the wall of all five locations that reads, “Southland’s goal is 100% customer satisfaction.” Between his Tuesday tradition of devoting the entire day to building stronger customer relationships, creating one of the first truck driving schools in Alabama as well as being elected Chairman of the Alabama Trucking Association, Drew Linn is proof that great customer service starts with the willingness to go the extra mile. International Truck thanks Drew Linn and Southland International Trucks, Inc. for continuing to put your customers first.