Page 162 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Coast Counties Trucks—Peterson’s #1 TEPS dealer for 1998:
(L-R) Eric Martin/truck engine business manager, Peterson Power; Craig Archer & Bob Archer/Coast Counties; Jeff Goggin/VP & GM of Peterson Power; Duane Doyle Sr./owner & CEO of Peterson
were local truck dealers like Coast Counties Truck (Peterbilt) and Bay Area Kenworth who bought their engines factory-direct from Caterpillar and then sold to the end-user. Peterson’s job was to influence TEPS dealers to sell Cat engines over Cummins or Detroit and to provide after-sales product support to both the TEPS dealer (whole- sale) and the end-user (retail). Peterson never went head-to-head with its TEPS dealers. The symbiot- ic relationship worked extremely well in the truck industry, building strong ties between Peterson and its TEPS dealers.
But when Peterson Trucks became the new In- ternational Truck dealer in 2011, it also became a TEPS dealer. “I thought it would be a lot harder
than it actually was,” says Ken Ehni, PTI’s product support manager at the time. “At first I thought it would be: ‘It’s been great knowing ya. Now get the hell out of here!’ But none of that happened. It went very smoothly. I think it’s because of the integrity and relationships and loyalty we’ve built through the years with the TEPS dealer principals and parts managers. It all comes down to relationship.”
IDEALEASE: ANOTHER CHOICE
On July 5, 2012, Peterson officially became one of over 400 Idealease franchises around the country. As the lease and rental arm of Peterson Trucks, Peterson’s Idealease delivers worry-free truck fleets to its commercial truck customers on a contract basis. “Our core business is customers whose core business is not trucking,” says Dave Angotti, Ide- alease general manager. “All they want is to get their widgets from Point A to Point B. We partner with them to run the trucking side of their busi- ness, from the initial asset purchase to maintain- ing the unit and taking it back at the end of the term. That allows them to be an operator without all the headaches of ownership. We give them un- interrupted service at a budget-able cost.” And it’s working well. Business is booming.
Peterson Idealease has over 1,200 trucks out on the road ... and growing
160 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG