Page 168 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

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ENTHUSIASM BUILDS A FOLLOWING
Peterson Trucks in San Leandro is a bastion of enthusiasm. And a lot of it comes from Teresa Dias. As a forty-year veteran of the truck leasing industry, she knows how to find answers when they seem elusive. Many customers have followed her throughout her career and are now Peterson-
Idealease customers. Perhaps that’s why she has won top sales awards with Idealease every year since coming to Peterson in 2013.4 “If you look at
the lease history of her customers,
you can almost track her career,”
says Dave Angotti, Idealease general manager. “She becomes almost gid- dy when it gets rough around here. She thrives on trying to figure out how to turn things around.”
In 2015, one of her old-time cus- tomers tracked her down. “I knew Ed Olivera Sr. back in the 1980s when I worked for Rollins Leasing right out of high school,” says Dias. “I’d been with Peterson Idealease for two years, and one day I get this call.”
Teresa Dias receives her 5 year service award: (L-R) Jeff Goggin, Teresa Dias, her boss, Dave Angotti, and Duane Doyle Sr. in September 2018
“Hey, Teresa. It’s Eddie Olivera from Olivera Egg Ranch in San Jose. Do you remember me?”
Of course, she did.
He went on to explain that he’d been trying to find her, but that Rollins Leasing had gone out of business. Then he asked if she still leased trucks. And after some discussion, he decided to buy rather than lease from her. As the national and strategic lease account manager for Idealease, Dias could do both. But he was insis- tent on one thing. It had to be a cab-over.
4 In 2014, 2018, and 2020, Dias earned Idealease’s highest award, the President’s Club Elite award, which is given to the top two Idealease sales- people in North America, across all sales categories.
166 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG