Early indications are that the beginning of this year will be much like our performance of 2018, but unfortunately those results will come with a lot more effort. The biggest area of concern at the moment is related to new trucks. We have limited visibility as to when we are going to get trucks, which is making it very hard to communicate with customers in a confident manner. We’ve had to demonstrate a lot of patience. The situation has tested our professionalism, but I’m confident through the collective efforts of our Sales Managers and the senior team, that we will be victorious over the course of the year. The maxed out production is also putting stress on our parts availability. Detroit and other critical comments are in short supply, making it hard for our parts and service departments to satisfy all our customers. It is important that we are vocal about these issues and bring them to the attention of the correct people that can help us rectify the deficiencies. Staying silent and frustrated under these circumstances is the worst thing we can do.

We recently wrapped up our annual leadership meeting with the top management personnel of our organization. It was a great way to start the year as it gets us all on the same page with what we hope to accomplish in the year ahead. All the materials from this meeting were distributed to the General Managers of the dealerships and they should be sharing it with you so that you are aware of our targets this year as a company. There are several items

that we’ve been working on the last 12-18 months that will rollout this year that I would like to highlight. Both of them will enable us to improve the management of our business while improving customer engagement and satisfaction.

The first is our adoption of the Decisiv estimating tool. Earlier this year, Eric Ostrowsky began rolling out these tool to our dealerships. Over the last 12 months, he and the service management team have been building standard operation codes and working with our IT, Decisiv’s IT and DTNA’s IT department to build an integrated end to end service tool. Using mobile devices in the service lane, our service advisors will be able to open a repair order that communicates with critical DTNA systems to pull in the service history and fault code data of the vehicle. This information will then automatically open a repair order through Decisiv that enables our service departments to provide an accurate estimate on every job. We aim to improve our service throughput, technician efficiency and reduce our service department lost hours with this tool and its integration to our other business systems.

The second tool currently being rolled out is SalesOverdrive, our Customer Relationship Management tool. Again, much research and preparation over the last few years has gone into getting to this point and I know the variable operations have been anxiously awaiting the

1st Quarter

(continued on page 12)

2019 is off and running!

PTG Voted Best Place

to Work!

Premier was so honored to be recognized as a top employer partner by the UTI Dallas campus at an awards ceremony held in March. We’re truly humbled to have won several awards voted on by students, faculty, and staff.

Premier received awards for: Best Application Process (Whitley Burr)

and Best Leadership Team (Whitley Burr & Scott Moss)

And the one we are most proud of, the 2018 Best Place to Work. (Eric Westermann, Whitley Burr, and Scott Moss)

1

REGIONAL UPDATESREGIONAL UPDATES

WESTERN by Bobby E. CooperExecutive Vice President, Western Region

Happy New Year! 2018 closed with a bang and we are excited to be a part

WESTERN

CENTRAL by Mark LamontExecutive Vice President, Central Region

Thanks to everyone for the success we had last year. 2018 was a record year for

CENTRAL

our company. I am excited to say that 2019 has started very strong in the Central Region. The January results demonstrate the continued strength of our team. This year, we face truck allocation limits from DTNA. This will affect our ability to grow our new truck business but should not hamper other departments. While freight is abundant, it has moderated from the highs we saw last year. Nationally, we still have a shortage of trucks to haul the freight. The high vehicle utilization and miles should be a strong driver for our service and parts business.

We will continue to focus on the initiative

of an even bigger and better 2019. As we reflect on the events of the year past, we know there is still much work to do to reach our full potential and we will be relentless in striving to be the absolute best in providing our customers with the best possible experience when they walk through our doors of each of our locations or pick up the phone to call any member of our team. We continue to grow our business and our team through training, education and experience. It is exciting to see the tenure of our team grow as well.

The West Texas Region just celebrated Deon McGimpsey, General Manager of the Amarillo, Texas location. Deon has been an instrumental part of our team since 1988. He attended Texas State Technical Institute

we put in place over the past two years. We believe we still have opportunity to improve in these areas. We do not plan to take on new initiatives this year. This will allow our teams to build upon what they have already put in place. We will also be continuing the customer service training we rolled out last year.

Feedback from our team members identified some opportunities for improvement in our operations. As a result, we have added a Retail Parts Supervisor to our South Dallas dealership. We promoted Michael Tyler to this position. In this new role, Michael will be managing our phone room, front counter and retail show room. We are also going to add runners to support the front counter sales staff. We believe this will enable us to provide improved customer service levels. We will continue to look for other areas to improve our existing operations in all dealerships. This will enable us to support our customers and make us the supplier of choice in the market.

Thank you for all you do each day! It is going to be a great year.

…the best is yet to come!” After a year like 2018, that is hard to imagine. The East Region ended 2018 strong with a 61% growth in EBT over 2017, numerous departmental records were broken and both stores raised their Google Review scores. 2018 was just an awesome year all-around.

2019 has started off with the intention of outperforming 2018 in every aspect of our business. The East Region has projected a 10% growth in EBT for 2019, as we continue to serve our markets from a holistic approach. We are striving to diversify our business by broadening our net and serving more customers. We also plan

2

(continued on page 3)

remains very strong. We have seen the 2018 business levels carry forward into January and February, traditionally slower months in our market. We expect this pace to continue well into the summer months.

On February 21, Terry Campbell (Oshawa Service Advisor), celebrated his 40th anniversary with the company. In honor of this special achievement Terry was presented with a 50th Anniversary Penske Racing book and Shinola watch to add to his extensive collection of racing memorabilia. Thank you again Terry, your dedication is greatly appreciated by all.

We are excited and very fortunate that Gary Van Ryswyk has joined our Hamilton team as Branch Manager. Gary’s presence and industry experience has made an immediate, positive impact on the business. Hamilton’s certification as an authorized Thomas Built Bus location is having a significant impact on our service levels to the school bus market

NORTHERN By Tom SephtonArea Vice President,Northern Region

Despite being in the grip of winter in Southern Ontario, the truck market

NORTHERN

EASTERN EASTERNby Darel DyerGM, Chattanooga

One of my favorite pastors always ended his message with “Remember friends

N NNN

d

on more employee engagement with Community Involvement opportunities and other activities to allow our teams to work together to help us become strong community partners.

Both Knoxville and Chattanooga have successfully implemented the PTG Service Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which includes the integration of Express Write-up, Decisiv and CDK. The new SOP will allow us to improve our Service Thru-put, communicate better with our customers and provide an overall improved customer experience.

So far 2019 has been a great year for awards for the East. Recently at the Annual Premier Truck Group Leadership Summit, Knoxville received the P.R.I.D.E Award and Chattanooga came home with the Human Resources Award. While at the Annual Elite Support CIC Summit, Jami Thacker (Knoxville) received the prestigious Elephant Award. Congratulations to both teams and to Jami. Great job, and a great way to start the year, but remember friends…the best is yet to come!

(continued on page 11) Email tonya.adams@premiertruck.com to tell us about yours!

Do you have an idea for an article in The Pulse? Do you have an idea for an article in The Pulse?

needs that inevitably continue to arise.

The DFW market was selected as the launch market for Sales Overdrive partially due to the complexity of the customers and deals handled by the new and used sales staff here. The customers range from large fleets with multiple spec’ units drop shipped throughout the country, to the subprime owner operator. Since PTG processes and Sales Overdrive itself have to be adapted to work together to handle this broad spectrum of customers the issues will largely get ironed out early in the rollout of the tool. As the saying goes, “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Business constantly evolves and change will continue to impact the needs of Sales Overdrive during and after the rollout, but the work done before and during launch will smooth the transition for the rest of the PTG network.

During the first two weeks of Sales Overdrive use over two hundred truck deals were initiated representing over $20 million in future revenue. Over 2,500 trucks are now loaded ranging from customer ordered units to stock on the ground. Pictures, spec’s and additional details are added each day. Numerous customer have been added or updated within the system, many sale opportunities have been created, and in the second week one salesperson created over 100 call reports. All February sales within DFW will be processed within Sales Overdrive.

Sales Overdrive

Launches in DFW

by Mark DennyDirector of Sales Operations

Sales Overdrive was officially launched in the DFW market during the week of February 4th. Over sixty PTG employees from Dallas South, Dallas North, Fort Worth, Shared Services, and Corporate attended the training sessions. Salespersons learned how to search for a customer or create a new prospect, manage activities related to those customers, search the available inventory, and create a deal among other things. Sales administrators, F&I, and Shared Services learned how to handle inventory, manage deals, and create the necessary forms within the tool.

Sales Overdrive is a business system that will assist our new truck and remarketing sales teams to better manage their customers, process truck deals and manage our inventory. It will completely replace the traditional New and Used Truck Paperwork workbooks including the related forms and has eliminated the need for paper based truck folders. The scope of sales, processes, inventory, and responsibilities impacted by this tool is significant and it is not something that can be done halfway. Once the conversion is made the push is on for each impacted individual to move through the learning curve in order to effectively handle business/sales utilizing this new tool. Fortunately the Sales Overdrive vendors Arcadium and CDK had numerous individuals on site to conduct the training, address issues, and handle questions in a one on one format. Since this was the first launch of Sales Overdrive within the PTG network the initial week of training was followed up by another week of on-site support at each of the three impacted dealerships. Beyond the first two weeks of training there will be remote support for the

3

As we move past February month-end there are several areas to address to make things easier or improve our sales process. Reporting can be created that can eliminate the need to enter data within CDK or outside spreadsheets. A salesperson’s dashboard/report will allow them to see what they have in process and where they can focus their efforts to maximize sales results. Arcadium is working on a project that will allow us to send truck pictures and spec’s from Sales Overdrive to the PTG website and Truckpaper so that a truck only needs to be loaded one time within Sales Overdrive. DTNA is working on providing the detailed spec’s for new trucks that will be fed directly into Sales Overdrive in order to provide additional information and eliminate hand entering of data that is prone to error.

Please see the schedule below to see when Sales Overdrive will be launched at your respective store. I look forward to working with you to introduce this exciting new tool to your business.

in the province, particularly Attridge Transportation and Sharp Bus Lines, two of our largest bus customers. We are looking forward to continued growth under Gary’s leadership.

Facilities will garner a lot of focus in 2019. The purchase of the region’s flagship facility in Mississauga was finalized last December. We are now in the process of scheduling an extensive remodel and expansion in keeping with our image and commitment to Premier facilities.

Niagara Falls recently received Western Star certification from DTNA paving the way for consolidation of our St Catharine’s and Niagara Falls facilities. The planning process continues to move forward and the project is expected to pick up in the spring once the weather breaks.

Congratulations to our Belleville & Oshawa locations for requalifying for their Elite Support Certification. A special thank you goes to CIC Margaret Taylor for her tireless work and guidance in helping both stores achieve Elite status. Paul Ground and CIC Tammy Young are re-establishing processes in order to revive

Mississauga’s certification this summer.

Members of our leadership team Rob White (Mississauga Parts), Mark Kornack (Mississauga Service), Gary Van Ryswyk (Hamilton), and Jeff Gilmer (Region Parts) are currently attending the 2019 APEX Program. We are confident they will see similar benefits our past attendees have realized and brought back to their stores and departments.

In summary a strong start to what is expected to be a very busy year in the North Region.

NORTHERN REGION NORTHERN REGION (continued from page 2)

1

COMMUNITY EVENTS

COMMUNITY EVENTS

4

CPR/First Aid Training

Comes to South Dallas

The following people are now CPR Certified! Thanks for participating in our first CPR Training Class. Jeremy TaylorShawn Stroble Gene Cantu Kurt KjornesJason BoltonFany RuizDebbie Hafele

James WillbornDebbie RuyleCrystal WilkinsBrandy BushJason ScottMegan OwenMary Womack

Nick SindhwaniMichael ToddMichael TylerTaylor HobbsAndrea BillingsChip StanesicMatt Fitts

This December, PTG of Chattanooga employees Darel Dyer, Mike Brown, Les Glenn, Mark Daniel, CJ Moore, and Nick Neeley participated in Wreaths Across America. Their mission is to remember, honor, and teach by coordinating wreath laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as more than 1,600 additional locations in all 50 U.S. sates, at sea and abroad.

Wreaths Across

America

Knoxville’s Toys

for Tots

This holiday season, PTG of Knoxville collected toys for Toys for Tots. Their mission is to collect new, unwrapped toys to distribute as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community. This helps to play an active role in the development of our children; to unite all members of local communities in a common cause during the toy collection and distribution campaign.

Chattanooga PTG

Gives Stockings

Full of Love

For over two decades the Catoosa County Sheriff ’s Office has sponsored the Stocking Full of Love toy drive. Each year, the Sheriff ’s Office accepts names of needy children from Catoosa County schools, civic organizations and state agencies and provides toys for those children at Christmas. PTG of Chattanooga participated in this year’s drive, donating lots of toys for children 12 months to 14 years old.

Premier Financing gives to Threads of Change

The Premier Financing – Reading team pulled together this holiday season to donate to Threads of Change. The overall mission of Threads of Change is to facilitate positive change within a child in foster care by providing clothing, shoes, toys, books and other kid essentials during a time of crisis in their life. Threads of Change partnered with over 100 foster families to help make the dreams of 200+ foster children come true this holiday season.

5

Tulsa Shares

the Love

This holiday season, PTG of Tulsa hosted a food drive benefiting Volunteers of America. The food donation assisted individuals served by the Homeless Services programs who are successfully transitioning from homelessness to stable, productive living.

(continued on page 8)

The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy partnered with the Department of Human Services and other sponsoring organization to launch OK Foster Wishes; an annual gift drive providing thousands of children in foster care with holiday presents. PTG of Oklahoma City sprang into action and housed several donation bins around the dealership. They were able to provide OK Foster Wishes with a van full of gifts and children with plenty holiday cheer.

Greetings to our fabulous PTG team. Our appreciation to each of you for the great results in 2018 as we move toward an equally great 2019. You’ve often heard us use a couple of phrases related to how we want to be regarded and respected in our industry: to be regarded as the “employer of choice” in the retail commercial truck industry and also a “tough place to get in, and a tougher place to leave.”

Being a “tough place to get in” is simply our commitment to being sure we are very selective to whom we bring into organization. Like inviting someone into our home, we strive to be sure that those we are hiring fit our culture, have the potential and ability to be great performers, and are good team members. We are unapologetic for having a robust hiring process which includes multiple interviews, background reviews, and reference checks. This is most challenging today as the unemployment rates are at historical lows and our hiring needs have never been higher. We would prefer that a job opening takes longer to fill than making a hiring mistake. It is also equally important to us that our potential hires feel confident that the PTG environment is the right place for them and that they desire to be a part of our team for many years to come.

One of the metrics we use to gauge how effective we are in accomplishing our “tough to get in, and tougher to leave” philosophy is our turnover rate. Last year our company-wide turnover was 23%. We started off 2019 in an excellent fashion, with 14% annualized turnover through January. We also want our work environment to be even “tougher to leave.” This simply means that our workplace is so good that our employees never want to leave. While that is impossible over the course of a year, we believe that our efforts will result in the vast majority of our employees absolutely enjoy being part of the PTG team.

Being an employer of choice embodies all of the above, plus having great morale in all of our dealerships, an open door environment where our associates can bring any concerns to their local management teams, Human Resources Representatives, department heads, General Manager, or any company executive including Rich and myself. We also aspire to provide career growth

by Scott Moss EVP, Human Resources and Administration

HUMAN RESOURCESHUMAN RESOURCES

A Tough Place

to Get In...

Hotel Dieu Shaver Celebrity Ice Cup

Mike Adelstein, HD Territory Salesperson of PTG St. Catharines, organized the first ever Hotel Dieu Shaver Celebrity Ice Cup. In total there were 18 teams that played 3 games each. 15 players played on the Premier Truck Group Team, including a former NHL Player. $11,463.00 was raised for Hotel Dieu Shaver to help provide continuing care to patients in the Niagara Region.

Back Row, left to right: Rob Greene, Jeff Gilmer, Steve Bartley, Greg Toal, Jason Kavangh, Bruce Halladay, Troy Crowder (NHL Player), Tom Sephton, Dave Magnotta, Cody Douma. Front Row, left to right: Matthew Gorman, Scott Moss, Dwayne Frewin, Brian Pattison, Mike Adelstein.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

COMMUNITY EVENTS

continued from page 4

OKC Makes Holiday Wishes Come True

EMPLOYEE EVENTS

EMPLOYEE EVENTS

6Bill Jewell and Chad Pennington

Master Technician Recognition Program

Congratulations to Oklahoma City’s Mike Palumbo for being selected to attend DTNA’s Technician Recognition Program. Launched in November 2018, the Master Technician Recognition Program recognizes and rewards technicians that go above and beyond in their daily work in pursuit of providing an unsurpassed customer experience. Ten technicians visited the corporate headquarters to interface with Service Departments and provide feedback on what they see in the field.

UTI Dallas Sign-On Day

We were honored to host the first of many “Sign On” Days at the Universal Technical Institute in Dallas, TX on January 10th. New hires from our Dallas and Fort Worth locations were able to return to their school and formally sign in front of their faculty and peers as Premier Truck Group employees.

The day included an official signing, lunch with our executive team, and an opportunity to give their input on how PTG can continue to improve and be the best place for new technicians graduating from school to work. We continually communicate with recent graduates to ensure that our programs, training, and benefits meet their needs as they begin exciting, new careers with PTG.

Congratulations to these new Premier Truck Group technicians!

“There were 18 trucks in front of us when we arrived being towed by a tow truck. They repaired us up a little bit under the quoted estimate and even a bit early. It wasn’t fun being broken down but we were able to make it enjoyable in OKC. I love the fact that they are open 24/7 which helps so much when you’re broken down. I will be back for parts and service in the future. Major thanks to the service writer dude who rides the motorcycle. One of the nicest service guys I’ve ever dealt with at any freightliner dealership. I wish this dealer was my hometown shop. Thanks guys.”

Chris Hanna, PTG of Oklahoma City

Josh Rhodes is a Star Performer

Josh, a New Truck Sales Associate from Premier Truck Group of Tulsa, has been recognized as a “STAR PERFORMER” by Western Star. The 2018 Star Performer program is a sales recognition program which rewards the top salespeople in North America for their contributions to Western Star’s market share growth. In order to even qualify for this prestigious award, Josh had to meet or exceed the program guidelines for Western Star product line training, sales volume and customer sales diversification. Well done, Josh!

On celebrating your 25 year anniversary!

Congratulations,

Pauline Shelemba

VISION STATEMENT

Driven by our employees our vision

is to be the Best in commercial

vehicle products and services

by providing Superior Customer

Satisfaction through a culture

of continuous improvement,

integrity, respect and passion.

EMPLOYEE EVENTS

EMPLOYEE EVENTS

(continued from page 6)

Crossing the Finish Line

In true Penske fashion, Hayes Atwood enjoyed a sunny morning at Texas Motor Speedway in celebration of a good truck deal with Universal Forest Products. After plenty of Starbucks coffee, an entertaining presentation on how to have fun and be safe, and a couple of instructive “van” laps around the track, each person got to suit up in race gear and put the pedal to the metal and race a few laps around the track.

L to R: Hayes Atwood, Billy Thompson, Regional Vice President, Taylor Lubienski, Account Manager, Jeff Crisp, General Manager of Operations, Michael Newsome, Operations Manager)

On celebrating your 40 year anniversary!

Congratulations,

Terry Campbell

Congratulations,

Brian Comer

For celebrating your 20 year anniversary! We’re so glad to have you on our team.

Congratulations to Premier Truck Group of Fort Worth for again making it to the finals at the annual Elite Support CIC (Continuous Improvement Coordinator) Summit. The summit held this year in Austin, TX is an annual event where CIC’s from all across North America meet to communicate, collaborate and recognize the very best in Elite Support. This year the submission from the team at Premier Truck Group of Fort Worth, regarding “Frozen Capital” was selected as one of the TOP 4 submissions received. Paul Ground, Premier Truck Groups Family CIC, successfully presented the Fort Worth submission to the entire assembled group. Special recognition to Mr. Caleb Haney, Fort Worth Warehouse Manager for his extensive contribution of the documented process.

$115,260.00 was raised through individual and company contributions to build two houses for Habitat for Humanity.

Stephen Jameson Awarded PTG

Challenge Coin

PTG Knoxville Foreman Stephen Jameson received a Limited Edition Challenge coin for his contribution to the APEX class “Safety Message” exercise. Stephen shared a story where he injured himself while repairing a truck, his story took a lot of courage to share since it involved several missed conditions that contributed to his accident.

Elite Support

CIC Summit

7

Congratulations, Dave Wirth!

Dave represented Premier Truck Group on the Daimler Truck Financial Dealer Board (DTFDB) for calendar year 2019! The DTFDB is comprised of ten dealer representatives distributed across the four sales regions. It is the function of the dealer representatives on the DTFDB to act as liaisons between DTF and the dealer body and conveying to DTF management their expert views, recommendations and suggestions on those matters of importance affecting the mutual interests of DTF and dealers in general.

During 2018, our Continuous Improvement Coordinators have been working with the Change Management Teams within their dealerships to help improve the customer experience. At the same time looking for ways to improve our processes throughout the dealership. One of the tools the CIC’s have in their toolbox is the Continuous Improvement Event (CIE). Our CIE is not limited to any specific department or job role. We encourage all employees to think about their individual daily activities and what changes we can make based upon their observations. We can then update or create new processes where needed. We focus on what we can do to help improve Customer Satisfaction, which in turn will help secure long lasting customer relationships. Improved customers experience while at our locations will help drive up customer satisfaction and in turn improve our Google scores. We have learned in the past that the key to a value add CIE is to gather inputs from our front line employees that live in the processes every day. A basic CIE consist of these elements:

• CIE TEAM: Consist of management, frontline employees that work within the process, and the dealership’s CIC

• PROBLEM STATEMENT: What are we trying to solve

UPDATE

Every day we influence the people around us in a positive or negative way by what we say or don’t say, do or don’t do. Being around people who promote and practice safety creates a safer environment for everyone. People who are careless or don’t feel they have time for

safety create an unsafe environment in which to work.

New employees at a company watch the senior employees and take their cues from what they do. No matter how much training new employees are given, if the more experienced workers around them are not practicing safe work habits, eventually the new employees will emulate them, putting themselves and possibly others in danger.

No matter what your position is, you can be a safety leader by quietly doing what’s right and by recommending that others do the same. If someone asks your opinion about whether a safety precaution is necessary, be a proponent. You could be saving their life. Make sure that you:

• Don’t take shortcuts• Use guards and safety devices• Focus on what you are doing – don’t get distractedRemember that not only your co-workers, but supervisors and visitors will observe what you do. Sloppy habits reflect a sloppy operation and make a poor impression. Be a safety leader. You will stay safe, and you can help others stay safe too.

• GOAL STATEMENT: Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound

• BEFORE PROCESSES AND METRICS: All information associated to the event

• ROOT CAUSES: What are the factors that negatively affect the process. Make sure you are focusing on root causes and not just the symptoms.

• CORRECTIVE ACTIONS: Using best practices identify possible remedies or next steps for addressing the root cause. Be as specific as possible.

• AFTER PROCESS: The process will help monitor and sustain the results of your event, and will serve as a training document for future employees.

• LESSONS LEARNED: Identify and document lessons learned including the factors behind the success of the project. Apply this to other areas of Continuous Improvement. Consider: Do we have similar problems in similar areas or processes?

• VALUE ADD: View the value from both the dealerships and customer’s perspective.

CIC Updates: In the annual Elite Support CIC Summit held in February this year Premier was proudly represented by both the Knoxville and Fort Worth Locations during the awards ceremonies.

Jami Thacker from Knoxville achieved the “Elephant” award for “Recognizing Excellence in Change Management and Process Improvement”.

FTW Parts Department Team submitted a Continual Improvement Event on reducing their obsolescent inventory. Their Continual Improvement Event placed in the top four when jugged against all the events submitted in US and Canada.

Be a Safety Leader

opportunities and provide additional training programs as part of our PTG University. Also, we encourage our employees and dealerships to be active in their communities and take advantage of our annual paid day off to participate in giving back as part of our community involvement efforts with dealership sanctioned events.

One of our biggest report cards is coming up in March when we distribute our employee survey, then communicate the results and hold employee meetings in order to develop action plans based upon your comments in the survey. Remember we value your opinion and desire your open feedback so that we may continue to strive for workplace improvement. We always strive for 95% or greater employee participation on this survey. I hope you participate.

Congratulations to our Chattanooga team for being the winner of the 2018 best Human Resources Dealership!! Great job, team.

Please email me or call me if you have any questions or concerns. I’m happy to respond.

Thank you!

HUMAN RESOURCESHUMAN RESOURCES(continued from page 5)

DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE IN THE PULSE?

Email tonya.adams@premiertruck.com to tell us about yours!

8

9

President’s Award – Premier Truck Group

of Dallas South

“ The 2018 President’s Award went to South Dallas. South Dallas had a fantastic year all around. Operationally their service department was up gross margin was up 90bps, gross profit dollars were up 32% YoY. Parts margin was up 50bps and gross profit dollars were up 13%. New truck sales volume was up 34%, used truck sales volume was up 46%. New truck GPPU was up 24% to $46,415 and used truck GPPU was up 29% to $9,020. Their fixed absorption was up 8ppts to 117%, comp to gross was down 2.4% to 38.6 and their return on sales was 5.1%. Their net profit was up 86% and not only were they the number 1 earning store for PTG but they were also the number 1 earning store for all of PAG. All these achievements were accomplished while making more customers satisfied by increasing their google rating from 3.8 to 4.2 and their employee turnover led the Central region and was near the top of the entire company at 18%.”

– Rich Shearing

Service Award – Premier Truck Group of Dallas South

“ South Dallas is the winner of the 2018 Service Department of the year award for an outstanding performance year over year. In 2018 they exceeded their budget by 10.6% and achieved a 3.1% increase in overall Labor Gross Profit. The performance of the service technicians was also a highlight. The service technicians sold an additional $3,129 a tech per month and increased the effective labor rate by $10.00/hr. Congratulations to Justin Griffin and the South Dallas Team for an outstanding service performance in 2018.”

– Eric Ostrowsky

P.R.I.D.E. Award – Premier Truck Group of Knoxville

“ At this year’s leadership summit in Miami Beach, Florida, it was my distinct pleasure to present to the location that best represented its P.R.I.D.E. in 2018, to Premier Truck Group of Knoxville. By consistently demonstrating their commitment to customer service, online reputation management, training and communication, the team from Knoxville distinguished itself as the leader, earning the P.R.I.D.E. Award from the Marketing Department.” – Steve Silcox

President’s Award: South Dallas

Service Award: South Dallas

P.R.I.D.E. Award: Knoxville

The following awards were presented at this year’s Winners Circle

Leadership Summit. Congratulations to the following dealerships:

2019 Winners Circle Leadership

Summit Awards

10

Human Resources Award – Premier Truck Group

of Chattanooga

“ It was gratifying to award our 2019 top HR Dealership award to our great team in Chattanooga, led by Darrel Dyer. With a year-end turnover rate of 13%, excellent training and compliance related initiatives, as well as a fantastic workers comp record, they were a well-deserving winner to go along with the 2017 Tulsa and 2018 Ardmore winners. Congratulations team Chattanooga!!”

– Scott Moss

Parts Award – Premier Truck Group of Odessa

“ I am pleased to present the award for Parts Excellence to Premier Truck Group of Odessa. This award is presented annually for achievements in many aspects of parts operation. Some of these include Average Obsolete Inventory, Year over Year improvements in gross profit, and Return on Sales. Please join me in congratulating the entire team in Odessa. Thank you for your achievement in Parts Excellence!”

– Ryan Hadley

Safety Award – (Tie) Premier Truck Group

of Oshawa & Premier Truck Group of North Texas

“ Let me start by saying for the second year in a row, I was so proud to announce our overall Premier Truck Group safety results were best in class in the PAG network. I was truly honored to recognize not one but two of our dealerships for the 2018 Safe and Sound Award. Yes, after reviewing our rating categories the overall scoring resulted in a tie. It was my pleasure to present awards to Chris Ritchie from Oshawa and Karl Cox “2017 and 2018 winner” from North Texas. Our employees from Oshawa and North Texas have demonstrated their commitment to providing a safe work environment which led to outstanding 2018 results. Please join me in congratulating them!”

– Freddy Stephens

Human Resources Award: Chattanooga

Parts Award: Odessa

Safety Award: Oshawa

Safety Award: North Texas

2019 Winners Circle Leadership

Summit Awards (Continued)

and upon graduation, immediately started to work as a technician for West Texas Truck Center in their Lubbock, Texas location. His experience turning wrenches afforded him the opportunity to advance to Shop Foreman. He transferred his expertise to the West Texas Truck Center in Amarillo, Texas and would soon be offered the Service Manager position. His hard work and dedication to his team and the industry as a whole would afford him the opportunity to assume the role of Operations Manager. Deon continues to grow his tenure as the current

WESTERN REGION WESTERN REGION (continued from page 2)

General Manager of the Amarillo location of the West Texas Region of the Premier Truck Group! We could not be prouder to call him our own! Many thanks for his dedication and devotion to his job and our team. I truly appreciate Deon and his values. I am proud to call him a teammate and friend. Congratulations, Deon….on 30 awesome years!

This type of tenure offers a world of expertise in the industry and it is our hope that each team member will continue to grow their tenure to the extent that each one will eventually celebrate such a milestone in their careers and be able to share their expertise resulting in a profitable experience for the entire team.

We are working closely with the education systems in our designated areas to encourage young adults to pursue a career in the industry whether it be through sales, service or administration. We want our team to be full of strong, experienced leaders who will work together to insure the success of the team.

Our budgets have been set. Our goals are in place. We have expansion projects on the radar. Schools and training are scheduled. Many objectives have been discussed. Our team is ready. We know there is work to be done. We know there are good things coming from the work to be done. We are working hard to prepare, equip and soar in 2019. Happy New Year!

As recognition for our 2018 NADA graduates, each participant received a PTG/NADA ring to recognize their great achievement. The rings were presented at various dealership events. Congratulations to each graduate!

KUDOS TO ALL OF OUR 2018 NADA RECIPIENTS

11

Eric Thome, Controller

Margaret Taylor, Parts Manager of Oshawa; Colleen Porter,

Parts Manager of Mississauga

Drew Burk, General Manager of South Dallas

Kenny Lee, Parts Manager of Tulsa

Steven Valentine, Parts Manager of Knoxville

Ken Shumake, Service Manager of Chattanooga

Rob Hollman, Parts Manager of Fort Worth

Matthew Workman, Parts Manager of Odessa

Deon McGimpsey, General Manager of Amarillo

John Blevins, Remarketing Manager of Tulsa

Chad Pennington, General Manager of Fort Worth

12

‘Twas the Season of Christmas...Our PTG family had fun, And wished Merry Christmas to just everyone!

North Region

Odessa

Tulsa North Texas

Fort Worth

Oklahoma City

Premier Financing

deployment of this software. SalesOverdrive is fully integrated with CDK and will be the tool used on a go forward basis to manage the interaction with our customers and the system that will be used to manage all inventory and book truck transactions. This tool will enable us to better track our engagement with customers, improve the accuracy of our inventory and deal status across our network

and longer term help us refine our quote and closure activity.

Both systems represent an investment in our business to ensure that we are staying ahead of the competition in how we interact and conduct business with our customers.

Of course there are many other areas of improvement and investment taking place across our dealerships and I look forward to

talking to you about them in future editions of the Premier Pulse. Until then, I want to say thank you for all your efforts on a daily basis for making Premier Truck Group a great organization.

All the best,

President’s Corner (continued from page 1)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOU!CONGRATULATIONS!CONGRATULATIONS!

HamiltonWilliam Gill 3

Tim LaCroix 1

Francis Topp 1

KnoxvilleRandall Adkins 25

Robert Colbert 20

Samuel Gentry 15

David Marshall 5

Timmy Perkins 3

Jacob Miles 3

Geromie Falk 1

Micah Green 1

Juan Lopez 1

KnoxvilleEric Franks 5

James Wolski 5

Nathaniel Ingram 5

Erick Foster 3

Nicholas Neubacher 1

Michael Harris 1

Shawn Nicholson 1

Timothy Gilmore 1

MidlandEstanislada Griffin 1

MississaugaWayne Currie 10

Debra Riddell 5

Glen Hamilton 5

Nicholas Jagdharry 1

Kyle MacDougall 1

John Jones 1

Joseph Colagiovanni 1

Karol Kosinski 1

North DallasBradley Tucker 5

Edmundo Lopez 3

Hector Espinoza 3

Alexis Ortega 1

Donato Rivera 1

Nathan Atwood 1

Aiyana Mathews 1

Walter Mister 1

Wyatt Hansen 1

Antonietta Zarate 1

North TexasMichael Myers 1

OdessaBrian Comer 20

Juan Gutierrez 5

Melinda Martin 5

Aliyah Robinson 1

Ismael Avila 1

Merri Smith 1

Charles McCard 1

Michael Rex 1

Delfino Valenzuela 1

Oklahoma CityMichael Flanary 20

Jeremy King 5

Mark Chambers 3

Gilbert Coover 3

Sterling Jones 3

James Shaw 3

James Cantrell 1

Collin Boldman 1

Clayton Horton 1

Justin Miller 1

OshawaTerry Campbell 40

Pauline Shelemba 25

Gordon Mcculloch 15

Troy Hartjes 15

Angela Dart 3

James Tamblyn 1

AmarilloDeon McGimpsey 30

Gregory Crawford 1

Roberto Marrufo 5

Kolby Flatt 3

Abel Romero 3

Jody Fatheree 1

Alexis Carballo 1

ArdmorePatrick Jones 3

Billy Witte 1

ChattanoogaEdna Kay Bomar 20

Cheryl Hess 20

Kimberly Bowman 15

Thomas Rancourt 5

Charles Moore 3

Timothy Michael 3

William Fuquea 1

Tyler Stoneman 1

Byron Strickland 1

CorporateDimitri Lewis 3

Denise Jones 1

Nooruddin Sindhwani 1

Anisha Ghimire 1

Cherish Lour 1

Fort Worth Christopher Rumsey 20

Ivan Gomez 3

Dakota Lindsey 3

Giovanni White 3

Michael Sides 1

Jonathan Silva 1

Daniel Varela 1

Aric Green 1

Premier FinancingMichelle McGuire 1

Jennifer Andes 1

South DallasDrew Burk 10

Arnoldo Gomez 5

Eugene Cantu 5

James Willborn 5

Clinton Hiett 5

Jared Hall 3

Alonso Solis 3

Jonathan Fitzgerald 3

Mark Mims 3

Rogelio Saldivar 3

Derek Dillow 1

Robert Byars 1

Dalton Westbrook 1

Leon Neal 1

Ricardo Barrios 1

Diego Manrique 1

Kurt Kjornes 1

Aaron Fitts 1

St. CatharinesScott Walls 1

Alexander Risi 1

TulsaAdam Ramsey 5

Madison Kirkland 1

Trevor Vent 1

Cody Sartain 1

Tulsa Body ShopSteven Gailey 1

Mark Gleghorn 1

Edgar Enriquez 1

WoodbridgeDelroy Martin 5

13