Volume 22 • Issue 10 • October 2020 Chartered May 16, 1988 The Used Truck Association INDUSTRYWATCH Sponsorship Boom for the UTA’s Contents 2 Board and Committees Virtual Convention! 2 Quips & Quotes 3 Board News & Views ithin just a week of announcing that this year’s convention had gone virtual, the 4 Face to Face with Tim Ronan Wused-truck industry rallied to show support for the UTA by stepping up with spon- 5 Industry Events Calendar sorships and virtual training opportunities. 5 UTA Events Calendar Within that first week, nearly all of the Presenting Level Sponsor slots (the highest level of 6 Welcome New Members sponsorship available) were spoken for! Partner Level sponsorships are also being scooped 7 Spotlight on UTA’s Young Members up. This robust support affirms the UTA’s awesome reputation for connecting people in the Committee industry with the knowledge they need to succeed. 8 Doug’s Morning Coffee Halloween Although selling trucks earlier this year was challenging, dealers honed strategies like virtual Edition: The Monster Under Your Bed walkarounds to accommodate customers. And although the climate for used truck sales is now 10 Women In Trucking: much improved, it’s apparent we must all remain connected and up-to-date —perhaps as never What I Learned from My “Wearable” before. 12 Transitioning from Financing to Truck So, this year’s 21st Annual Convention is already guaranteed to be different from all the rest. Sales In keeping with the UTA’s standards for offering the best information available to the indus- 14 Book Excerpt: How to Attract Great try, it is also sure to be a success. Women (Part 2) The Convention will be held on 16 Positioning your Used Truck Inventory to Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Move from 10:00 am to 2:15 pm (EST). 18 The Importance of Maintaining Your Commercial Asset Thank you to all our wonderful sponsors! (See the list on page 19 Ricardo Rodriguez-Long Opinion 30.) Column: Facing the Facts About EV Vehicles And for those interested in 20 J.D. Power Valuation Services Update sponsoring this virtual event, 24 Industry News Briefs please contact Misty Reis at [email protected]. n 26 Brooks Tip of the Month 31 2020 UTA Virtual Convention Sponsors 32 From Where We Sit 1.877.GETS.UTA • WWW.UTA.ORG 2020 USED TRUCK ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS & COMMITTEES www.uta.org/directory Craig Kendall President Convention Committee Amy Shahan Vice President Chair – Terry Williams Terry Williams Secretary Co-Chair – Hal Dickson Hal Dickson Treasurer Brock Frederick Willie Boyle Dealer Group & Preferred Partners Rocky Carden Chair – Rocky Carden Joe Feco Amy Shahan Bobby Williams Jody Johnson Michelle Ober Elections Committee Tim Ronan Chair – Doug Shields Mike Roney Co-Chair – Charles Cathey Doug Shields Finance Committee Rodney Stephens Marty Crawford Ian Sifuentes Alternate Ronnie Jordan Craig Kendall Marketing & Website Committee Executive Advisors Chair – Craig Kendall Charles Cathey Co-Chair – Terry Williams Marty Crawford Hal Dickson Dean Jeske Doug Shields Ronnie Jordan Membership Committee Robert Yost Chair – Mike Roney Co-Chair – Michelle Ober OEM Advisors Joe Feco Brock Frederick Scholarship Committee Jeremi Guditis Chair – Dean Jeske Bo Johnson Co-Chair – Tim Ronan Rocky Carden Training Committee Chair – Amy Shahan Co-Chair – Jody Johnson Young Members Committee Chair – Victoria Lombardo SHARE YOUR NEWS with the UTA Industry Watch. Send submissions, ideas and comments to: UTA Industry Watch Editors Brad and Deb Schepp c/o Sentry Management 303 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 300 A Stockbridge, GA 30281 Phone: 877-GETS-UTA (877-438-7882) Fax: 770-454-0029 [email protected] Twitter: @usedtruckassoc “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you Facebook: Used Truck Association reap but by the seeds that you plant.” Management: Misty Reis, [email protected] - Robert Louis Stevenson Art Direction/Graphic Design: Laura Carter, [email protected] www.lauracarterdesign.com 2 hen I was elected to the UTA board I was excited for the opportunity to serve. But Wdescribing what I have learned so far from my experience as a new board member isn’t as easy for me as you might think. My first few months as a board member were exciting and filled with planning for the future. Then my excitement took a back seat as board members faced difficult decisions resulting from COVID-19. It soon became clear that this virus wasn’t something that was “just going to pass” or “move quickly.” It would lead to a new normal. A pandemic brings new challenges. And as a board member the hard decisions we had to make were my greatest challenge. For example, canceling the Convention and fishing trip were not decisions that were taken lightly. Collectively and independently, each board member spent time and energy debating how the UTA should proceed. In the end, it was a people over business decision, which in my opinion will win every time. That is one reason I wanted to be a board member. I wanted to be a voice for the UTA’s members and assist in ensuring our association would continue to help each member succeed. Something that is important to me as a board member is making sure that the UTA has the resources it needs to advance its mission. In turn, I know and understand that good governance needs to be efficient, accountable, transparent, responsive, participatory, and reflect a consensus— all while following the rules established by the many board members that preceded me. At the end of the day, when I put my head down on my pillow, I want to know that I made a difference in the industry. Being a UTA board member allows me to continue to bring that energy to the table, to make a difference in our industry. I hope that in the future I can continue contributing my knowledge, energy, and expertise to the Willie Boyle UTA Board, and continue making a difference and bringing positive changes to our industry. In [email protected] turn, this will benefit the UTA and its members as a whole. n 3 WITH Tim Ronan im is the Director of Used He often serves as our Master of and asked each of his sales staff TTruck Sales for McMahon Ceremonies. to give estimated prices for the Truck Centers in Charlotte, NC. trucks both wholesale and retail. “I’ve been in used truck remarket- When we first contacted Tim “Then he’d look at me and say ing for 26 years,” Tim told us. Ronan about profiling him for this ‘Timmy, what’ll it do at auction,”? “Starting in 1994, I’ve spent 15 article he asked whether we were Tim recalled. He knew this meant years on the auction side and 11 also profiling the other Tim. he had to be ready for each years on the retail dealership Confused, we responded that we meeting with hard facts. “I knew I side.” His first job in the industry wanted to profile Tim Ronan, the had to prepare for those meetings was with Fort Wayne Vehicle Board Member. “That’s me! He and learned when I gave reliable Auction, in Fort Wayne, IN. Tim information, I would get consign- was in outside sales and traveled ments. That encouraged me to around Indiana and the surround- constantly go through our market ing states, working to get con- reports and memorize values of all signments from dealers and years, makes, and models so I encourage them to come to the could become a reliable consul- auction when they needed inven- tant to the dealers that were my tory. It was there that Tim met potential customers.” John Gresly, the General Manager, and Lifetime Achievement Award In 1997 Tim went to work for Bear winner and a mentor to Tim from as a Dedicated Used Truck Sales- the start. Years later, when John person for Western, Ohio Freight- received his LTA award posthu- liner in Lima, OH. After four years mously, Tim said he was honored of selling from the retail side, Tim to be the one chosen to accept it heard from his friend and mentor, on behalf of the Gresly family. John Gresley. “He was letting me Another important contributor to know that Manheim Auctions had Tim’s early career was John acquired Fort Wayne Vehicle Wiessemann. “He took me under Auction and that Freighliner his wing teaching me about truck Remarketing wanted Manheim to specs and how values could be set up another auction in Fort dramatically affected by different Worth, TX to handle the repos via combinations.” It was during this auction for that part of the coun- time in his early career that Tim try,” he said. Tim and his family realized he had found his home in loved life in Texas, but before too used truck remarketing. long, John Gresley called again to ask Tim to “come home.” He His travels took him to Columbus, worked at the auction for a few OH, where he met “Bear” Nadol- more years and then joined exclaimed. “But the original son. Once the two men came to Manheim Corporate to be one of e-mail went to me AND believe it know each other, Tim would call their National Heavy Truck and or not…there is a Tim Ronan that Bear at Columbus Kenworth with Equipment Managers. “In 2013, I works for NTP (same company as his questions. The men came to returned to the retail side of our Rick Clark).” So to set the record respect each other so completely, business, and my family and I straight immediately, the subject that Bear asked Tim to attend the moved to Nashville, TN to work for of this month’s profile is Tim meetings he held with his staff to Mike and Brad McMahon at Ronan, UTA board member, and put values on the trucks that were the guy you’ll recognize if you’ve potential trade-ins for the dealer- been to UTA Conventions recently.