ATD Selects Kentucky’s Dotson as Truck Dealer of the Year

LAS VEGAS — Terry Dotson never set out to be a truck salesman, but he was so good on the lot selling big rigs that he rose eventually to be chairman and CEO of Worldwide Equipment Enterprises Inc.

And Dotson, who purchased the company in 1989, now has a new honor: American Truck Dealers’ 2012 Dealer of the Year.

Announced as the winner of the award at the group’s 49th annual meeting here on Feb. 4, he said he believes his company’s employees also deserve recognition.

“When I accepted it, I said: ‘We won,’ ” he told Transport Topics.

Dotson said many of his employees have been with his company, based in Prestonsburg, Ky., for two decades or more.

“This means they like being together and working together,” he said. “I challenge my people every day to push the people above them and to pull the people up behind them.”

Worldwide Equipment sells Mack, Volvo, and Kenworth heavy-duty trucks. It also offers East, Transcraft and Wabash trailers.

Dotson took the roundabout way to becoming a truck sales stalwart. After high school, he had no idea how to pay for college.

“But I blew a pretty good trumpet, and I got a scholarship to Pikeville College,” he said.

He graduated with a music degree in 1972 from the school, which is now called the University of Pikeville and is located in Pikeville, Ky., but he maintained close ties to the school and is now its chairman of the board of trustees.

Soon after graduating, Dotson realized he needed more than the money a music teacher made to support his family. J.R. McClung, who ran Eastern Kentucky Mack, the forerunner to Worldwide Equipment, suggested Dotson sign on as a salesman, and the young trumpet player quickly established himself.

Dotson sits today at the helm of the rural truck dealership that operates in seven states, boasts 33 locations and does about $450 million a year in sales.

But it wasn’t easy. Eastern Kentucky Mack was in such a rural area of the Appalachians, the nearest competitor was five to six hours away, Dotson recalled.

“We had to have everything,” he said. “We had to be a truck body shop, we had to be an engine rebuild shop and we had to be a transmission rebuild shop. We couldn’t run down to the reliner; we had to learn to reline our own brakes.”

The company is still improving by adding new equipment and services.

“We just bought a wheel polisher, and we bought 16 lifts for all of our shops to make them,” he said, “and we just put in new lightning to make them safer.”

Besides selling trucks, Worldwide Equipment also offers truck financing and leasing and operates a private-label aftermarket parts line.

A judging committee from Indiana University’s Kelley Graduate School of Business selected Dotson from a group of seven finalists.

John Arscott, president of The Pete Store LLC in Baltimore, was runner-up.