The winner will be announced at the American Truck Dealers (ATD) Show in Las Vegas on March 23, 2018.
Craig Young, president of Young Truck Sales in Canton, Ohio, is one of seven nominees for 2018 Truck Dealer of the Year – a national award that recognizes commercial-truck dealers for business performance, industry and civic leadership and community service.
“I was both excited and humbled to be nominated for Truck Dealer of the Year by the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association,” said Young, who became dealer principal in 1996. “It’s an honor to be nominated out of the thousands of truck dealers across the country.”
Young’s grandfather started the business in 1954. After graduating from college in 1978, he returned to the dealership climbing the ranks working in numerous positions from service, sales, parts, F&I and then as business manager. He graduated from the American Truck Dealers (ATD) Academy in 1994. Young is now beginning the transition of the business to fourth generation family members.
Today, Young Truck Sales includes two sales, service and parts dealerships, and a leasing company and body shop, in Canton, Ohio, with 154 employees representing Freightliner, Volvo and Isuzu trucks.
“If all our employees focus on the success of our customers, and our managers focus on the success of our employees, then our companies will be successful and all our team members will have the right focus all the time,” added Young, commenting on its business mantra.
As president of the Rotary Club of Canton, Young initiated several community service projects, which included a summer food backpack program for students in the Canton City School District and the development of a new park through Habitat for Humanity of East Central Ohio.
During his term as an officer and board member for Habitat for Humanity, the organization built new headquarters and expanded its services from two to six counties revitalizing neighborhoods by repairing and building new homes.
“To meet and get to know these families, who spend 18 to 24 months working in the Habitat for Humanity program, it not just gratifying. It shows how much good there is in people who support and volunteer for the program,” he added.
Young served as a board member for Meals on Wheels (Stark and Wayne counties) and is currently fundraising for Refuge of Hope, a homeless shelter and meals provider.
He served on Freightliner’s dealer council and was its lead representative for the Northeast region for 10 years. Young is an ATD member and a founding member of the first ATD 20 Group for All-Makes. He is president of the Ohio Truck Dealers Association, a division of the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association (member). He served as president of the Stark County Automobile Dealers Association (member), and is a member of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers Association.
“I am a strong believer in supporting the truck dealer industry at the state and federal levels,” Young said.
Young Truck Sales is a recipient of Freightliner’s Aspire and Summit awards, which ranks dealerships for customer service nationally.
The Truck Dealer of the Year award is sponsored by ATD, Heavy Duty Trucking magazine and Procede Software.
The other nominees are Joseph Alosa, Sr., president and CEO of New England Kenworth in Concord, N.H.; John Arscott, CEO of The Pete Store in Baltimore, Md., Mark Bergey, president of Bergey’s Truck Centers in Souderton, Pa.; Rick Reynolds, president of Peach State Truck Center in Atlanta; Jon Vandehey, president/CEO of Mid-State Truck Service in Marshfield, Wis.; and Lee White, II, president of Old River Companies in South Richland, Miss.
The nominees were selected by ATD board members and dealer association executives. Professors from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, Ind., will evaluate the nominees based on dealership performance, industry leadership, civic contributions and community service.
The winner and runner-up will be announced on March 23, 2018, during the 55th annual ATD Show (formerly the ATD Convention & Expo) in Las Vegas, which runs concurrently with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show from March 22-25.
ATD, a division of NADA, represents more than 1,800 medium- and heavy-duty truck dealerships in the U.S.
For more information, visit www.atdshow.org.
This is the final article in a seven-part series highlighting the nominees for 2018 Truck Dealer of the Year.
