Neal Williams Kenworth Truck Dealer Is A Big Wheel In Local Market

In a business where customers drop $85,000 for a new truck and expect it to last 1 million miles, 71-year-old R. Neal Williams has become a legend.

After 50 years of selling fleets of roaring Kenworth trucks in Spokane, the quiet, white-haired businessman has earned an enviable reputation as a dealer people can trust.

Last summer, more than 1,500 people congregated at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds to honor the 50th anniversary of Williams Equipment Co., which threw the $60,000, no-booze party. Hundreds in Washington, Idaho and Montana will buy trucks from Williams this year.

“He’s really quiet and doesn’t seek attention,” says James Williams, the unrelated president of the giant System/ TWT truck lines on the West Plains of Spokane. “He’s been around a long time, and is extremely knowledgeable and well-respected.”

The second-oldest Kenworth dealership in the nation, Williams Equipment forecasts 1995 sales of $60 million, up 20 percent from 1994. More than 730 new and used trucks will be sold this year, bringing Williams’ total to 16,000 rigs over five decades.

PACCAR Inc., the Seattle-based manufacturer of Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, won’t say exactly where Williams ranks among the 230 Kenworth dealerships in North America. But they admit it’s near the top.

Williams Equipment operates a five-acre lot on East Broadway, a satellite dealership in Missoula and an equipment store in Lewiston. The company employs 110 people, with an annual payroll exceeding $4 million.

A 10-acre, $2.25 million plant in Missoula is under construction, and Williams said he plans a major upgrade of the company’s computer system and satellite network with other dealers.

Williams, a matter-of-fact Navy man with a pot belly, also has his eye on acquisitions of dealerships in other communities. He declines to name them.

The push for growth may be William’s final drive to reach his goal of capturing a third of the Inland Northwest truck market. Kenworth currently commands 20 percent of all sales in Spokane, Williams says, behind aggressive Spokane Freightliner Trucks, with about 25 percent.

Williams’ success selling Kenworth is significantly better than the truck does nationally, according to Heavy Duty Trucking, an Irvine, Calif.-based trade publication. Through July, the magazine said, Kenworth accounted for about 12 percent of all truck sales, compared to Freightliner’s 25 percent and Navistar’s 19 percent.

Williams says he’s had three chances in two years to sell the dealership, but wants to pass it on to the employees who have helped build the company. Employees are loyal, with more than 15 people working 20 years or more at Williams Equipment. General manager Mike Scarpelli, who came from the food industry three years ago, is the highest ranking officer behind Williams.

“If you don’t have the right people in place, you got a problem,” Williams says. “You gotta keep control or you got real problems and that means real bucks.”

Williams helped found the Kenworth dealership with his father, Roy T. Williams, after coming home from World War II, where he flew the Navy’s PB4Y2 long-range bomber. A new truck that year sold for $8,000.

By 1967, Williams had moved into the current site, 6420 E. Broadway, next to the Flying J truck stop. The company opened branch offices in Boise and Yakima, which have since been spun off, and bought a pair of truck leasing franchises. In 1987, Williams’ father died.

Williams credits his success to sharp employees, and the strength of Kenworth’s reputation.

“People buy from people,” muses the Rogers High School graduate. “People who get orders are the people who ask for them.”

Regular customers, Williams says, include URM Stores, System/TWT, Acme Material and Construction Co., Central Pre-Mix Concrete Co., Lamb-Weston Co. and Metro Trucking.

While Williams likes to spend weekends on his 60-foot houseboat at Bayview, Idaho, he has kept up with new innovations necessary to keep the company competitive. Maintenance workers have been placed on duty 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, and the parts sales staff has been increased.

Kenworth trucks also are changing to accommodate the growing number of women drivers and husband-and-wife teams, Williams says. Trucking fleets are demanding more amenities such as refrigerators, televisions and bunk beds to help retain the scarce number of drivers who are willing to spend weeks on the road.

Next April, Williams said, Kenworth will unveil a truck as revolutionary as its aerodynamic rig that changed truck styles 10 years ago. Williams says he’ll stick around for that.

“All my friends have died off, and pretty much all my old customers have died off,” he said. “I don’t want to quit. This is the only job I’ve ever had.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo