INFOTHE OFFICIAL INLAND GROUP NEWSLETTER SPRING 2016

INLAND-GROUP.COM

IN THIS ISSUE:

The Inland Story

Bill North, former President of Inland Kenworth, passed away from a ruptured aneurism of an artery to the heart after enjoying some gardening with wife Bev

on Good Friday afternoon.

Upon his release from the army following World War II (he had lied about his age to enlist), Bill began

working for Ferguson Truck and Equipment in Vancouver, B.C. Ferguson was the licensed assembler and dealer of Kenworth trucks in Canada at the time.

He married Bev in 1950.

At Ferguson, Bill started off washing trucks. However – he progressed swiftly and would soon become the Sales Manager.

In 1956, Pacifi c Car and Foundry purchased Ferguson and built a new factory in Burnaby – the fi rst Kenworth factory outside of the U.S. Bill Ferguson was named President and Bill North as Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. Bill was instrumental in the establishment of factory branches in Nanaimo, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto as well as the granting of dealerships in Regina, Winnipeg and Montreal.

At the time, Lloyd Parker, founder of Inland, was purchasing used military vehicles in Washington State and was selling them in

the B.C. interior. He continuously approached Bill for a Kenworth dealership in Penticton. Bill allowed him to sell some used trucks on consignment and eventually granted him a Kenworth dealership in 1956.

Lloyd soon opened branches in Kamloops, Prince George, Williams Lake and Quesnel. In December 1968, he opened the sales lot on 1st Avenue in Vancouver and purchased the branch in Nanaimo and a dealership in Terrace – thus becoming the Kenworth franchisee for sales, service and parts throughout British Columbia.

Bill had become friends with Lloyd and when PACCAR asked Bill to become General Manager for Peterbilt in San Francisco, he told Lloyd that he was not interested in moving to the U.S. as he knew his oldest son would become eligible for the draft for the Vietnam War.

With this in mind, Lloyd off ered Bill the job of President and G.M. of Inland Kenworth in 1969.

Bill was admired and respected throughout the trucking industry and when he retired in 1987, the company had grown to include 27 dealerships throughout B.C., California, Nevada and Arizona.

Bill is survived by his wife Bev, three children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Bill North, former President of Inland Kenworth, passed away from a ruptured aneurism of an artery to the heart after enjoying some gardening with wife Bev

on Good Friday afternoon.

Upon his release from the army following World War II (he had lied about his age to enlist), Bill began

working for Ferguson Truck and Equipment in Vancouver, B.C.

In Memory of RJ (Bill) North - 1925-2016

As we say goodbye to a man who gave so much to the early years of Inland, and as we look ahead to exciting digital and infrastructural advances in our future, we feel it is only fi tting that we share the entire Inland story.

In Founder Lloyd F. Parker’s words.

Thank you very much to Dave Dunn for the write-up.

Writing your own success story – blowing your own horn – is not a characteristic of mine. However, with tongue in cheek and because many people have asked

me to write the company history, I will do so. In order to get a better understanding, maybe we should start at my early youth and how my training at that time put me on the right track for success.

I was brought up on a little seven-acre farm in Summerland, British Columbia. Like most kids, I had a paper route. My fi rst introduction to selling was peddling vegetable seeds every spring; potatoes, milk, eggs, vegetables, etc. during the summer; then in the fall, my mother used to paint Christmas cards and I peddled those. So, I learned how to “con” people into buying things I had to sell.

I learned very young in life that farming wasn’t the answer – all I got was a sore back, calloused hands and not much money. So, at 18, I decided that I did not want anything more to do with farming then or in the future. I also decided school wasn’t so hot either. When I looked around at the highly educated people, I couldn’t see wasting my time to get where they were after many years in school.

Hence, I launched into my fi rst trucking venture and also my last. I bought a 1933 V8 Ford 2-Ton – a really big job. I had earned the down payment on it by peddling (as explained above), picking fruit and hoeing mangles (many of you probably don’t know what they are). I can tell you one thing – it was “hell” on my back and I made 25 cents per hour for 12 hours a day. That was the second time I decided farming was for the birds!

My trucking days did not last too long, but it taught me quite a lot. I found out how to use a shovel because in those days there was no front end loader. Consequently, all the gravel which was hauled had to be loaded by shovel. Years later, I met a big American who called a shovel a “#6 idiot stick” and I think he named it very appropriately. After two years of hauling gravel, sawdust, wood, and picking fruit during the slack season, I fi nally came to the end of my $25-a-month payment schedule and was the proud owner of a fully paid up truck. I also managed to buy a Model A Ford convertible and I actually had $325 in the bank – then disaster struck. A little French girl had somehow got into my tight working schedule and, being very young and easily led, I found myself married and heading for the coast with my Model A Ford, $300 and a French lassie. The latter wasn’t bad, but I soon found out that you can’t live on love alone and I would have to fi nd some work.

The art of fi nding work in those days was to get up really early – 5 or 6 o’clock – and walk the streets calling on all the likely places that might need help. If you read an ad in the paper for work available, you had to get there very early or there would be a lineup a mile long. So, you’d have to go to the newspaper offi ce and get the ad before it hit the streets – then go directly to the place for work. Usually, someone had heard through a friend and was already there – very similar to house hunting today. I tried to join the air force but they only wanted university grads at the time. I fi nally got a break. I was standing in a lineup at Eaton’s warehouse one morning and, much to my surprise, they called my name – so I went to work. Two days later, the foreman came around and asked me if my name was Parks.

“No, Parker,” I said.

“Hell,” he said. “We hired the wrong man.”

Evidently, this fellow Parks had been sent over from Winnipeg and had arrived late. Anyway, I kept the job which paid $16 per week – big deal – but better than nothing. After a year, I got a large raise to $18 per week. I still have the notifi cation slip as a souvenir. I worked for Eaton’s for fi ve years; from warehouse to clerk to manager of the sporting goods and then to appliance sales. Finally, there was nothing left to sell as the war was “for real” and everything was going into war surplus. I left Eaton’s and went to work in the shipyards – building liberty ships.

One day, a friend of mine said, “Let’s go down and join up.” I said, “To hell with those guys. When I wanted to join they didn’t want me”. He fi nally convinced me that working in the shipyards was not for us and we could have a “hell of a time” in the air force – so, down we went to join up. I laugh at the deal now but, at the time, it wasn’t too funny because this was all his idea, anyway. We went into the recruiting offi ce and each was taken into a diff erent room.

I signed up and when I came out I found him standing there. I said, “Well, we’re in.”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t like their agenda, so I didn’t join.”

I could have killed him – I was in, he wasn’t. He never did join but I never regretted it as I learned a lot while I was there and had a lot of fun.

I got out of the air force in the fall of 1945 and went back to Eaton’s.

In the spring of 1946 – March 15 to be exact – I bought half interest in Parker Motors. To do this, I sold my house, mortgaged my soul and landed up as 50/50 partner in an automobile dealership in Penticton.

THE STORY by L.F. ParkerFirst published in October 1973 & February 1974. Copied with minor edits for modern grammer & fl ow.

This company started as a farm equipment company handling Massey Harris line, switching to Ferguson tractors, then back to Massey Ferguson when Ferguson was bought out my Massey. We also bought war surplus trucks and Cats from as far south as San Francisco.

In 1955, we built a new building in Penticton, separating completely the car and industrial lines. This building was the home of Inland until July of this year when we moved into the new facilities.

The original building had two offi ces, three small bays and a small parts room. Our staff consisted of one mechanic, John Edgyed parts man, two farm salesman, Mary McKay as a service station operator, book-keeper, typist, etc. and myself – a total of six.

We decided to go into the truck business in a big way and in 1955, we sold quite a few Dodge trucks. In 1956, we just about lost our shirt – there was no way we could keep these trucks on the road. They came back faster than we could repair them. They were a disaster. In the fall of 1956, we got the International truck franchise. They were a little better but not much. Then one day, Bob Hayes came in and wanted to know if we could sell him a Kenworth. I said, “sure.” I knew Ferguson Trucks not only handled Ferguson tractors but also Kenworth trucks. So I telephoned old Bill Ferguson and told him we had a good prospect for a Kenworth truck. He said he would send one of his salesman up and if successful, he would pay us 5%. One or two days later, in drove this very young looking salesman and introduced himself as who else but our Bill North. We went up to Bob Hayes’ place

and sold him a new Kenworth. I think the price was $22,000 or there abouts – truck and trailer. Bill and I became very good friends and he advanced in Kenworth to Sales Manager and then to Vice President in charge of sales. I tried to hire Bill at that time but did not succeed until 1969 – thirteen years later. I always knew that someday he would see the light and come with a good company – he took a lot of convincing.

A year went by and suddenly we realized that Bob had never been back for warranty, service or repair and we thought he had either dropped dead or that it was “one hell of a truck.” So, we went up to see him. He was very happy and had no problems. We then realized that this was the only way to go. We contacted Ferguson and made a working agreement to sell Kenworth trucks for him. Shortly after that, Canadian Kenworth established a factory in Vancouver and bought out Ferguson trucks and we took on the Kenworth franchise for the Okanagan – that was in 1957.

In that year, I believe Pete Biagioni joined the company as a handyman in the farm division. He worked his way up as a mechanic, farm salesman, heavy duty

mechanic and then to service manager. I believe Pete is our oldest employee as John Edgyed retired last year. John started in around 1948 with Parker Motors and then in 1954 with Parker Industrial.

I have no accurate fi gures on our sales in the early years of the company but in 1957, I believe we sold three Kenworths and our ultimate goal was 12 Kenworths per year. However, I do have fi gures for 1959 which will give you some idea of the tremendous growth we have had since then. In 1959, we sold $706,000 in new trucks, $360,000 in used and $90,000 in parts. In 1972, we had sales totaling $34,000,000 or just about 34 times more sales. Employees went from six to 350.

In 1957, we sold three trucks. In 1972, we sold 350.

To date, we have sold over 300 in 1973 and expect to exceed 450 for the full year.

On going back to the days when we bought war surplus in the States, one instance comes to mind where my wife and I drove to San Francisco and I bought an International 6x6 and an HD 7 Allis Chambers bulldozer. The truck didn’t have any license so I telephoned the License Department to see if I could get a permit. They said, “No” – and I would have to buy a full year license. I didn’t have the money so there was just one way to go – load the cat into the truck and take off at night and hope we could reach the Oregon border without being caught.

We started from San Francisco right in the middle of rush hour – my wife behind with car and house trailer to keep me covered so that no one would notice we had no license – and we took off over the Golden Gate Bridge for Oregon and safety. After we had crossed the bridge, all went well but I thought I had better not trust my luck too far so I decided to take a short cut and also get off the freeway. To this day, I don’t know where we went but it took us four hours travelling over back country roads before we came out on the highway again. The next time I was down that way, we drove

Bill North

Pete Biagioni

the same distance on the freeway in half an hour. Some short cut!

We drove day and night until we reached the Oregon border without being caught. The next evening, just out of Eugene, we were stopped by the highway patrol for no license. I was taken in front of a really good old judge. I told him I was a G.I. going north to Canada to make my fortune.

He looked at me with and a smile and said, “That will be 15 dollars and costs.”

I asked him, “How much altogether?” He said, “$10.” I couldn’t believe my ears but paid him the $10 and left. I then said to the police officer, “What do I do now?”

He replied, “I don’t know but I’m going south and you had better get to the Washington border tonight before I come back.”

So, I did just that.

The total trip from San Francisco to Penticton took four days at 18 hours a day – a real pleasure cruise! We only did that once and that was enough. Afterwards, we hired an old taxi driver named Tom Scott to drive the trucks and he brought them from as far away as Boston. We used to bring them four at a time with tow bars and two drivers. One time, coming through Chicago, one driver took a wrong turn and old Tom telephoned me – “I lost the other driver. What do I do now?” I said, “Don’t tell me your troubles and write me next time.” Eventually, they both turned up. I don’t know what he expected me to do by telephone but he never telephoned again and he made five trips to Boston to bring out trucks.

The old International 6x6 with a 361 Red Diamond motor was a “gutless wonder.” I used to come up the passes by pulling out the throttle on the dash and standing on the running board – the heat was unbearable inside. You could do about one to two miles per hour up the steep grades. At the top of the pass, I would kick it out of gear and pass everything going down. I don’t know what would have happened had I had to stop

but that didn’t bother me – and I certainly made good time on the downgrades! You could hear that old 6x6 coming for miles – the transfer box used to really scream. I had no trouble getting traffic to move over and give me the right of way.

At the time we were handling these International 6x6, we sold over 100 as far north as Burns Lake. I used to take them out of Penticton, chassis and cab, and drive them until they were sold. It was really tough country in those days. There were two restaurants in Burns Lake – one of each side of the street, which was always a sea of mud. Both restaurants were owned by the same man and the food was horrible. You waded from one side to the other to no avail.

The road from Prince George west was merely a trail – rough and dusty when dry and a sea of mud when wet. The road was marked by sticks on each side in order to show the roadway as, most of the time, it was completely covered with water and all you could see was a row of sticks going across a body of water – you hoped this was the road. You needed a 6x6 to get through most of the time! The hardy salesmen who made it usually sold the trucks and when one had driven an empty 6x6 for miles, there was an incentive to sell it was there was no way you wanted to drive it back. The road from Cache Creek to Prince George was so rough, you just held on to the steering wheel and hoped the truck would hang together long enough to get there. On one occasion, both frame rails were broken behind the cab when I got to Prince George. We welded them and sold the truck. It used to take 10 to 12 hours to drive from Cache Creek to Prince George – that will give you an idea of how tough the road really was.

Well, so much for the war surplus sales – but it really was the beginning of our company and its success.

By 1960, we had progressed to the point

where our Kenworth territory reached from Penticton to Burns Lake and this was all being worked out of Penticton. At that time, I sold my shares in Parker Motors and bought all the shares in Parker Industrial and formulated a long range plan of setting

up service and sales outlets throughout British Columbia – every 180 miles – and, eventually, to take over the whole province for Kenworth.

In 1961, we built the Prince George building on the Hart Highway. This was a modern three-bay shop. We later expanded this building to seven bays. Today, it is far too small for our needs and will be renewed in the not-too-distant future. An interesting little story happened when we bought the land on which the building now stands. We contacted the person who supposedly owned it and negotiated a deal. After completing the transaction, we went to the City Hall to obtain a map of the property and found we had not bought what we wanted at all but an adjoining piece to the north – so we were in a real spot as the land we wanted was owned by another person altogether. Fortunately, we were able to negotiate a deal with him. However, we had to move his house and make a lot of concessions in order to make the deal. This taught us a lesson to really check out the property legally before buying.

The next expansion came in 1964 when we built a six-bay shop in Kamloops. Again, this building has outgrown itself and we have started construction on a 12-bay shop – designed the same as Penticton but larger.

In 1967, we opened up a big used truck sales offi ce on 1st and Boundary and moved head offi ce from Penticton to Vancouver. These facilities are now being used for new and used truck sales.

In 1968, following our original plan of service facilities every 180 miles, we built a new six-bay shop in Williams Lake. This is a modern precast concrete building – the fi rst of its kind in British Columbia. Roy Boyd says he hopes it is the last and I agree with him!

1969 was the really big year for expansion for the Inland Group. The Nanaimo company was bought out from Canadian Kenworth in January. We started a new company in Cranbrook and built a new eight-bay shop there to handle the Kenworth line of trucks. Dave Dunn was transferred from Nanaimo to manage the company. We also bought out Skeena Kenworth from Pete Murray and Evan Williams became manager. Parts houses were set up in Campbell River and Quesnel.

A complete rearrangement of management – Bill North joined the company in May as President and General Manager and Bob Brawn became Vice President in Charge of Finance. The company entered into a management agreement with Bill and Bob. L.F. Parker became Chairman.

In 1970, we launched into a completely new venture. This was the importing and exporting of farm equipment from Spain and Holland, which has grown substantially in the past three years.

In 1971, we opened up a parts house in Port Hardy which has done exceedingly

well. Also, in that year, we expanded the Inland Farm division by taking on the Massey Ferguson franchise in Kelowna and rearranged our total Farm Division. Bill Corry transferred to Wholesale and Dick McConnachie to manage the Farm Division in Penticton. Stu Gregory was hired as Manager of the Kelowna Farm Company. Stu, although new to our company, had sold and serviced Massey in his own company in previous years. The Kelowna Farm Division has been a “real winner” – and we hope to expand into our own facilities there in the not too distant future.

1972 was the fi nalizing of a long range plan conceived 12 years before – by taking on the fi nal area of B.C. for Kenworth and thus becoming the sole distributor for Kenworth for the province. We established a new company to handle the parts and service, built a new 24-bay shop and a 13,000-square-foot self-service parts room – the fi rst of its kind in Canada – a completely new approach to merchandising parts. Norm Day was appointed Manager and Bob Armstrong was responsible for getting the whole operation going in the shortest possible time. The start-up and operation has been a terrifi c success since the fi rst day it opened and we are selling more parts than we have ever done before. In fact – about 40% to 50% more – so I think we have a “real winner” here. The management and people have been terrifi c and it proves what can be done if everyone really tries. We take our hats off to the total crew at Goring.

We moved head offi ce from 1st and Boundary to new modern offi ces on Springer Avenue.

We are still expanding and modernizing – there seems to be no limit.

In 1973, we again branched off into an entirely new business by forming IMCL – which deals in heavy equipment and is run by Evan Williams, Vice President. The head offi ce is located at Langley.

Also in 1973, we started our fi rst modernizing of our service facilities in order

to bring them up to the highest standards possible. We started in Penticton as we thought it was only appropriate to start our modernizing program there where it all began. On July 21, 1973, we opened the fi rst of the new series of service facilities. We have had many favourable comments on it – even to the extent of one dealer from Quebec making a special trip out to see it. Our second building has already been started in Kamloops and will be completed shortly.

That is the story of your company – the Inland Group – of which we can all be very proud because each one of you has been the reason for its success and had a part in making and seeing it grow. I am sure with the kind of people that we so fortunately have been able to acquire, the next 15 years will be far greater than the past, and this will give each one of us a chance to grow with it.

The success of any company is people, not one but all.

To summarize our growth – the following is the volume of sales in each year for which we have records:

1949 – 1958 – no records1959 - $1,346,7261960 - $1,791,4801961 - $2,459,9981962 - $2,881,1451963 - $3,042,1051964 - $4,741,0231965 - $5,583,1391966 - $5,825,5281967 - $5,392,9831968 - $8,059,0681969 - $14,710,5681970 - $15,265,7881971 - $17,210,7721972 - $33,965,150 1973 - $45,000,000 (estimated)

This brings us into our fi rst 25-year program and we look forward to the future.

Bob Brawn

Referral Program ReminderDon’t forget that Inland offers Referral Bonuses if you refer your friends to us and we hire them! We offer $1,000 for Managers, Sales Consultants, Certified Technicians and Qualified Parts People. We also offer $500 for Admin Staff and Apprentices. The referral form must be completed and submitted to management before the candidate is interviewed. Please keep an eye on the Job Opportunities section of our website to see what openings we have. If you know of someone who might be a good fit for Inland, please ask your manager for a referral form.

INLAND-GROUP.COM

Our new website has probably been the longest overdue project that I’ve managed. With that said, I’m extremely proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with our small team of people. That group, Derek Kingston and Tom Willcox, deserve all the credit for the great improvements - thank you!

As far as additional enhancements or items that you feel are still missing from the site, you can direct those inquires my way. Managing this project has been quite a challenge. I look at what will be the finished product and know a lot of areas that we can still improve. Anyone that’s worked with me knows though that there has to be a cut off, so I’ll tell you what our goals were for this project.

First, we wanted to combine the truck and equipment websites and rewrite them in a manner that would allow us to continually improve without the help of an outside company.

Second, we wanted our site to reflect what our customers seemed to want from it. During the year leading up to the project, we were collecting data on web traffic to our site and the pages that were visited. The top three page visits were all inventory related. So - our goal was to make sure that our new site really highlighted our inventory and made it easy to find, search and get information.

The last major item was our job board for Human Resources. Managing the process for finding candidates, posting jobs and filling them was not working in its current state. We developed a solution that works within our CRM system for working with the different HR aspects and flows seamlessly to our website for posting and filling those positions.

There are many other items that we could have taken on with the initial launch but, ultimately, felt by achieving our first goal of having a site we could control that we’d be able to get to everything eventually.

Submitted by Ian Carpenter

Celebrating the Past & Future15 YearsBrent Allen - QuesnelDavid Alvarez - MontebelloKent Brownlow - Home OfficeRoss Cartwright - Prince GeorgeJose Cedillos - MontebelloLee Fink - NanaimoDarryl Fishbook - VernonOksana Friesen - Home OfficeVanessa Gomez - CarsonRichard Jiacoletti - AlbuquerqueJeff King - PhoenixSteve Levy - QuesnelAllister Macleod - LangleyTom Mckersie - Prince GeorgeTabetha McManus - Home OfficeJeff McNeal - Fort St. JohnDale Miller - MontebelloGary Paulson - Fort St. JohnErica Podd - Prince GeorgeWarren Render - LangleyManuel Resendez Jr. - MontebelloPedro Romero - Fontana

Juvenal Trejo - MontebelloAnnette Weir-Wakely - Langley

20 YearsDouglas Advocaat - Fort St. JohnThomas Collins - PhoenixRick Datoff - PentictonDon Hoffert - PentictonGlen Kerslake - LangleyDeborah Lundquist - Home OfficeJuan Martinez - TucsonGuy Painchaud - CranbrookSteven Pease - FontanaMaricela Rodriguez - FontanaTracey Russell - Home OfficeArmida Sharp - MontebelloNeal Sideroff - PentictonKaren Stevens - KamloopsDonald Stocker - PentictonHugo Timmers - Prince GeorgeArie Vanderlind - CranbrookDarrell Wiatr - Phoenix

25 YearsJimmy Bertoldo - FontanaMarshall Gellatly - KamloopsSteven Hunter - Prince GeorgePeter McClain - PentictonGary Onstott - GoringRussell Schmitz - MontebelloDebora Ward - Kamloops

30 YearsWayne Hoppe - Prince GeorgeKaren Mottus - GoringBlake Romeike - Prince George

35 YearsCathy Nicholson - Home OfficeJohn Risley - Langley

40 YearsDarcy Hooper - Vernon

45 YearsRobert Roberts - Montebello