Prescott Bottling: First-Hand Experience in Benefits of Truck Leasing

Prescott Bottling (Tullahoma, TN) is a small regional soft drink bottler and one of the largest distributors of Sun Drop beverages in the South. More than 90% of the bottler's volume is represented by Sun Drop—a popular regional brand owned by Cadbury Beverages of Dallas. Prescott moves more than one million cases of Sun Drop annually.

According to Prescott's vice president Steve Gilbert, the company entered into a full-service truck leasing and maintenance agreement with PacLease (Paccar Leasing Corp.) in 1995 due to the rising maintenance costs and the downtime of the bottler's older, owned trucks. "We had a long tradition of operating and maintaining our own vehicles," he recalled, "but we determined that it would be less costly to lease than to purchase new trucks."

Gilbert added, "Leasing from PacLease gives Prescott premium, dependable vehicles, which are essential in the beverage distribution business. Our drivers leave here at six o'clock in the morning and usually aren't back until four or five in the afternoon. During that time, the trucks will be started and stopped 35 or 40 times, and they will have delivered product to retail locations throughout a 100-mile radius of our plant.

"Our delivery trucks are rolling billboards, promoting the Sun Drop brand to the public. The perception of our grocery and C-store customers is that our driver and our truck are Prescott Bottling. Therefore, it's mandatory for them be presented in a clean and neat manner. If we send our people out in a T-shirt, blue jeans and a beat up truck, it doesn't say much about us as a company, and it doesn't say much about our product," Gilbert said.

Like its uniformed, clean-shaven drivers, Prescott's truck fleet reflects the company's high standards. The Peterbilt Model 330 beverage trucks are "definite head-turners," says Jim Dobbins, general manager of PacLease of Nashville. The bright green Peterbilt beverage trucks—liberally splashed with Sun Drop graphics—are kept spotless with weekly washes.

The drivers' opinions of their trucks also are critical, says Gilbert. "These guys spend a lot of time in their trucks, and they get in and out too many times to count. So the truck has to be comfortable and easy to operate," he said, noting that prior to leasing trucks from PacLease, Prescott had significant driver turnover. "All that changed when we began paying attention to the drivers wants and needs -- giving them premium equipment to operate."

Fully loaded, each truck carries 26,000-lb of product. So in heavy traffic, the engine and drivetrain get a good workout. "Peterbilt took its knowledge of Class 8 trucks and built it into a Class 7 chassis," Gilbert said. "We couldn't be more pleased with our PacLease vehicles."

Since the majority of Prescott's business is in tight delivery areas, adds PacLease's Dobbins, the ability to get in and get out was critical when custom spec'ing the trucks. "Beverage distributors get into a lot of tight situations with traffic, so Steve (Gilbert) wanted a vehicle with superior driver visibility and cornering," he recalled. "The Model 330 was the perfect answer for their performance and vehicle image requirements."

In the softdrink distribution business, customers are intolerant of late deliveries. "This business is all about service," Gilbert said. "If something happened and we were late today, the customer could accept that, but we¹d better not be late tomorrow. We're the small guy competing against the giants of our industry—Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Make no mistake, they are very good, so we not only have to exceed their service but surpass their image."

For more info: PACCAR Leasing Corp., 777 – 106th Ave. NE, P.O. Box 1518, Bellevue, WA 98004. Tel: 1-800-426-1420; Fax: 425-468-8234; Website: www.paccar.com/paclease/

Edited by Judy Rice