J.D. Power and Associates presents its Founder's Award to Paccar Monday during Heavy Duty Dialogue '09 in Orlando, Fla.


Gary Dilts, senior vice president of global automotive operations at J.D. Power and Associates, presented the award to Tom Plimpton, Paccar vice chairman, at Heavy Duty Dialogue '09, the annual member meeting of the Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association.

"Our founder, Dave Power, also looked at what the really great leaders do in their industries - not just their vertical quality, but what they do across a wide spectrum of measures," Dilts explained. "So every couple of years we've acknowledged that kind of performance. They go that extra step with suppliers, distributors, shareholders, technology, every piece of the puzzle comes together."

The Founder's Award is a discretionary award presented periodically that recognizes individuals or companies demonstrating dedication, commitment and sustained improvement in serving customers. During the 40-year history of J.D. Power and Associates, only 23 companies or individuals have previously received the award. Past honorees include Toyota, The Ritz Carlton Hotels, USAA and Progress Energy.

Paccar brands have consistently received awards for customer satisfaction with product and dealer service in two annual J.D. Power and Associates studies-the Heavy-Duty Truck Customer Satisfaction Study and Medium-Duty Truck Customer Satisfaction Study.

This award "really should be celebrated by our 18,000 employees, our suppliers, our dealers that are out there on the front line every day," Plimpton said.

More than 250 commercial vehicle supplier industry executives were on hand to view the presentation to Paccar, a major customer of most companies represented in the room.

Heavy Duty Dialogue '09 is a business conference developed for executives in the global and domestic commercial vehicle supplier industry.