Truck Centers of Arkansas

In retrospect, making a major business acquisition in 2007 probably wasn’t the best timing, but Rick and Larry Vassar and Todd Havens have made it work.

Havens, then the general manager of the Freightliner truck dealership in North Little Rock, approached the Vassars about buying the business from Barloworld Inc. of Johannesburg. Rick and his father, Larry, operated — and still do — the mail contractor LVL Inc. of North Little Rock and were frequent customers of the dealership.

The three bought the dealership and renamed it Truck Centers of Arkansas and installed Havens as CEO and Rick Vassar as COO. Then the economy tanked.

“The year 2009 was one of the worst years to be in the dealer business,” Rick Vassar said. “We did OK. We made it through that. We were able to cut expenses and reduce overhead.”

Vassar said Havens’ expertise and experience made the opportunity too good to pass up regardless of the economy. Vassar knows the trucking business is an essential part of the American economy. “The mail contract business was on the way down, and this was a good opportunity so we made a run at it,” Vassar said. “Trucks are going to deliver the goods no matter what. It’s a good business to be in. At some point in the supply chain, it’s going to be on a truck.”

Vassar said the company, with locations in North Little Rock, Springdale and Van Buren, is doing good business with pre-orders submitted up to a year in advance. Vassar said sales are generally between 2,500 and 3,000 tractors a year to the major trucking and truck-using companies in Arkansas such as USA Truck, PAM Transport, Tyson Foods and Wal-Mart Stores.

The great need now is for technicians, Vassar said, for maintenance and repair work the truck centers also do.