About TPE Company

	Since the creation of the interstatehighway system in the 1950s, the United States has come to rely on the trucking industry to transport the food, raw materials and finished products that make our individual and collective ways of life possible. This distribution network links suppliers, manufactures, wholesalers retailers and consumers and is especially important in Nevada, where goods must be moved safely and in a timely fashion across vast stretches of desert and over rugged and often snowy mountains. The flow of America commerce relies heavily on vitality of the trucking industry, and that vitality is made possible by the support network that supplies the vehicles and keeps them operating. In Nevada, the company that has embodied the best of that specialized support for over 50 years is Truck Parts and Equipment Co. better known as TPE Company.

		The company began with a California connection. In 1940 Edward W. Engs lived in San Francisco, where he owned a truck dealership. Like many successful California entrepreneurs who were ready to expand and diversify their business, it was not long before Engs looked east across the Sierra Nevada's. In 1943 he made a move and extended his business by purchasing a Reno truck parts store, which he renamed Truck Parts and Equipment. For the first 16 years, the company was strictly and independent truck parts operation whose main enterprise was to supply parts for lumber-hauling trucks. That began to change in 1959, when Truck Parts and Equipment became an authorized dealer of Peterbilt trucks, the world's premier heavy-duty truck, which were always in high demand because of their comfort, durability, efficiency, and maneuverability. Since Peterbilt only grants exclusive territories, in this case, the entire state of Nevada, Edward Engs' company benefited from an instant boost in its credibility and the opening of a whole new marketplace. The new business also created a need for a sales department and a truck repair facility to handle warranty repairs. It was the beginning of a profitable diversification that has continued ever since.



In 1960 Edward's son , Stuart, joined the company after serving in the Marine Corps. For the next six years, he learned the family business from the ground floor up, working in virtually every capacity. In 1966 Stuart Engs Sr. became president of Truck Parts and Equipment, leading the company through continued expansion. After ever-increasing business made it necessary to relocate to larger facilities twice, the company finally built a facility large enough to house its operation in 1976, and it has remained in the same Reno-Sparks location ever since. In 1990 another site was opened in Las Vegas to serve the booming southern half of the state; both of the company's facilities are administered from Reno-Sparks. The current president, Stuart Engs Jr., who represents the third generation of Engs to run Truck Parts and Equipment, is a native Nevadan. He joined the business in 1988 and quickly made his mark, bringing even more success and recognition to the company. Under his leadership, and that of his father, Truck Parts and Equipment was named North American Dealer of the year in 1989, Peterbilt's 50th anniversary year, and was honored as Western Region Dealer of the year in both 1992 and 1994.



			The groundwork that was laid with the granting of Peterbilt franchise in 1959 has enabled Truck Parts and Equipment to transform itself from a modest store that only sold parts into a multifaceted sales and service company that not only continues to sell truck parts, but also sells and leases trucks, and repairs and maintains them. Sales to the lumber industry that once made up most of its business now only represents five percent of gross annual sales, with 50 percent coming form construction-related business and the rest from such customers as beverage companies and disposal operations. The company has undergone such a remarkable and far-reaching transformation that Edward Engs would undoubtedly have difficulty recognizing it today. As one of Peterbilt's most successful dealers, Truck Parts and Equipment generates much of its revenue from the sales of new and used trucks. The company sells sleepers to owner-operations who specialize in long runs, but many new and used trucks are sold for shorter runs by locals construction and delivery companies. The sales of these day-cabs (trucks with no sleepers) account for 75 percent of sales division's business. The company also sells equipment that is a familiar sight to anyone who has ever driven past a construction site: end-dump and bottom-dump trailers that are used mainly to transfer dirt, rock, sand and asphalt. As with the trucks it sells, Truck Parts and Equipment specializes in offering the latest and most efficient line of trailers. In addition to selling trucks, the company also began a profitable leasing program called Preferred Truck Leasing in 1995. Preferred Truck Leasing not only leases vehicles to other companies, but performs maintenance and repairs on them as well.



Providing parts remains one of the company's foundations. Not only does it carry virtually every conceivable truck part, from brake, suspension, engine and body parts to batteries, hoses, lights and hundreds of other items, but it also delivers them by radio-dispatched trucks. The company is proud to offer the biggest and best parts department in all of Reno-Sparks. And for customer who need more than just a part, Truck Parts and Equipment services the trucks that it sells and leases. One of the keys to the company's reputation and longevity is its partnership with its employees. Truck Parts and Equipment seeks out and hires bright, energetic and loyal people, and is committed to their personal success. "As a result," Stuart Engs Jr. observes, "people rarely leave our employment." "When they come to work here they stay here." The concept of partnership is also applied to customer relationships, and always with an eye to the future. "Three key words epitomize how we run business", Engs continues."Honesty, loyalty and foresight." "Those have always been our guiding principles."