Great Dane hosted its seventh Aftermarket Parts and Service Conference May 2-5, 2018, in Atlanta, Georgia. APSC is a biennial Great Dane event that brings together aftermarket management and sales teams with industry-leading vendors to discuss safety, technology and product updates.

“Since we began holding our Aftermarket Parts and Service Conference in 2006, it has continued to grow and improve,” said Dave Durand, Great Dane’s vice president of Aftermarket. “It’s a great opportunity to get the Great Dane Aftermarket team and our vendors together under one roof to educate each other on product and technology updates, discuss new ideas, collaborate on solutions and celebrate our wins from the previous two years.”

This year’s APSC had record-setting attendance, including Great Dane branch and dealer employees and representatives from many of the company’s supplier partners. The theme of the event was “Forward into the Future” and included an inspirational keynote speech by astronaut and author Captain Mark Kelly, educational sessions, a tradeshow and an awards dinner.

Several new programs were also launched at the conference, including the company’s elite, private label parts brand Great Dane Select Parts; a comprehensive online learning management system for Great Dane employees to learn new skills in many different areas; Great Dane’s ASE-accredited service technician training program; and the company’s new Service Relationship Management platform, ServiceTrak, which provides system connectivity and complete visibility around service events. Great Dane partnered with Decisiv Inc to build ServiceTrak, and Decisiv’s President and CEO Dick Hyatt also spoke at the conference, providing attendees with an in-depth look at the platform.

At the awards dinner, Great Dane announced the winners of its annual Aftermarket Parts and Service Awards. These awards recognize Great Dane branches, dealers and supplier partners for performance excellence in several categories, including safety, customer support, sales achievement and AdvantEDGE, which is Great Dane’s national aftermarket parts and service program. The company also recognized three people with lifetime achievement awards. The lifetime achievement recipients included David Sawyer, parts manager for TSR, LLC; Art Hobbs, Great Dane’s branch service operations manager; and Dave Durand, Great Dane’s vice president of Aftermarket.