Meet the owner of TNT Sales

Meet the owner.

 

Bill Weiss is the sole owner of TNT Sales with over 20 years experience in the semi trailer industry.  He is living proof that as a American you have opportunity to start out as a basic mechanic and work your way up to owning a multimillion corporation. 

 

Bill joined the United States Marine Corps on his 17^th birthday and after graduating Mehlville High School later that year went on to serve 5 years as a jet mechanic.  After leaving the Corps he could not find work as a jet mechanic so he took a job at Fruehauf Trailer Corp in St. Louis MO as a Apprentice Mechanic.  With a solid work ethic and a desire for his employer to succeed Bill proved himself to be a valuable employee and earned the recognition of the Fruehauf Management.  In less than a year he was promoted to a journeyman mechanic and in that same year was given a sales opportunity when one of the veteran salesmen left for another job.  Bill quickly adapted to sales and within his first full year as a salesman was in the top ten of all Fruehauf salesmen, over 100 at the time.  Each year after Bill was in the top five with at least one year ending the #1 Salesman at Fruehauf Trailer Corp.

 

While at Fruehauf their Los Angeles branch was struggling because of lack of trailer sales.  Bill was sent to that branch and was able to turn it around into a profitable location for Fruehauf.  During that same period of time Fruehauf was purchased by Wabash National and Bill decided that he would not be a good fit for their culture and moved on to Transcraft Corporation as their National Sales Manager.

 

Under Bills leadership at Transcraft, Bill grew the market share of Transcraft from around 20% to over 40%.  He was instrumental to the introduction of the Eagle II and implementation of sales programs that encouraged their dealer network to stock trailers and capture more fleet sales.  Bill had personally helped the dealer network close hundreds of new trailer deals resulting in thousand of new trailers to be built.  Additionally Bill had introduced the leadership of Wabash National to Transcraft and through that relationship Transcraft began to build Wabash flatbeds and drop decks under a private label agreement.  That relationship ended when Wabash National bought out Transcraft and they are a wholly owned subsidiary of Wabash today. 

 

After leaving Transcraft Bill was the National Sales Manager for Manac Trailer USA’s Oran plant which was purchased from CPS Trailers.  Manac introduced and started to build the all aluminum flatbed at that plant.  It was Bill’s responsibility to get that product out to the US market focusing on owner operators and fleets.  During that time Bill had landed the largest single order of all aluminum flats sold to CRST. 

 

During his years in manufacturing with Transcraft and Manac Bill realized that he missed the retail aspect of trailer sales.  He left Manac and with the help of Great Western Leasing out of Los Angeles CA opened a retail branch for them in St. Louis, ironically in the old Fruehauf branch which had gone out of business.  They were a great help and were a growing company in trailer sales and leasing.  Bill had a desire to do more than just trailer sales and leasing.  He wanted to be a full service dealership with trailer repair and parts sales.  That was not a direction that Great Western wanted to go so in July of 2004 Bill incorporated and TNT Sales was born.

 

TNT Sales started out in Bill’s home office and was joined by Charlie Blyth as his first employee and salesman.  Quickly the home office was too small for the two of them and they rented a office and small yard in a strip mall not far from Bills home.  At that office we added 3 more sales people and started the repair business with three mechanics. 

 

The strip mall office quickly was outgrown and TNT Sales move to Villa Ridge MO where we are today.  Since moving to Villa Ridge we have acquired three properties (two shop’s and one yard with the sales office).  We have more than 25 full time employees now with a full service shop, parts department, rental fleet and of course trailer sales. 

 

TNT Sales represents 9 different new trailer lines, Manac, Fontaine, Dorsey, Doonan, Chaparral, XL Specialized, Talbert, Vantage and Trailmobile.  We are a top dealer for Manac and Fontaine selling over 500 new trailers this past year.  We also are one of the Midwest’s largest used trailer dealer selling over 1,000 used trailers this past year.  We specialize in flatbeds, drop decks, curtain sides, low boys, RGN’s, combine RGN’s and all other types of semi-trailer.

 

Bill’s philosophy has always been to make sure that the customer is treated in a fair and respected manner.  If we sell you a used trailer and there is a problem we did know about we have always fixed it or offered to buy the trailer back.  We do things different here at TNT Sales.  If you buy a used trailer off of our Villa Ridge yard it has been through our shop.  It will be safe, functional and look as new as a used trailer can.  We do what it takes to give you the best looking used trailer so that your image is upheld with good looking used equipment.

 

If new is more your speed we try to stock the trailer that you would need.  We have hundreds of new trailers on order and in stock including all aluminum flats and drops, combo flats and drops, stretch flats and drops, mechanical and hydraulic RGN’s.  Just about every type of platform oriented trailer that you could need.

 

We are here for you.  We want your trailer buying experience to be a pleasant one and that you have confidence with the product that you pull.