The Story Behind David Thompson’s Biggest Gamble

The early 1980s tested the lesson in belief David learned from Monroe Jubitz.

Interest rates soared to 21%. The economy tightened its grip on small businesses everywhere. TEC – still Thompson Equipment Company at the time – was selling used trucks retail and wholesale, but cash was thin and pressure was mounting. By 1983, David was behind on his mortgage, and the Gertz Road property was headed toward foreclosure. The weight of it all was constant – not dramatic, not cinematic, just grinding.

Then came a ski trip to Switzerland, made possible by a friend’s flight pass. Long story short, in the course of the trip he was left with little money in his pocket and no way home. As he sat in a hotel bar trying to figure out his next move, David struck up a conversation with a newly married couple who just by happenstance were a pilot and a flight attendant on their honeymoon – a chance encounter that would redirect the trajectory of his life.

His new friends helped get him back to the States on a flight pass, via Dallas.

While there, he saw something that looked less like inventory and more like opportunity at a Kenworth dealership. The dealer had a group of 114 repossessed trucks sitting idle in the back lot and was looking to move them.

David didn’t have the capital to buy even a fraction of them. But he negotiated… for all of them.

At $13,000 each, the deal was struck. David wrote a $50,000 check to secure it – knowing full well the funds were not yet in place – and told the Kenworth dealer he needed to return to Portland to move some money around. The dealer was heading on family vacation the next day and told him simply: “When I get back in a week, make sure that check is covered.”

David had to find a way to quickly flip at least some of his new purchases in the next week to cover the down payment. But there was no centralized truck listing service in 1983. No digital marketplace. In true entrepreneurial spirit, David found a way to market these trucks the only way he could afford – he ran a one-time Sunday classified ad in the LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the Portland Oregonian, and the Seattle Times…

and waited.

On Monday, the phones were silent.

On Tuesday, one call came in from a buyer in Riverside, California. The man asked about pricing for one truck. Then ten. Then twenty. The next day, he flew out to Dallas and met David to purchase the entire lot.

David cleared $339,000 in profit when all was said and done and the Kenworth dealer was paid off.

He has often described that week as a turning point not just financially, but psychologically. The foreclosure was halted. The mortgage was caught up. The Gertz Road property was saved. A story that had been teetering toward collapse was rewritten in a matter of days.

It’s the kind of story you couldn’t make up if you tried. But, if you know David Thompson, it’s also the kind of story that doesn’t shock you to find him at the center of. It catapulted TEC into its next chapter, and for the next nine years, TEC would not lose money in a single quarter – quite a different story from the early 1980’s.

When asked what his younger self might have envisioned TEC would look like in fifty years, David answered honestly: “I didn’t even know what strategy was. I just knew I didn’t want to be broke. My fear of failure was greater than the prospect of success.”

There was no grand blueprint, only momentum and an instinct for opportunity.

In 1990, TEC acquired its first franchise: a factory-owned Mack dealership in Portland. At the time, many major manufacturers owned some of their own stores, and Mack’s representation in Portland had struggled. For David, however, it was a way into the franchised side of the trucking industry – a step that would shift TEC from used truck sales into a full-service dealership model.

Not long after, David found himself seated next to a nice gentleman at the national dealer meeting. After striking up a conversation, David discovered this new-found friend was the president of Volvo’s West Coast division. TEC had built a reputation in used trucks, and that credibility opened the door to this next opportunity: Volvo’s Portland store, which happened to sit directly across from TEC. Though Mack and Volvo were separate companies at the time, and no one was too thrilled to have TEC representing both brands, the vocational and highway distinctions allowed Mack and Volvo to coexist successfully under TEC’s roof. Thus began what remains one of TEC’s strongest partner relationships today.

Looking back, David admits that some of his best breaks came disguised as setbacks. One of those blessings in disguise came when he’d pursued Kenworth franchise rights and was told he wouldn’t succeed as a Kenworth dealer.

“I guess being told ‘no’ was a really great thing for TEC,” he reflects now with a laugh.

Another advantage over the competition came in how TEC approached its dealership locations. Many dealers chose to lease their properties during the 1980s and 1990s, while TEC made the harder decision to buy. This strategy required stretching financially and leaning on lenders like Associates Financial Group – relationships that would evolve through Ford Motor Credit, Citibank, GE Capital, and BMO over the decades.

“They loaned me money back in the 1980s, arguably when I didn’t deserve it,” David says. “I didn’t have the credit or income to support it. But they trusted me. And we always paid it back the old-fashioned way – on time.”

That discipline created a foundation that allowed TEC to expand methodically across Oregon, California, Nevada, Washington, Arizona, and eventually into the Midwest.

Over time, TEC evolved into a comprehensive transportation partner – offering new and used trucks and trailers, parts, service, collision repair, leasing, rental, financing, and insurance. It became an authorized service center for Mack, Volvo, Cummins, Meritor, Allison Transmission, Eaton Corporation, and Fuller warranties. Partnerships have expanded to include Stoughton Trailers, Cottrell Trailers, MAC Trailer, Autocar, Jerr-Dan, and multiple other quality OEMs.

In 2019, TEC opened the largest truck dealership in North America in Fontana, California – a 174,000-square-foot facility capable of servicing more than 100 trucks at once, supported by a two-acre parts warehouse. The scale of the facility reflected decades of growth, but its purpose was simple: maximize customer uptime.

And even as the company has expanded into Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and beyond, its values remain anchored in three core principles: Teamwork, Entrepreneurship, and Customer-Driven service.

At the end of the day, while growth has mattered, how TEC grows matters more.

“Growth is always on our minds – whatever that might mean,” shares David’s middle son, Chris, VP of Sales at TEC. “It might be offering new products, pursuing different business ventures, expanding on how we support our current customers, or building better visions of taking care of our customers. It’s not necessarily a focus on size or rooftops. As long as we have that growth mindset and grow with intention and purpose, that’s where we want to excel. No one here wants to be mediocre in a bunch of things.”