HIGH POINT, N.C. — Thomas Built Buses recently recognized Kerlin Bus Sales and Leasing of Silver Lake, Ind., with its 2008 national Dealer of the Year Award.

Thomas Built’s Dealer of the Year awards, which include four regional winners and one national winner, are presented each year to Thomas Built bus dealers that show outstanding performance in customer satisfaction, customer service and support, financial strength and overall relationship with Thomas Built Buses.

Kerlin sold its first Thomas Built bus in 1963. The company offers an extensive network of affiliated service centers throughout Indiana and an in-house automated sales management tool for customer follow-up, which results in consistently high industry service rankings and long-term relationships with customers.

The 2008 national Dealer of the Year was chosen from among the top-performing dealers in Thomas Built's four regions. Regional Dealers of the Year were:

• Quality Bus Sales of Maybrook, N.Y. (Northeast region)

• Carolina Thomas of Greensboro, N.C. (Southeast region)

• Kerlin Bus Sales and Leasing (Central region)

• Warner Industries of Regina, Saskatchewan (Western region) Thomas Built President and CEO John O'Leary presented the awards at the annual Thomas dealer meeting in Winston-Salem, N.C., in October.

  "Thomas Built Buses is fortunate to have a loyal dealer organization with more than 800 years of combined bus industry experience," O'Leary said. "Since joining the Thomas dealer family more than 45 years ago, Kerlin Bus Sales and Leasing has been a consistently high performer and a model for excellent customer service."

  Gold, silver and bronze awards for dealership excellence also were presented to selected dealers to honor outstanding performance in service, parts support and bus sales.