TORQUE salutes Purcher International parts manager Dave Ward this week for notching 25 years with the Geraldton branch.
But the real story is Dave's unbroken 42-year link with International Harvester, in a career that started in 1977 with the then International Harvester factory at O'Connor where he started as a storeman.
Having spent five years learning the proverbial ropes, Dave moved to Amcap involving himself in automotive and truck parts for 12 years before the lure of agriculture saw him sign up with Purcher - a Case IH dealership steeped in International Harvester history.
With such a bank of product knowledge, Dave has naturally earned accolades from customers for his service-orientated approach to provide solutions to problems.
"There's a lot of satisfaction in helping out people," he said.
"Though you have to be on your toes.
"There have been a lot of changes since the 1990s with more models and more product variations that you have to keep up to speed with but that's also part of the job.
"My vision is to maintain the best possible service to customers that complements our sales and service staff, so us parts guys are just a part of the team."
Torque also knows that parts staff - apart from overseeing arguably the most important aspect of a dealership (sorry sales and service guys) - have to be almost born diplomats.
"Yeah, you've got to take the good with the bad," Dave said.
"Customers can be very stressful sometimes and, of course, their expectancy is that all parts are on the shelf.
"We hold a lot of parts and particularly during harvest and seeding, we pretty much stock what is needed.
"But there's always a part that flies under the radar and it can take time to source it.
"Generally customers appreciate that, knowing that we're trying our best to ensure they get what they want as quickly as possible."
Torque also knows the sensitivity of being diplomatic, so here's a special Torque gong to all hard-working dealership staff, wherever you are and whatever you're doing this week.