ATHENS, Ga., March, 2005 - Carrier Transicold Pennsylvania-East was named 2004 Dealer of the Year and two dealerships received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement awards at Carrier Transicold’s annual Truck, Trailer and Rail dealer meeting held recently in Cancun, Mexico.

    The Dealer of the Year award recognizes one dealer from Carrier Transicold’s extensive network using criteria identified in its Next Level dealer performance program. Next Level includes measurements for overall achievement and customer satisfaction.

    "The Dealer of the Year must receive a perfect score in the Next Level program, a very rigorous test," said Tom Ondo, general manager, Truck/Trailer/Rail Americas.

    Based in Philadelphia, Carrier Transicold Pennsylvania-East was formed in 1997 as a unit of Penn Detroit Diesel Allison (Penn DDA), and serves customers in eastern Pennsylvania from Philadelphia up to Reading and west to Harrisburg, as well as southern New Jersey.

    "We are on cloud nine," said Jerry Tiffan, president of Penn DDA. "The company is very excited about this recognition. We have great people who worked very, very hard to achieve this. It’s been a real team effort."

    With strong representation at the dealer meeting from Latin America dealers, Transicold recognized Refritrans, S.A. of San Pedro Sula, Honduras as its Top Performing Latin America Truck dealer, and Frio Servicio de Monterrey S.A. de C.V., Monterrey, Mexico as the Top Performing Latin America Trailer dealer. Additionally, Transicold recognized two members of its North American dealer network with Lifetime Achievement awards. Honored were Larry Kratzke, president of Larry's Trailer Sales and Service in Wichita, Kan., and Larry Fleming, president of Eskimo Refrigeration in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

    "We’ve reached some significant milestones with our dealer organization this year," said Ondo. "These firms are the oldest family-owned dealerships within our system. Eskimo Refrigeration has been a Transicold dealer for half a century, and Larry’s Trailer Sales and Service joined forces with Transicold in 1964."

    Transicold also recognized 31 other dealers for sales performance, significant investments in facilities and achievement of business objectives. The meeting brought together 73 dealerships from Canada to Latin America to celebrate individual and combined successes while learning about the next generation of product innovation.

    Carrier Transicold provides industry-leading transport temperature-control solutions with a complete line of equipment for refrigerated trucks, trailers and rail cars. Carrier Transicold is part of Carrier Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems and equipment. Carrier is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX), provider of a broad range of high-technology products and support services to the aerospace and building systems industries.