About Foster Coach Sales, Inc.

Celebrating 63 Years!

Foster Coach Sales, Inc. was founded in 1957 by Floyd E. Foster in Sterling, Illinois, selling funeral coaches and ambulances. It evolved into the business it has become today from years of hard work, honest and sincere feelings for the customer, quality products sold, and the best service available.

In 1995 a decision was made to discontinue the sales of the funeral coaches and limousines and concentrate on the core of our business, the sales and service of ambulances. This has proven to be a good decision as each year our sales of ambulances has increased. In tough economic times, we have grown 10% each of the last two years in sales. We currently sell 120 new ambulances a year and have increased our remount business by 100%. We now have two key technicians in our remount shop that are almost entirely dedicated to remounting previously enjoyed Ambulances to live on thru another chassis life.

In June of 1973, after graduating from Illinois State University, Steve Foster joined his father, primarily to sell ambulances, as Floyd thought trucks should deliver products, not people. Steve had an EMT license and had a feel for what the vehicles needed to have to perform to the needs of the EMT. Steve, now President of the company, handles sales in the Chicago Metro area. Floyd retired in 1985 and lived in Sterling to “keep an eye” on the business and be close to his family & friends. He passed away in November 2002 after about ten years of worsening health.

Andrew Foster has been representing Foster Coach Sales, Inc. in Western and Downstate Illinois and Iowa since January 2004. Andrew has a background in sales and brings a desire to continue the family business to Foster Coach, Inc.. Having grown up seeing the progress and successes of the company, Andrew has learned what customers expect from a Foster Coach, Inc. representative. Andrew is very enthusiastic in the continued growth of the business. Andrew and his family live in Sterling.

Shawn Foster joined Foster Coach Sales, Inc. in late 2009 working in the shop cleaning units, picking up new units, and delivering them to customers. In 2010 he put his art degree to work and started the Graphics Department at Foster Coach. Shawn has accepted the position as regional sales manager in Wisconsin and works with old and new customers in "Packer Land". He and his family live in Dixon, IL. Shawn became the last of the "Foster Children" to join the sales team.

Phillip Foster (PJ) joined Foster Coach Sales, Inc. in February of 2012. He has sales experience from his previous employment with a banking background to go with it. He also brings his enthusiasm and desire to build and be a partner in the family business. PJ and his family moved from Scottsdale, Arizona area to Dixon, Illinois.

Gary Picha joined Foster Coach Sales, Inc. in November 2012 in a sales support role. He brings with him nearly 20-years of experience as an EMT/Paramedic in Plainfield, IL and was previously employed for 10-years with 5 Alarm Fire & Safety as a Horton sales representative in IL and WI. More recently he served in a similar sales support role with a towing and recovery equipment distributor. Gary and his family are life-long residents of Plainfield, IL.

Bob Parks has recently joined Foster Coach Sales, Inc. Bob has been working in the EMS field since 1971, starting work for the family Superior Coach dealership in New England. Bob received his EMT certificate in 1973, worked as a volunteer for a small New Hampshire service, and grew to understand the needs of his customers. As the industry developed the family business decided to stop selling ambulances and to concentrate on the funeral side of the professional vehicle industry. In 1991 Bob moved to Goshen, Indiana to work for Medtec Ambulance and has since worked supporting dealers in sales and design of ambulances for Medtec, McCoy Miller and lately for Horton Emergency Vehicles. Bob will concentrate on sales to commercial accounts and specialize in the Medix product line. Bob and his wife Diana live in Boone, Iowa and but he travels most of the territory for Foster Coach filling in the voids as needed. He has been a friend of the Foster family for years and has a lot of the same history that Steve Foster has in the EMS field. We are proud to have Bob joins us as we continue to grow our market segment and customer relations. He is and will be a great asset to Foster Coach and their customers for years to come.

Pam Filippi is our office manager and brings with her over 30 years of accounting experience. Pam has dedicated herself to learning the many facets of our business. She performs title work, billing receivables and payables, as well as office operations.

The Foster Coach Sales, Inc. service department is the backbone of the company. Quality people with true concern for the customer and their needs, on call after hours, and constantly striving to deliver a better product. Ron McNinch is the parts and service manager and is the one who makes the shop tick. He has a Ford customer service representative background, and has been with the company since 1994. Ron also does inside sales on our used units and is our remount manager.

Doug Adams is also certified and has as close to a photographic memory as anyone we have known, especially when it comes to electrical problems! Doug has been with us since 1986 as our head electrician.

Dallas Greenwalt came to Foster Coach Sales, Inc. in 2006 and he brought with him 20 years of experience in the automotive industry. Dallas specializes in remount fabrication. He is also a certified Medtec, Horton, and Marque technician.

Dennis Day joined Foster Coach Sales, Inc. in 2010. Dennis has a background in customer service, sales, and repairs from previous employment. He brings a well rounded wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to his job at Foster Coach as a service technician and advisor. Dennis is a Certified Medtec, Horton, and Marque technician also.

Trevor Franque joined Foster Coach Sales, Inc. in 2010 on a part time after school basis. He worked his way thru the detail and delivery shop and the graphics department to a full time position in 2011. He worked alongside the senior technicians and now is working in the remount department. He is not afraid to tackle any job presented to him and will find out how to perform the task correctly. He brings a youthful vision to our shop and a base for our future.

Nathan Day followed his dad, Dennis, here to Foster Coach Sales, Inc. Starting much like Trevor in 2013, Nate has proved to be like his father. He is good worker with good work ethics and mechanical ability. He promptly moved up after a part time basis to full time employment. He is now in the remount department, as well as assisting the senior members of our staff. Another great hire and building block for the future.

Joe Henson was hired in 2014 as he worked for local body builder for road equipment trucks. He is one of our remount specialists and brought a wealth of knowledge with him. He is a certified technician as well. He has been a great asset to our great group of technicians.

Howard Mills retired from our local Ford dealer as Service and Warranty Manager and agreed to work for us on a part time basis in 2012 to keep busy. He brings years of automotive experience to the table, as his family owned and operated a Ford dealership for many years in Morrison. His knowledge of vehicles is vast and his character is superb working with customers.

Jalen Ellis hired in June 2019 and works the detail department and is dedicated in delivering a clean, fully fueled, waxed and polished unit that your community can be proud of. Jalen's experience with automotive detail along with additional automotive background makes him a very versatile asset to the team at Foster Coach.

Larri Dirks, a retired paramedic at our local hospital, works here as well. His eye for detail and inspection from the customer side also contributes a lot to the final process. They all take pride in their work and complete the satisfying experience of your purchase from Foster Coach Sales.

Jim Dewey joined Foster Coach in 2015. Jim worked the prior 20 years in his family’s business restoring antique automobiles. Jim’s background of customer service and running the day to day business is part of his qualifications for our detail/final inspection area. His experience with paint, body work, and fabrication makes him very versatile team member to our operation. With his keen eye for quality and detail, he is one of the guys that give the units the final blessing for delivery.

Our driving and delivery guys, Don Lester and Ed Bartel have logged over 2 million accident free miles and provide safe and courteous outreach from the office to the customers. Both men are retired police officers and have been with us for many years and keep us all in line when they are not driving.

Rock River Auto Body, Inc. a jointly owned company of Steve Foster, employs four highly skilled technicians that specialize in aluminum and paint repairs. With a combined over 50 years of experience, the work put out of their new state of the art facility makes new units out of old ones. They specialize in complete repaints and remounts as well as body damage to the ambulance.

Manager Dave Seyller, the foundation of our body shop, has been with Rock River since 1985, right out of high school.

Jerry Billings, has been in the body paint and repair and shop management business since 1982, bringing a wealth of experience to our shop.

Steve Fassler joined our body shop and rounds out our crew. He joined us in 2012 and brings fleet work experience to the mix and is a quick and eager learner.

Jacob Schutt started work at Rock River January 2016 and has filled in nicely with our technicians. He has learned the way we do things quickly and efficiently.

Once again this group helps make us a complete facility for ambulance sales, repairs, and service.

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OUR MISSION
To provide each and every community we serve the best QUALITY ambulance possible for the dollar spent and THE BEST SERVICE in the industry.

OUR MOTTO
Sales sells the first unit, service sells the rest of them.

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