The new subscription-based service, introduced Wednesday at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) in Grapevine, Texas, has been designed to provide parts distributors and service providers a comprehensive, one-site solution for identifying and cross-referencing parts. Designed to help distributors operate at higher margins, identify frozen inventory and run a more efficient business, Diesel Laptops Founder and CEO Tyler Robertson says Truck Parts Premium was a logical expansion for Diesel Laptops after the success of its Truck Parts Cross free parts reference tool that was launched in 2018.
“The main thing here at Diesel Laptops is our customers [and] listening to what they have to say,” he says. “They told us ‘we want to increase margins, save money and ultimately operate more efficiently.’ We worked with them on what tools they’d need to do that and Truck Parts Premium is the culmination of that effort.”
Robertson says the new cloud-based tool offers four significant advantages for inventory management over conventional methods:
- Mass cross: The ability to quickly reference thousands of parts numbers to identify more cost-effective solutions.
- Inventory analysis: Users can upload their inventory file and receive a report detailing duplicate inventory and more.
- Manufacturer compare: Quickly identify which parts are identical or unique between parts manufacturers and OEMs.
- Mass VMRS: Users can code their entire inventory with a new standard in VMRS coding, eliminating human error in service writing.
Diesel Laptops says Truck Parts Premium is available now via monthly or yearly subscriptions. Prices are tiered so dealers, distributors or service shops purchasing more than one license pay less for secondary licenses, and enterprise pricing is available for companies that purchase more than 20 licenses.
During an initial run of the inventory analysis software for a small dealer in the Midwest, Diesel Laptops says Truck Parts Premium was able to find 2 percent overlapping inventory, which accounted for nearly $13,000 in duplicate parts savings.
Robertson hopes Truck Parts Premium will be a useful tool of defense for an independent aftermarket that is under attack by the OEM community and online retailers.
“Eventually Amazon is going to come after them,” he says. “We are trying to create tool to provide independents the ability to go against the bigger guys … The independent channel needs to be providing value to their end users.”
He adds that Diesel Laptops is able to use its massive parts database and talented in-house experts to make tools “that will benefit thousands of customers and the industry as a whole.”
