Meritor on Tuesday at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) in Las Vegas unveiled its new, more complete product portfolio with distinct aftermarket brands that include multiple price points designed to meet customer requirements regardless of the vehicle lifecycle stage.
“Meritor’s comprehensive portfolio delivers the right parts, performance and price for each life stage of trucks, trailers and buses, offering quality products to lower fleets’ total cost of operation,” says Brett Penzkofer, vice president, Aftermarket, North America. “Parts available through our family of brands are backed by industry-leading Meritor warranties and complete product support to match any performance or cost objective.”
To help customers choose the parts that are right for them, the brands are segmented into good, better and best price and performance tiers:
- In the Good tier, the Mach parts brand are built for customers seeking high-value, delivering quality all-makes parts that improve uptime at affordable prices.
- The Better tier’s Meritor, Euclid and Meritor Reman brands offer top-quality aftermarket parts at more affordable prices: The Meritor brand’s high-quality parts are designed and engineered to exacting OEM specifications; Euclid, a trusted brand for more than 75 years, delivers high-quality aftermarket parts designed and engineered for all vehicles; and Meritor Reman offers high-quality remanufactured Genuine and aftermarket parts.
- The Best tier’s Meritor Genuine brand is designed for newer vehicles still under warranty or for customers who want to maintain original performance and maximize uptime with OEM production parts.
With this launch, Meritor claims it is one of the few suppliers that manufactures or approves for sale lifecycle aftermarket parts that include support and availability. Unlike many low-cost suppliers, Meritor doesn’t sacrifice quality for price. All Meritor Aftermarket parts brands are Meritor engineering-approved to meet the right performance specs at the right price points throughout the entire lifecycle journey. Products in each distinct brand are validated to meet or exceed relevant industry standards for safety, reliability and durability.
“Today’s truck operators strive to maximize life and uptime from their current fleets of trucks and trailers, and they’re focusing on delivery, speed, availability of quality parts and overall operating costs,” Penzkofer says. “With our new brand structure, we’re offering high-quality parts across the board at better prices with the convenience of one-stop shopping to help our customers save time.”
Meritor also announced Tuesday it has enhanced its dedicated driveline website and teased its 2018 regional training schedule for the aftermarket.
The company says its driveline website has been expanded to offer customers more comprehensive aftermarket driveline information, including the new “Best Line. Bottom Line.” driveline interactive product comparison.
Site enhancements include an interactive PDF highlighting Meritor drivelines versus competitive offerings and Driveshaft on Demand program; addition of a complete section on Meritor center bearings, including design characteristics, performance advantages and cross-reference details; and a full section dedicated to Meritor aftermarket replacement driveline components focusing on popular replacement parts, competitive cross references, specification details as well as features and benefits overviews.
Finally, after training 750 customers last year, Meritor says it plans to expand its training commitment in 2018.
This year, Meritor says a substantial expansion of the program includes doubling the number of onsite training and regional events as well as expanding the number of participants. Additionally, more than 24 web-based distance learning classes will be offered. The amped-up training program is in synch with the company’s continued laser-focus to achieve complete customer satisfaction, the company says.
Each training event is tailored to key customer personnel, including outside sales representatives, parts counter staff, service managers, shop supervisors and service technicians. Topics include major vehicle systems, inspection, diagnosis, preventive maintenance, federal mandates and more.
Regional training venues for 2018 will include: Dallas; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Moncton, Neb.; Pittsburgh; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Louis; Winnipeg, Manitoba.
