Meeting our industry’s best: A quick look at 2018 DOTY finalist DeCarolis Heavy Duty Parts

Two weeks ago Truck Parts & Service released its finalists for the 17th annual Distributor of the Year award. All of the finalists this year were again selected through open industry nominations, and over the next several months, we will be regularly featuring each business on this website and on the pages of Truck Parts & Service.

Those features begin this week as we check in with 2018 Distributor of the Year finalist DeCarolis Heavy Duty Parts.

This is the first nomination for DeCarolis Heavy Duty Parts  for the Distributor of the Year award. The answers below were provided by DeCarolis General Manager Greg Rawleigh. 

When was your business founded, and by whom?

In 1938, Louis DeCarolis, Sr., bought a truck and used it to transport migrant workers to and from farmers’ fields. It did not take long for Clapp’s Baby Food to ask him to haul produce to their processing plant. Out of these modest beginnings, he created a small carting company in 1938, known as DeCarolis Trucking Company, and set in place a plan to add other transportation resources.

How many locations do you have? (Please list the cities)

Nine locations in New York: Three in Rochester, one in Henrietta, Buffalo, Syracuse, Elmira, Binghamton and Geneva.

How many employees do you have?

164

What is your company’s value proposition?

DeCarolis Heavy Duty Parts has an advantage over other suppliers. We have the opportunity and the obligation to field test the parts that we supply to our customers on our own fleet.

• We are locally owned and involved in the community.
• We want to be perceived as dependable, professional and the one-stop, first-call for any customer that needs our products and services.
• We prefer to sell quality products over price-driven products. We prefer to carry American-made goods when possible. We prefer to carry industry names that are trusted and provide the partnership and support to DeCarolis that enable growth and loyalty.
• We desire to have the products in stock that our customers need and to be able to source products quickly when necessary.
• We provide a logistics network to our customers and service branches that allows for timely delivery to all geographies served by DeCarolis.
• DeCarolis produces informational flyers, special sheets and offers comprehensive educational seminars on a regular basis.

Do you offer any additional services to complement your parts offering?

We have a customer training room and provide flywheel turning, hydraulic hose assemblies, DPF cleaning, onsite parts management, parts consignment, liftgate installation and aerodynamic device installation.

How do you differentiate your business from your competitors?

We are a partner with our customers and bring them value through every interaction from the initial order to delivery. We strive to have parts available when customers need them. We use practices that help us learn about our customers business, vehicles and staffing in order to help predict what parts will be needed.

Why do you believe the heavy-duty aftermarket has nominated you for this award?

We believe we were nominated based on our strong reputation and a team of employees who are dedicated to a high-level of customer service. Our management team has a combined 145 years of experience in the industry with a focus on building long-term customer and vendor relationships.