Fleets: Aftermarket parts have staying power, no plans for pre-buy

Updated Jan 23, 2025
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Fleet representatives took the stage at the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue, presented by MacKay & Company and MEMA, in Grapevine, Texas, on Monday to tell suppliers and distributors to get back out there. 

"You have to have an open dialogue," says Nick Forte, vice president of maintenance for Stevens Transport and Paragon Leasing. His fleet runs 2,400 trucks and 4,000 trailers. "Get your sales force back in front of your customers. You're not going to win anything if you don't do that." 

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The panel says the face-to-face meetings that stopped with COVID need to return. 

Amanda Schuier, who says she's living the small-fleet life at Jetco Delivery with 150 power units and around 250 trailers, called for open and honest communication. "From our side, we can say we'll do our best to communicate back," she says. "We can do better, too." 

One of the things the fleets want to talk about is the quality of parts. Even though supply difficulties seem to have resolved, the quality of parts looks to have suffered since the pandemic. 

"We've got to change that," Forte says. "It's really keeping me up at night." 

Joe Phillips is the vice president of fleet maintenance and equipment at Eagle Transport. He has more than 500 power units and 700 trailers. He says part of the friction between fleets and suppliers and distributors is the rise in cost compared with the lack of quality. 

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Schuier says it's been weeks since anyone called on their shop at Jetco and asked for more information, training and visits. "We don't want random LinkedIn messages with sales spam." 

All three panel members showed support for aftermarket parts, saying they sourced from both OE and aftermarket sources. Forte says he prefers aftermarket parts unless there's a good reason to go with OE parts. 

"I can get quality, better products," he says. 

All three also said they've recently done work on fleet utilization to manage capacity and none of them have any plans for a pre-buy before 2027 emissions regulations kick in. 

"It's not really advantageous on our pre-buy," he says. 

Phillips says his company hasn't quite recovered from missteps in the last pre-buy. At that time, the company took new technology en masse and the technicians didn't yet have the ability to service it. Any trucks they do buy will be diesel powered, Philips said. As his company runs in the petroleum and chemical industries, Phillips says his customers "are not EV friendly." 

While none of the other fleets are planning to buy alternative fuel trucks, either, Forte's fleet is looking at upgrading auxiliary power units from diesel to lithium ion units. 

"I look at us doing about 100-200 trucks this year," he says. "You're leveraging the aftermarket." 

The units provide enough juice for drivers to take a 12-14 hour break and still get creature comforts without adding weight, Forte says, making it a good deal for the company. 

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All three companies are also battling pricing concerns. With his larger fleet, Forte says he's considering bulk buys by the container to help cut costs. 

"I never feel like I'm getting a win for my boss with cost stuff," says Schuier, who is also chair of TMC. That includes technician hiring and pay. All three fleets have technician openings, and even fully staffed, look at outsourcing for some work. Phillips uses outside labor for areas where they don't have their own shops or because of the complexity of the job. In some instances, such as recalls, Eagle will call on mobile service to take care of several trucks at once. 

Forte said in the last six months, his fleet generated 2.7 million fault codes, and he uses outsourced labor to deal with a little more than half of that. He uses carefully vetted providers that range from mom-and-pop operations to dealers. 

"I'm going to do references," he says. "I'm going to call other people in the trucking industry and ask them. If I can't trust you, it's not going to work for either one of us." 

Forte also uses system connectivity to manage those millions of codes. His company uses AI to see trends in fault codes and part purchases. They identify parts needed using historic repair trends, and he says if he can network it and it has an API, count him in. That level of connectivity, the fleets said, streamlines operations and allows them to control costs. 

Connectivity is just one part of the communications picture, the panel says. All three fleets craved more support from suppliers and distributors. Without communication, Forte says, a wedge will grow between fleets and suppliers and distributors that's bad for business. 

"Let's get back to blocking and tackling," Forte told the audience. "Let's get back to Trucking 101." 

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