MacKay & Company and MEMA recently hosted our 15th annual Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue in Grapevine, Texas.
This year’s event set records for attendance, and also provided a lot of good content, including some somewhat surprising and very frank comments from fleets on the level of service they are receiving from dealers and distributors.
The conference has a fleet panel every year that probes fleets about their parts and service practices and what is working and what is not. There have been less than happy comments from the fleets in past years about their component suppliers and the dealers and distributors they do business with, but it is usually balanced with more positive reviews.
This year, from my perspective, the comments were not balanced. Fleets on the panel were not happy with the support (or lack of) they were getting from their preferred distribution networks.
To be fair, there were four fleet representatives on the panel, so this is not a statistically tight study on the topic (if you want that on any topic, contact me).
One fleet complained about not being able to get a part from the dealer for several months, only to find the same exact part online, “available now,” for significantly less. Another fleet complained about having fairly new trucks down and being told parts needed to fix situation will not be available for weeks. “We just bought these trucks; we are paying on them and we can’t use them, and we are getting no consideration from the dealer,” the fleet responder said.
One fleet complained about rising prices for some parts with little explanation, forcing them to look into buying directly from the parts manufacturer when possible.
One fleet stated, we hear, “We want a strategic partnership,” but it is more talk than an actual partnership.
[RELATED: Fleets sound off on biggest pain points during HD Aftermarket Dialogue]
It seemed like the largest complaints related to transparency — and a lot of that around tariffs. Granted, not an easy topic to negotiate for any step in distribution.
The inability of dealers and distributors to answer fleets’ questions on how much of the price for this part is tariffs — as in this comment: “We can’t get anything, at all, from any of our suppliers. They’re charging us for it (tariff), so somehow, they’re getting the number. How come they can’t actually give us the number when we're asking for it?”
The recent decision by the Supreme Court on tariffs is likely to make things even more confusing, but it is not going away — so my advice is to take it head-on with your customers. Don’t wait for customers to ask questions like, “When do I get my refund? What does this mean for pricing going forward?”
We would assume for most suppliers, dealers and distributors, there is not a clear answer today for these questions. It may take a while to figure out the answer, and that answer will probably change over time.
Maybe you provide all your customers with a monthly, or more frequent, update on the answer to these and other questions based on what you know today. Pick a specific day (first Monday of the month, for example).
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If you have an answer, provide it, even if it is not good news, provide the reasons why. Be transparent.
Most people, not all, are aware of the issues and confusion related to tariffs. That doesn’t mean all customers will be rational, but most should be empathetic to the issue if you are transparent.
The supply channel issues of a couple years ago forced fleets to try new (to them) parts suppliers and brands of parts. In many cases, fleets determined there were a number of good options they had not considered before until forced to.
And now, it does not have to be supply chain issues for a fleet to make a change. How can you prevent this change?
