The U.S. commercial vehicle aftermarket is $53.1 billion dollars, according to Dave Fulghum, vice president, MacKay & Co. This figure includes, light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks as well as construction and agricultural equipment.
Speaking before distributors at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week, Fulghum talked about the size of the aftermarket, where service work is being performed and where parts are purchased.
In 2006, truck dealers captured 43 percent of aftermarket parts sales, while heavy-duty distributors took 26 percent and independent garages, 13 percent.
According to Fulghum, dealers are not growing their parts and service business, distributors are losing share points and independent garages have more than doubled their share of the business in the last 10 years.
When looking at who specifies the brand of part purchased, he found that more often than not, the truck dealer decides whose brand goes on the truck. Less than a quarter of customers who purchase parts from distributors specify brand, and 11 percent of customers specify brand when purchasing from a repair garage.
The service labor market, according to MacKay, was 484 million labor hours in 2007. Thirty eight percent of that was in preventive maintenance and another 22 percent was in paint and body work. According to Fulghum, fleets are looking to outsource more of their service work. Sixty four percent of survey respondents indicated they would like to outsource their engine overhauls, for example. Some of the reasons cited for the desire to outsource more work include lack of capacity, cost and the technician shortage.
Stu MacKay, president of MacKay and Co., talked next about the opportunities available for distributors in the aftermarket. According to MacKay, there are 27 million Class 8 vehicles in use, 1.7 million Class 6 and 7 trucks and 3.6 million trailers. This translates into a $15.6 billion aftermarket at the retail level.
