There are 1001 reasons why fleet managers buy a particular part based on its price, according to Bruce Plaxton, president of BGP Marketing. He chose to focus on four of these reasons-product, vehicle age, fleet size and operational situation-as he moderated a panel comprised of top maintenance executives from four fleets.
There are two categories of parts, predictive and non-predictive. Plaxton contends that the more predictive the part, the more price sensitive the fleet is. With items like filters, coolant, oil and brake shoes, the price of the product is a major determinant for where fleets buy.
Most fleets keep their trailers for seven to nine years, and the parts-buying decisions they make when the trailer is four years old are different than the ones they make when the trailer is eight years old.
Plaxton believes that the larger the fleet the more the fleet manager understands the cost of downtime and its influence on the real cost of a product.
When describing the role price plays depending on the operational situation, Plaxton used the example of a vehicle carrying frozen pizza through the desert in August when the condenser goes out. “Is price an issue,” Plaxton asked?
If the part is a non-predictive part, availability is the key to where fleets buy. “The person with the part on the shelf will get the sale,” he said.
Plaxton next used a real world example of how situation influences a vehicle repair. He said that two vehicles from the same fleet came into a truck stop each with a failed air conditioning system. One of the vehicles was heading east, the other south. The fleet manager made two different decisions. For the truck that was heading east, it authorized a $1300 repair, for the one heading south, the manager authorized a patch so the vehicle could get to a fleet maintenance facility a few hundred miles away.
