Readers share how they search for parts. Market outlooks from FTR, Frost & Sullivan, OEMs on DEF rule changes and more struggles for First Brands

Lucas: Hey everybody. Lucas here for the TPS Weekly News Roundup. A lot of stuff happening this week. Let’s go ahead and get started.

I’ll begin with our parts lookup survey, which we conducted in March. We asked on the website, what is the first resource you go to when searching for part numbers? We had nearly 300 responders. Really interesting. [I] was really curious to see how people are finding parts. How are parts distributor, how are dealers finding parts when they need something they don’t have in stock or they don’t immediately know? Some good insights there: 40% of responders saying they go to supplier websites, 39% saying they go [to Google] the other 21% for some other tools. But really no consensus there and some really good insights from our audience about, if it’s a component in this area, maybe we go to this site. If it’s a component in this area, we go here. So, check that story out. Real cool just to really understand how people look for parts and that sometimes there’s no perfect answer. You kind of have to find your way forward.

Also we had a story this week our Mapping the Market report, which is a quarterly report I do that takes data from RigDig, which is a sister company of Trucks, Parts, Service within the Fusable umbrella and looks at changes in U.S. fleet demographics and fleet population quarter over quarter. Some interesting insights there. We lost about 15,000 active carriers in Q1, which sounds terrifying, but we only lost 1,976 verified vehicles, and we actually gained 4,500 trailers. So, it appears owner-operators may be giving up their authority and choosing to go work for larger motor carriers. Some good insights there about which states did the best and which states really struggled in Q1. Check that story out.

Also we had two webinars this week, one from MEMA with the team from Frost & Sullivan talking about the aftermarket and expectations for 2026. Frost & Sullivan expecting the aftermarket to be stronger in 2026, both in North America and globally. So, check that story out.

The FTR webinar was their [monthly] State of Freight. They really talked about how dropping greenhouse gas (GHG) Phase 3 regulations due to revoking of the Endangerment Finding and then unconstitutional ruling regarding the IEEPA tariffs has really opened the floodgates for Class 8 orders, and they talked about the likelihood that continues. The FTR team saying that the initial investment in orders was pent-up replacement demand, but we’ve kind of moved beyond that now. Now the orders we’re seeing are really carriers adding capacity. Will that continue into the spring and into the summer? We don’t know yet but FTR has some good insights there so check that story out.

Then lastly, First Brands, the ongoing First Brands saga. An Ohio aftermarket company, NOCO, reached out and stepped up and said they wanted to get involved, they wanted to try to purchase some aftermarket brands from First Brands. They levied a complaint in court saying they didn’t have the opportunity to bid on some of the brands, but they on Thursday revoked that and said they are going to decline to make a bid on those brands. So all of First Brands products that were going be sold to PGI, which we announced this week, that’s going to move forward. Also some of the cases around First Brands are being converted from a Chapter 11 to a Chapter 7 [bankruptcy], which means liquidation. 
So, some of those brands are going to be liquidated and sold off here in the months to come. Check that story out.

Still working on our award programs, still working on catching up with the news, a lot of great stuff happening. Check out the website. Be sure to like and subscribe to these videos. Be sure to get on our newsletters. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week. Thanks everybody. Bye.