In this roundup we talk value lines and private label parts and their continued acceptance in the commercial vehicle sector. We produced a three-part research series on the project, complete with an audience survey, focused on how adoption of value lines are rising, the categories where they are earning the most sales and ponder how their continued adoption could change the parts space. We also cover (mostly) good news for used trucks, another dip in truck tonnage and Cummins’ announcement last week that it will pass through non-conformance penalties (NCP) to customers with model year 2027 engines. Then we close with MEMA’s Pulse webinar featuring KPMG that offered global market predictions.
Lucas: Hey, everyone. Lucas here for today’s TPS weekly news roundup. I’m back in the office, got a lot of stuff to cover. Let’s go ahead and get started.
I’m going to begin with value lines and private label parts. I did a big research package over the summer that published this week on the growing acceptance of value line and private label products across the parts space. The first story — all three stories published on Tuesday — the first story was kind of a level set. Where are we? How is adoption growing? Second story: where is it growing the most? Which categories are [where] these products the most successful? The third story was kind of looking at where are we going in the future? How are vendors going to continue to support these lines? How are distributors going to support these lines? How is customer adoption going to change? Check those stories out.
We did a survey across our TPS audience. We talked to vendors, we talked to suppliers, we talked to dealers and distributors about these product lines. Do you sell them? Why do you sell them? Where do you have success? If you don’t sell them, why don’t you sell them? What do you expect for the future? So, some really good insight there on value line and private label parts. Not everybody sells them, not everybody wants to sell them, not every customer buys them, but there is an increasing number of customers who are buying them and there also are an increasing level of vendors and distributors that are selling them because they’re seeing those customers. So, if you’re chasing those customers — or you’re not chasing those customers — some good insights on how to follow the market as it moves forward.
Some other quick monthly updates. J.D. Power used truck Guidelines for August were released this week. J.D. Power saying pricing was steady to up across three channels. There is an expectation that we’re going to see an influx in trucks into the used truck space beginning in Q4 and rolling into 2027 as new truck deliveries start to really hit the market in the fourth quarter of the year. So, we have to be prepared there in the used truck space for some downward pressure on pricing as we see a surplus of vehicles.
ATA tonnage was down in August half a percentage point. That’s the fourth time in five months the tonnage has been down. ATA saying, as I think we all know, capacity is really driving the freight turnaround this year. We are not seeing an increase in loads or volumes, but there’s fewer drivers available and that’s driving rates higher.
Cummins spoke, a Cummins’ executive spoke at a Morgan Stanley conference last week and he mentioned that Cummins intent is pay the non-conformance penalties for their EPA 2027 engines that are not going to be ready on Jan. 1, and they will be passing through those costs through the dealer channel to their customers.
[On that note], I’m in the process of working on a story, talking to all the engine OEMs and all the manufacturers about how do you intend to manage 2027? Will you have compliant engines or not? Cummins basically just coming out and saying last week, look, they’re not going to be compliant in 2027 on Jan. 1. We’re going to pass those costs through. So, you can check that story out pretty interesting candor there from Cummins.
And then, MEMA and KPMG had a webinar this week. MEMA bringing in the KPMG team to talk about 2027-2028 market predictions.
Everything I covered today available on the website. You can check all those stories out. They’re available below if you look at the links below here. Be sure to like and subscribe to these videos so you get them each month. Be sure to like and subscribe to the newsletter so you get it each week. Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week. Thanks everybody. Bye.
