december2021 - 29

On one of her frequent visits to shops, specifically
to one in Northern Illinois, MacKay noticed
this was true.
" He gets four or five deliveries a day of parts that
other people can't get, " MacKay recalled. " Dealers
are calling him in order to fulfill their part needs. "
She asked, " How on earth are you able to do
this? " and he replied, " Relationships. I know where
to go. I know who to call. I have
people that can make this
happen for me. "
This is not all that common
in an industry with a lot of
turnover, MacKay explained,
which gives him an advantage.
" Because this guy has been
in his position for decades
and built relationships over
those years, he's able to reach
out and get what he needs, "
MacKay said.
She said the ability to build
and maintain relationships
" is definitely not something
that's going to show up on
the books or on an inventory
sheet, but it certainly plays an
influential role. "
While soft skills are important,
software may be more so.
Leveraging ecommerce platforms
can give parts customers
real-time visibility into
supplier inventory and allow
them to quickly find what they
need, though not enough allow
that, FullBay's Findlay said.
" Probably 80% of the parts
to get ordered don't require a
phone call into the distributor,
and yet they require a phone
call into the distributor to order
it anyway, " he explained. " They
could eliminate a ton of the
work there by just opening up
their platform to allow others
to connect into it to enable
ordering-and the first ones to
do it are going to get way more
business because they're adopting
the technology. "
Findlay suggested the
industry should rethink parts
fitment and " get more aggressive
at adopting ACES and PIES
standards for heavy-duty, so
that it doesn't require a human
and tribal knowledge to identify
a part. "
He thinks that could reduce
the amount of times a customer
requires human intervention
from the theoretical 20%
leftover from improved ecommerce
visibility to 5-10%.
That's currently out of the
control of shops, but Findlay
said what they can do immediately
is expand their vendor
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December 2021 | FleetMaintenance.com
29
list and think outside of their comfort zone.
These include local commercial shops, competing
fleets, or independent shops, non-local vendors,
online sources such as Amazon or Craigslist, or
even salvage yards.
" Do you go get some old trucks that match pretty
much what you already have in your fleet and just
park them for parts? " Findlay asked.
He admitted these are " non-sexy, not super
exciting suggestions, but very pragmatic. "
They're also a little better than stripping your
own trucks for parts, considering they will be
much harder to come by for the next few years.
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