Finding the right part is about to get radically easier. Here’ s what’ s coming, and what stays the same.
INDUSTRYINSIGHTS
The Future of How Parts Are Bought
Finding the right part is about to get radically easier. Here’ s what’ s coming, and what stays the same.
By: Johnathan Aguero | Blackpurl
With contributions from Scott Frey, Director of Retail Excellence, Novae; Shane Thompson, President, Action Trailers; Ronnie Enns, CEO, Happy Trailers; Josh Motley, CEO, Great West Trailer and Truck; Carson Nixon-Richardson, Vice President of Sales, The Trailer Guys; and Chad Hesse, Vice President of Distribution, Novae broken component, the software checks it against his build sheet, and the part is on the special order shelf by seven tomorrow.
Move twenty-five years out. The trailer flags its own failing bearing weeks before anyone could hear it and messages the customer about service. The dealer still helps him make the call that matters: repair, replace, or move up to the heavier axle he has needed for two seasons.
Three counters, three decades, one question that keeps getting easier to answer. Which part do I need, and how fast can I have it?
Where We Are Now
Today it is harder than it should be. Finding the part is harder than selling it. Josh Motley envisions more integration with parts manufacturers so all of the parts information can be accessed from one location. That is the reality dealers are working toward.
Two customers, same Tuesday, same counter. The first texts you a VIN at 7:40 in the morning. Your parts guy finds the hub kit in four minutes, sends a payment link, and the box is on the will-call shelf before the truck pulls in. The second walks in after lunch with a part number on a napkin and says he thinks it fits. Maybe.
That is not a thought experiment. It is a normal Tuesday at Action Trailers.‘ Both happen in the same day,’ says Shane Thompson.‘ Sometimes it really does feel like we’ re operating in two different decades.’
Move five years out. Nobody writes on a napkin. The customer photographs the
Scott Frey puts the customer’ s version in one line:‘ Nobody wants to make five stops just to finish one job.’ Dealers are investing in systems and data. As Chad Hesse sees it:‘ The seller who owns the best data, not the biggest website, wins.’
The Near-Term Future
Identification gets fast. Thompson expects AI and catalog integration to collapse the time it takes to name a part because‘ customers will expect instant answers, real-time inventory, and accurate pricing.’ Stocking gets educated and data-informed.‘ Too many dealers still stock based on habit instead of what’ s actually selling,’ Frey says.
Neither happens until the industry addresses a challenge it has lived with for decades.‘ There’ s not a part numbering system that’ s generally accepted industry-wide that guarantees we’ re all talking about the same part,’ says Ronnie Enns.
Frey points to short-term solutions. Dealers who do the work to build a real part number standard with their DMS partners will be‘ leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.’
‘ Local dealers will most likely lose on a pure price conversation,’ says Carson Nixon-Richardson. They compete on knowledge, convenience, and speed.‘ It’ s difficult to ship bulky trailer parts at competitive rates,’ Enns notes.
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