As usual, this year’s Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week, held Jan. 21-24 in Las Vegas, offered some valuable insight into the U.S. economy, trucking industry trends and more. Of particular interest was the Fleet Panel Discussion during the Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialog, which preceded the event’s trade show.

The fleet representatives taking part in the panel discussion included Roy Svehla, senior manager of fleet maintenance for Republic Services Inc., the second largest refuse company in the U.S.; Jon Cain, maintenance manager for Las Vegas-based Ahern Rentals, which delivers rental equipment in 30 different states; and Paul Higgins, director of fleet maintenance for Prime Inc. Higgins also is a member of the equipment purchasing team for tractors, trailers and refrigeration units at Prime, which operates 500 trucks with refrigerated trailers and food grade tankers.

The panelists were in agreement when it came to one issue of sourcing parts—they all said they would rather pay more for quality.

“The value of the piece I purchase is offset by how long it lasts and how it performs,” Cain said. “We don’t look for the most expensive part, we look for ones that have the best quality. If we know it’s going to last, we will pay a premium.”

Higgins noted it’s important to recognize upfront price vs. total cost of ownership. Through the use of technology, including VMRS coding, Prime is able to track parts that need replacement before their warranted life.

“Look for (VMRS coding) to be the next big thing in helping truckers analyze true lifecycles,” he noted.
“We’re willing to pay more upfront for a product as long as we see the increase on the residual side, so we have a better net cost of ownership,” Higgins said, noting that some comparisons are more difficult to make than others. “We’ve spec’d stainless rear frames on our trailers for a long time, because our image is important to us. We like having new equipment for our drivers and for our customers. I’ve not seen painted-steel frames look good for very long after the trailer is in service.”

Another product Prime considers worth the premium acquisition price is LED lighting. “We love the ‘no maintenance’ life of those lights. We don’t want to see the trailer in our shops for light work, and we sure don’t want our drivers having lights repaired on the road.”

When purchasing equipment, Prime aims to spec parts that will last the vehicle’s lifecycle, “so we don’t have to replace during our ownership,” Higgins noted. These include long-life brake chambers, stainless rear trailer frames, LED lights and extended-warranty wheel ends.

One area in which the fleet saves money—finding that lower cost aftermarket parts perform just as well as OE—is replacement “crash parts.” Higgins said, “Quality-wise, they are just as good as the OE parts—sometimes even better—and the prices are definitely better. We’ll never scrimp on safety-related items, but there are many alternatives out there that are worth looking at.”

When evaluating total lifecycle costs of both OE and replacement parts, downtime for repairs is a huge cost to factor in. To minimize downtime at Prime, Higgins said the fleet has taken control of its repairs at outside shops, simply not allowing its trucks to sit.

“We meet weekly with our truck OEMs and discuss all trucks in shops, and we measure days of downtime,” he said. “We bought three wreckers and we’re not afraid to go get our equipment if we feel the repair is outside the capabilities of a shop on the road. 

“We feel really good about our local dealers’ shops, so bringing a truck home is often the quickest and least costly answer,” Higgins added. “These days, equipment down means our driver isn’t making money, and that means he’s looking for another job. Just like we all have to provide for our families, we want to treat our drivers the way we’d want to be treated.”