The average age of trucks has increased. While four to five years for the first life cycle was typically common pre-pandemic, a myriad of challenges have increased the average age of heavy-duty trucks, and we’re starting to see it in service data. Decisiv, a service relationship management platform provider, exclusively shared its Decisiv Service Transaction Activity Summary for the first quarter of this year. This is VMRS code level data that Decisiv processes—service work that actually happened at truck service centers across the country.
“The main areas that we noticed spikes and trends were around the frame-related operations as well as the exhaust operations,” Nick Pittinger, director of data services at Decisiv, noted as we talked through the latest data. “With regards to the frame, the reason that we found that interesting was there were spikes both in the quarter-over-quarter comparisons as well as the year-over-year changes for that particular system code.
“The second one that we found interesting was the 043 exhaust system code. For that one, we saw a decrease year over year of around 3,000 operations.”
The increasing age of trucks also poses challenges for service providers in managing their customer relationships. From the service dealer perspective, the truck owner base consists of both experienced truck owners who understand the operational costs and those who merely happen to own trucks without comprehensive knowledge of maintenance requirements. From a fleet manager perspective, whether you own and operate five trucks or five hundred trucks, visibility into the repair process and communication that allows you to understand the maintenance requirements can help alleviate uncertainties when it comes to unexpected repairs.
“Communication using Decisiv platform is key to that because you can be fully transparent with the customer so that when you give them an estimate, they can see what they get for that repair cost,” said Chip Mowrey, who has spent 38 years working in truck dealerships in a service capacity. “The other thing that’s a challenge is the technology of today’s vehicle. You’re trying to explain to someone that his estimate is $12,000 because his delta pressure sensor’s bad and he says, ‘I have one of those?'”
That’s just one example. Watch the video above to hear Pittinger’s analysis on the latest truck service trends and advice from Mowrey on how fleets can work with service providers to better understand service needs and get trucks back on the road as quickly as possible.
