Parts & Service Special
Buying Parts Online
The Internet is playing an ever-larger role in the choice, purchase and management of heavy-duty truck parts. Perhaps the best current example comes from Service Professionals Inc. of Rochester, N.Y., known as SPI.
The company is introducing a new system that makes it possible for individual fleets to shop for parts online, to search for parts in different ways and to see price comparisons – between aftermarket and OEM part versions, for example.
SPI provides custom databases, software and networks for parts and service referencing under the FleetCross brand name. According to company founder Jack Schickler, the company counts among its customers such entities as UPS, NAPA Heavy Duty, Ford and the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Schickler says SPI recently developed and implemented a new technology for a national truck leasing company. It has yet to be announced, so the company's name cannot be used. However, it is a company noted for its forward-looking tech applications.
That customer will use its own name for the system, which also will be made available to leasing customers. SPI will be marketing it as FleetCross TurboPrice, a name that echoes other FleetCross module names. For example, FleetCross TurboPart provides parts searching and cross-referencing. TurboDoc provides maintenance documentation and catalogs. TurboTime looks up OEM labor times for given functions.
All these functions include VMRS (Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standards) referencing.
TurboPrice takes another step in maintenance software evolution.
"It's a brand new thing," Schickler says. "What we've done is turn the whole process around."
Schickler explains that current users of FleetCross software are able to track their parts inventory, look up parts in various ways and see which part numbers are interchangeable or obsolete. Armed with a part number, they call a supplier and order the appropriate part.
"What we did (in this case) was say, wait a minute. What about the supplier community? What if they had the tool and all the fleet had to do was call in, say, the truck's VIN number? We've equipped the supplier community to look up on behalf of the fleet whatever numbers that fleet wants them to deal in – including their pricing," Schickler says.
The system works entirely over the Internet. Data – including VINs – for the fleet is maintained on a FleetCross server. So is inventory and pricing for that fleet's part suppliers. So the fleet will be able to look up parts and prices among the suppliers it does business with – OEM dealers and aftermarket suppliers alike.
"The fleet negotiates prices with various suppliers. A supplier gets to see only his price in that system. He doesn't see his competitor's prices. But the fleet sees everybody's prices," Schickler says.
According to Schickler, when a system user locates the correct part, he can see all available options, including compatible parts with different part numbers, from approved suppliers. In its promotional PowerPoint presentation, SPI shows an example of a clutch that is available from different vendors at between $455 and $645. The same presentation slide shows a remanufactured alternator priced from $180 to $322 and a fuel/water separator priced from $165 to $192.
Parts in the system are carefully described so the fleet knows the difference between options – for example, if a part is original or aftermarket, new or remanufactured.
"If you're a guy that doesn't know the difference, and you call up a brand new part number, you're going to get a brand new clutch whether you need it or not," Schickler says. "What this does is show you that you have a selection of prices and a selection of part numbers."
However, it's important to remember the system's current limitations. The parts and prices it shows are only those available through specific sources that have prior pricing agreements with the fleet user. It does not display parts from vendors outside the FleetCross system, or even vendors within the system that do not have such pricing agreements.
Further, the system is strictly limited to SPI customer fleets. A fleet cannot simply go to a web site and sign up. They must have their fleet data uploaded to a FleetCross server and be FleetCross subscribers. Thus it is likely of more value to large fleets with multiple locations than to smaller fleets.
Schickler says the system is up and functioning with its first fleet customer, which is expected to make a formal announcement soon. Meanwhile, he is targeting other major fleets and so is at least one OEM that has signed on.
John Bendel,
Technology Editor
Parts & Service continued...
