September 9, 2024 • 37 mins
Episode 335: Technology is revolutionizing the heavy-duty parts industry, but how can it keep pace with the challenges of accurate parts identification? Join us as Joe Steward from Betts Truck Parts shares his experience of using modern tools, training, and exceptional customer service to bridge the knowledge gap left by retiring experts.
The stakes are high when it comes to parts identification errors, and the consequences can be severe for repair shops and fleets. In our That’s Not Heavy Duty segment, we see an example of what can happen when the wrong part is installed on a truck, resulting in months of downtime and thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Show Notes: Visit HeavyDutyPartsReport.com for complete show notes of this episode and to subscribe to all our content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jamie Irvine (00:00):
You're listening to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin, andthis is the place where we have
conversations that empowerheavy-duty people.
Welcome to the Heavy-Duty PartsReport.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin.
In this episode, we're going totalk about how things are
really changing when it comes toparts identification.
(00:22):
Later on in this episode, we'regoing to rerun a very popular
episode from 2024 where wetalked about parts
identification.
Now let's talk a little bitabout how technology is changing
parts identification Really.
At the end of the day, when youthink about the transition of
older ones with a lot ofexperience leaving the industry
(00:45):
because they're retiring, andyou think about how there are
less people right now who areavailable to take parts calls
and have that kind of what theycall tribal knowledge of how to
identify parts, there's a realproblem right now that,
technically, should be easilysolved by technology, and yet
(01:06):
parts identification is a stilla big issue.
If you run a repair shop andyou can't get the correct parts,
your customers are going tohave more downtime, or if you're
doing that on behalf of a fleet, they're going to have that
downtime.
This leads to frustration, butit also leads to a real economic
impact on that trucking company, whoever it is, because
(01:27):
downtime is so very expensive.
So in this interview we'regoing to talk to Joe Stewart,
who is the general manager atBetts Truck Parts, and he really
gives us some insights intosome of the challenges of
getting the correct parts tothose trucks and getting those
trucks back on the road.
When I think about a recentstudy that we saw that was put
(01:48):
out by McKay and Company, it'sunsurprising that there's a real
move towards e-commerce Now.
Still, the vast majority ofheavy-duty parts, according to
this study and in our ownexperience at the Heavy-Duty
Consulting Corporation, is thatpeople are still phoning in
orders.
Right, they're talking topeople on the parts counter, but
year over year we're seeing anincrease in parts being
(02:11):
purchased with e-commercewebsites and, unsurprisingly,
the fax, for example, hasstatistically gone to zero.
Not that no orders are orderedby fax, but it's such a small
number that on the macro datanationwide it registers as 0%.
So this shift has happenedslowly over a couple decades and
(02:33):
really I think, and what we seewhen we consult with our
clients is we are seeing thiscontinuous increase in the usage
of e-commerce to buy heavy dutyparts, and this is definitely
part of the solution.
But one of the things we see atthe Heavy-Duty Consulting
Corporation with our clients iseven if you invest heavily in a
great e-commerce site, youchoose the right platform, the
(02:56):
user experience is very good.
If you don't have the data toback up what you're selling on
that e-com site, it can causesignificant problems.
Now when we talk about data, wewant to talk about it in a
couple different terms.
There's PIES data, which that'san acronym P-I-E-S, and that
really is the standard forinformation related to the
(03:19):
dimensions of the product,specifications of the product,
but what the product actually is.
Then there's what's called ACESdata, a-c-e-s, which is a
standard for year make modellookup information.
Now we all know in theaftermarket and heavy duty, year
make model is very, verydifficult.
But additionally, if we don'thave the right information about
(03:43):
the part on the site and wedon't help our customers to make
the right buying decision, theycan inadvertently order the
wrong part.
If they do that, it creates allkinds of problems.
So we're going to take a quickbreak to hear from our awesome
sponsors.
When we get back we're going tolisten into our interview with
Betts Truck Parts, where theyreally talk through these issues
(04:04):
and how they've been dealingwith it, what they do to try to
ensure that their customers havea great experience and get the
parts they need, and they talk alot about the cost associated.
And later on in the episodewe're also going to give you an
example where something wentreally wrong because the wrong
parts were installed, and thelegal advice that was given to
(04:24):
this customer.
So we're going to take a quickbreak.
We'll be right back.
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commercial equipment.
We're back from the break.
Before the break, we weretalking about how important it
is to get the right informationin, especially if you're using
an e-commerce website, how youhave to be able to give our
customers the right informationso that they are very confident
that they are buying the rightpart.
So listen into my interviewwith Betts Truck Parts Now.
(06:13):
This interview was originallyaired back in November of 2023.
It was episode 291.
This is a re-airing of thatinterview.
It's one of our most popularinterviews of the last 12 months
and since we are all onholidays at the Heavy Duty Parts
Report this week, I wanted tomake sure that we had an
(06:33):
interview for you to listen to,so I hope you enjoy it.
Listen in.
Parts identification is achallenge if you are on the
independent service channel sideof the business, if you work in
the OEM and the dealershipenvironment, as long as you've
got a VIN, parts identificationis pretty straightforward.
But if you work on the dealerside or if you're on the
aftermarket side and you stepoutside of that where you're all
(06:56):
makes, it's a completelydifferent world.
Today we're going to talk aboutthe challenges associated with
parts identification, the costsassociated when we get it wrong
and proactive steps we can takethat will improve the way that
we identify parts and make surethat our customers are getting
the right part the first time.
(07:17):
To help me with this, I'm veryexcited to have Joe Stewart, the
general manager of Betts TruckParts and Service, with me Now.
Joe has been a general managerin the heavy-duty truck
transportation industry for over20 years.
He has always been interestedin understanding how things work
and has dedicated his career todoing just that in all aspects,
(07:39):
from parts and service topeople and process.
Joe, welcome to the Heavy DutyParts Report.
Glad to have you here.
Joe Steward (07:46):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
I'm excited to engage.
Jamie Irvine (07:49):
All right.
Well, let's talk about partsidentification.
If you're on the independentside of the business, it is a
challenge.
You and I look like we're kindof coming from roughly the same
age group, so let's talk alittle bit about the way things
were when we were first enteringthe business and learning the
business.
Joe, when you first got intothe business, what was the way
(08:12):
that people went aboutidentifying parts, especially on
that aftermarket side of thebusiness?
Joe Steward (08:16):
Oh man.
Well, we have the table full ofcatalogs.
Hopefully we had a customer whowas competent enough or had the
technical ability to tear downwhatever project they were
working on or at least be ableto limp their product or their
vehicle in so that we couldclimb underneath it and identify
whatever part was broken andneeded to be replaced needed, uh
(08:46):
, to be replaced.
Jamie Irvine (08:47):
So let me, let me ask you something were you a fan
of the catalogs on a bookcase,or did you have those big metal
bins with the the big rings thatyou could put all the catalogs
together kind of on your on yourdesktop?
Joe Steward (08:55):
I got lost in that because that typically that you
know that I like to see thespine of it okay, so you were.
Jamie Irvine (09:01):
You were a bookcase guy.
Joe Steward (09:04):
Totally yeah, so I could.
Then I can kind of order themby you know alphabetical or you
know.
However, however, your brainworks, man.
Jamie Irvine (09:11):
So I had I had it the other way I use the big, the
big metal contraption that youput all your catalogs in and I
had just tabs and I had it alllaid out, not an alphabetical,
but I had it laid out by aproduct type.
So I had, like, air systems,electrical, you know, suspension
wheel and stuff like that, sothat so okay, so there's some
differences, but you know,that's the way it was done,
right right yeah, I mean the wayyour brain works right.
Joe Steward (09:34):
And we also had, uh , some microfiche and all kinds
of other uh sources of technicalbreakdowns and data.
Aside from being able to, youknow, a lot of these guys that
we have in the aftermarket areable to take a phone call and
ask oh, you know what are youworking on and you know, in
these trucks they're all 100%custom built right.
It's not like an automotiveindustry where you know
(09:56):
everything kind of has the samestuff in it.
You could have, you know,different transmissions or gear
sets or you know braking systemsand all kinds of stuff on these
vehicles, and so it'sinteresting to see and hear the
questions that have to be askedand answered to narrow down
exactly what it is we're lookingfor.
Jamie Irvine (10:16):
That's a good point, joe.
What I remember distinctlyabout, especially the way I was
trained, is that you had to askthe right questions, right, like
the first question is this on atruck or is this on a trailer?
But you had to know intuitivelyhow to ask those correct
questions, because if you didn't, you could easily be going down
the wrong road.
Joe Steward (10:35):
Not only that, but you could be frustrating your
customer On the automotive side,going into a parts shop and
asking for a set of wiper bladesand then having the
counterperson ask you that year,make and model of your vehicle
and whether or not it was anautomatic or a manual, and
whether or not it was four-wheeldrive or two-wheel drive, for a
set of wiper blades.
Jamie Irvine (10:55):
you're like come on, man like that's the type of
thing that you know in ourindustry.
Joe Steward (11:00):
your reputation is on the line your ability to to
hold your own and have those,have that dialogue with your
customers in a way that'sproductive and makes them want
to come back.
On top of like we alluded toearlier, finding the right part
the first time and the way thatyou handle those situations is
imperative.
Especially in the aftermarketit's a little bit more scrappy,
(11:22):
it's harder to get that business.
Jamie Irvine (11:25):
It is.
It is.
I remember when they firststarted showing up and they
would have catalogs like on a ona disc, like a CD ROM that you
could put in your computer.
But you know, those things wereoutdated, just like the printed
catalogs.
Like you, you were just alwaysanxious for the the newest
catalog information possible.
I think you also had to learnhow to read a catalog, which I
(11:46):
think was a good thing.
It taught you kind of how tothink through identifying the
part, and I think that'ssomething we lost when
everything went online.
When things did move to online,one of the things that I
noticed right away is thereliability of that information
really deteriorated ratherquickly.
Like if I had a Bendix catalog,even if it was an older one.
(12:09):
I was pretty sure that when Igot it figured out I had the
right part.
But a Google search doesn'tnecessarily point you in the
right direction.
Joe Steward (12:16):
No, you have to be really careful, right?
So some of the stuff that yourun into is, you know, suggested
or something along those lines,and it very quickly.
You can think that you'relooking at the part that you
need and you've taken aleft-hand turn somewhere and
ended up in some other aspect ofthe vehicle, or, you know, for
a product that's related, butnot necessarily the part that
(12:39):
you're looking for as well.
Jamie Irvine (12:40):
Yeah, and one of the things like I just I did a
lot in air systems.
So you know, if you have thesevalves and they've got different
crack pressures, they lookidentical Visually.
They look the same same numberof ports.
They're all three-eighths onthe bottom or they're all
half-inch.
They have the same number ofinlet and outlet.
It's all identical, but there'sa different crack pressure and
(13:00):
there's no way to visually knowthat.
So if you don't have the rightset of data in front of you, you
don't have the information infront of you that's accurate
from the manufacturer, you couldeasily give someone the wrong
part, and that's just oneexample.
I mean, you get intoelectronics.
It's like that, probablyexponentially worse than on the
air side.
Now, you've always worked onthe service side as well as
(13:21):
parts, whereas for me I'vepretty much predominantly just
been in parts.
How has it been on the serviceside?
Like, just thinking back tothose years past, what unique
challenges were there if youalso had a service shop?
Joe Steward (13:35):
I would say that you know, preparing for a job
before it came in and thenfinding out the stuff that you
prepared with is wrong becauseof a conversation with a
customer maybe went the wrongway between the service manager
and the customer, or there wasjust a slight misunderstanding
on one thing or another onexactly what the root cause of
the failure or the issue was,prior to the truck showing up
(13:57):
for its appointment.
And then showing up and beingalmost Afraid is probably the
wrong word, but very hesitant totake it apart without having
what's needed to replace, whatneeds to be replaced in stock.
And so you know then, doing thehurry up and rush and run
around, you're actually shoppingyour competitors for parts that
(14:17):
you need to fix a truck that'sin your shop.
So it's a little bit humblingon that front as well.
As you know just wanting tomake sure that the customer has
the best experience possible inyour shop and wants to come back
Right.
And so you know, hustlingthrough that, that is when the
truck shows up, it's like kindof hunting that whale or that
(14:38):
elephant or whatever.
And then you know, once you getit, it's like now now the work
starts right now.
Jamie Irvine (14:41):
Now I got to figure out how to make this
happen in a way that's efficientand and it everybody happy yeah
, and now I I've seen you know,you kind of move into the more
recent times and we've kind ofseen an explosion of people
trying to solve this partsidentification issue from a
technology perspective and youknow, we've seen different apps
(15:03):
roll out, different softwareplatforms, integrations with
telematics, like all kinds of ofthings, and it's almost, at
this point, like there's a bitof overload there.
But there still seems to be acore issue, which is it's very
difficult to narrow down all thevariations.
So, you know, even if you wereto be able to get the data from
(15:24):
the OEM let's say, you got theBendix data from Bendix and it
was accurate that doesn'tnecessarily always correlate to
the Kenworth truck sitting infront of you versus the
Freightliner and the variationin 2016 on one option or another
right.
So parts identification,despite all of the technological
advances, still seems to be aproblem.
Joe Steward (15:45):
Well, there's a whole other layer that you
didn't mention, right, and thatis and that is how many
iterations of this truck havehave since it was produced to
where it is right now.
Right, did it?
Was it used as a roll-off andnow it's a tractor, and then it
was a dump truck.
You know how many lives hasthis truck lived and what did
they do the, the?
You know the ownershipthroughout.
(16:06):
You know what have they done tochange the suspension to.
You know for the requirements,you know for that particular
application and all those typesof things, and so it's
definitely complex.
I mean, you have to almost havethe vehicle or the part in
front of you to make sure thatyou're giving them the right
thing the first time, every time.
Jamie Irvine (16:24):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
And when I was selling inNorthern Alberta, we were very,
very heavy oil and gas, but in2016, the oil prices, the
commodity prices, collapsed herein Canada and it was real tough
times for about two years there, and so we had all kinds of oil
fleets that were in oil and gasand they were re-rigging their
(16:45):
trucks to go logging oil and gas, and they were re-rigging their
trucks to go logging and thenthree years later, right, like
the cycle and logs goes and oiland gas comes back.
So then they rig again.
Right, and you're absolutelyright.
Every time they rig that truckfor a specific vocation, and
that's predominantly driven bythe fact that these are work
vehicles, these are assets thathave to be out in the field
(17:06):
making money, otherwise, why doyou even have them right?
So no, that's definitelysomething that adds to the
complexity of it.
Joe Steward (17:12):
It's tricky, you know, especially in the
aftermarket, when you don't knowwhat that truck.
You know what that truck has onit because of its age.
I mean, especially inCalifornia it's a little bit
easier, right, because typicallythe year range of the trucks
has to be pretty tight in orderto fit CARB standards and all
that, and we don't have to getinto that today.
But we're lucky enough tooperate also in Oregon and
(17:34):
Arizona, so we get a lot of thatflavor in those states where
those trucks have gone throughdifferent iterations of
different lives that thosetrucks have lived, and it
definitely makes it fun livedand it definitely makes it fun
right, and I think the customersgain a lot of respect for a
counter person or a servicemanager whoever it is that's
trying to help them identifysomething that didn't
(17:56):
necessarily come on that truckwhen it was built.
And it wouldn't matter if youhad a VIN number or not, because
you know it's going to take anexpert to get the visual
identification and then do somedigging to make sure that you
get the right thing.
Jamie Irvine (18:15):
Yeah, and also I think of how vehicles have
changed so much over the last 25years.
When I entered into thebusiness, what was being
produced there was long,consistent runs, so you'd have
the same kind of setup,suspension-wise and engine
platform and everything on aspecific make and model, and
maybe that run would last forseveral years, and so it was
almost identical parts.
As long as it was within thatage range, you were pretty sure
(18:38):
that the part you were lookingfor and it was all mechanical,
so there's a lot less toremember.
Then, all of a sudden, you haveso much more electronics.
Now.
We have all of these ECMs thatare running different things.
You've got all these faultcodes, you've got all this
complexity to the technology,and that's really changed the
game on parts identification aswell.
Joe Steward (18:58):
I agree, you know we've been in an aftermarket and
we don't necessarily do.
In my business it's mostlysuspension and wheel in type
work that we're in right now andI got to tell you, you know
we're we're pushing our fleet,our technicians and our service
managers to plug into everytruck that comes in the shop,
just like a dealership does pullcodes prior to and after
(19:20):
appointment.
And you know, just even on,even on the ABS and traction
control systems, just to showyou know that we're paying
attention to everything thatcomes through the door and
trying to show the customereverything that's going on with
their truck while it's in ourcare.
Jamie Irvine (19:34):
I'd like to talk a little bit about the impact all
of this has on everybody in thesupply chain.
So if you don't get the rightpart, if you misidentify the
part, you send it out to thecustomer directly or you try to
install it on their vehicle andyou find out oh, it's the wrong
part.
What does that do for that enduser customer?
What's the cost associated withthat?
Joe Steward (19:56):
Well, I mean, you know we use uptime in our
industry every day, right Likeit's the most important thing in
the industry is making surethat these assets are rolling
and making sure that we'redelivering all the products and
services around the nation oraround the world that are stuff
is constantly moving.
I would just say that there area lot of cases where we're up
(20:25):
against a situation and Imentioned it earlier about
having to go to some of yourcompetition to try and pick up a
part, to hustle and get thistruck back on the road because
these customers our customershave customers and their
customers have customers and itcreates a whole chain of
disappointment and frustrationand delay and pricing changes
(20:48):
because of it and it just causesall kinds of logistical
nightmares for most times.
I would say we don't reallyfully understand the end impact
at the location you know you'retrying to service the customer
at.
Jamie Irvine (21:00):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I think about like's,say, a fleet right, and they've
got a truck and it misses adeadline.
That could jeopardize therelationship with their customer
that's using them and theirservice.
You think of an owner-operator,right?
Their families are reliant onthis truck and their mom or dad
to work and make money, sothat's food on the table.
(21:21):
I tell this story quite a lot,but I remember I'll never forget
the one guys whose wife calledme and said if you hadn't helped
me with that transmissionproblem, I don't know what we
would have done for groceriesnext week.
And it was just such a movingmoment for me because it made me
realize how important it is toget this right.
The cost isn't just for the enduser customer, though, too
(21:44):
right.
The distributor and thesupplier all obviously are
impacted when the wrong part isshipped.
So walk us through a little bitof what that feels like from
your perspective.
If the supplier sends you thewrong part, what does that do to
your business?
Joe Steward (21:59):
Yeah, we're all positioning ourselves for, you
know, realistic and sustainableprofitability right, and I think
that when these types of thingshappen, it puts all that in
jeopardy.
As a supplier to my customer,I'm battling to keep the price
in line and even though maybe Imade the mistake or maybe the
supplier made the mistake andshipped me the wrong part,
regardless of where that mistakelies, I'm kind of trying to
(22:21):
position myself to not lose onit, right, and my customers
positioning themselves to notlose on it and same with the
supplier and beyond.
And so that's whererelationships come in, really,
and I think that we need to makesure that we're responsible
with one another and how wenavigate those things
respectfully and just try towork it out.
(22:42):
I mean, we've done crazy things, man.
We've put trucks on airplaneseats and in Uber cars and all
kinds of different methods totry and make things happen for
our customer, made hot shot runsto meet up with another
location that we own becauseit's the only one in the West
Coast or something crazy, wherewe're trying to each drive four
(23:03):
hours to meet in the middle andbounce back out.
It's hectic, and for us to doall of that and have the
customer still miss a deadline,man.
I mean, it's a tough market,it's a tough industry.
Jamie Irvine (23:15):
Yeah, and you're right.
You mentioned the importance ofrelationships and that
relationship with your customer.
They don't expect perfection,but when something goes wrong
they want to see you take action.
I remember times where therewas a lot of like I'll get you
the part and we'll figure it outafter it's like, because the
downtime was going to be farmore than any freight cost or
any delivery charge or anything.
(23:36):
So just the get the customerthe part, whatever you have to
do and then figure it out on thebackend.
And I think that from thedistributor the customer the
part, whatever you have to doand then figure it out on the
back end.
And I think that from thedistributor's perspective,
profit is not easy to come by.
It's not like we're just makingdouble or triple digit profit
on every sale.
The reality is that sometimesmargins are slim and then
(23:57):
something not showing up on timeor having to go to those extra
lengths, we're losing money andthat's a real cost to the
distributor, and sometimes theyhave to just eat that it's not
even their fault, right?
I can't tell you how many timesI had to just eat something
because the supplier missed theshipping deadline and now it's
like it doesn't matter becausemy customer needs to be taken
care of.
So I'm going to get the jobdone and we'll figure it out on
(24:23):
the back end.
So, yeah, there's a real costthere, and I think from the
supplier too, if they don'texecute well over a period of
time, that pushes thedistributor to reconsider who
they buy the product from.
And so I think, up and down thesupply chain, the stakes are
really high, and all foridentifying the part correctly.
Joe Steward (24:39):
Well, when we're selling to you call it retail or
business to business, eitherway, right.
We're selling to a customerthat sometimes pays cash or
sometimes has net terms, and Ithink that you know when we're
trying to sell at a reasonablemarket price, you have to buy in
volume to do that, and whenthese one-offs come at you,
(25:00):
they're not cheap.
You know they're not cheap andit causes potential strain on on
relationships in bothdirections.
Jamie Irvine (25:07):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
So what is Betts doing toinvest in the technology you're
using training Like?
What steps is your companytaking to make sure that all of
their parts professionals havethe best tools and are trained
well so that they are able toidentify the parts the customers
(25:28):
need?
Joe Steward (25:29):
We're using Motor and some of the other cataloging
opportunities.
A lot of the vendors these dayshave great cross-reference
guides built into their websites.
We use those.
We've also engaged with anonline store builder for our
industry who has done a greatjob of helping us with our
(25:49):
online store, providingcross-reference information and
things like that that we can useto help customers out when
maybe we don't have X brand butwe have Y and can help them
through those types of methods.
And really it's just with thegenerational changes that we've
seen and the decrease in theworkforce volume in our industry
(26:11):
, we don't have that knowledgethat we used to have, the guy or
gal that could answer the phoneand give you the part number
off the top of their headwithout looking at the catalog.
No longer they you know they'redwindling right, they're harder
and harder to come by, and sowe're having to rely more and
more on technology and onlinecatalogs and sourcing methods
(26:33):
that are different than theyused to be, because the
workforce simply doesn't havethe experience that they used to
have, the depth of experienceand so we're trying to cover up
the lack of experience withtechnology and it's in some
cases successful and helpsexpedite certain things, but it
(26:53):
definitely comes with its ownset of challenges, because
you've got to make sure thatthey're paying attention to the
details.
I mean you kind of mentionedearlier, you do a Google search
or something for a part and itcould send you to a related part
or something that's very, verysimilar.
It looks exactly the same andmaybe even the background image
is the same.
So you got to read the fineprint that says image used not
(27:17):
necessarily.
Whatever that verbiage is orthe terminology they use, you
have to really pay attention towhat you're doing because, um,
again, looping back into therest of the conversation that
we've had so far is just, youknow, find yourself, uh,
offering the wrong part veryquickly, very easily.
Jamie Irvine (27:34):
Yeah, and the the training that is required.
Now, like I think back to whenI was first being trained, right
, I remember I went and I said,hey, what is this?
And it was actually a MV3 valveand the person who was my
mentor was training me.
He said I can tell you the partnumber or I can show you how to
figure out what that part isRight.
And he goes it's your choiceand it was a test.
(27:54):
It was a test to see.
I was like an 18 year old kid,right.
It's like, well, what kind ofemployee do we have here?
Joe Steward (28:00):
And I said Are you going to ask me every time, or
am I going to teach you?
Jamie Irvine (28:03):
Yeah, exactly.
So I said show me how to lookit up.
Right.
And he goes right answer,correct answer.
So once I learned how toidentify that, suddenly you know
, on those particular group ofair valves, I was asking him a
lot less questions, right?
You know that same philosophystill stands today.
It's just what we use isdifferent, right?
(28:27):
So it's like let me show youhow to go to this website, let
me show you how to use thissupplier's tool, Let me show you
how to use this technologywe've invested in.
Let me show you how to figureit out for yourself so that you
can be independent, movingforward.
But I still feel for the youngpeople in the industry, because
the complexity of the equipmentis so much greater than it was
25 years ago, so their learningcurve is much more let's say
(28:49):
it's a steeper learning curvemaybe than what we experienced.
We just had to learn how toread catalogs and kind of
memorize the most common parts.
For them it's a different world.
Joe Steward (28:59):
Definitely and I think you kind of brought it up
there you know, leveraging thevendors that make these parts to
help with that training as well, and using their websites and
coming in and showing.
You know there's a lot of timesour vendors will come in and
ask you know how's it going?
Do you have everything you need?
And they get the yeah, yeah,right.
But a good vendor rep willstart asking tougher questions
(29:22):
like, well, do you know how tolook this up?
Or do you know, have you loggedinto our website and have you
used this cross-reference tool?
Or have you had to search forthis or that type of part and
really get over someone'sshoulder and be involved in
helping them realize that theyhave a tool that they you know
that they could learn from,rather than kind of having oh no
(29:44):
, I got it, you know, I'llfigure it out mentality.
So you know, leaning on thosevendor partners, supplier
partners, you know is reallyimportant and it's another great
aspect to the training you knowportfolio or options.
Jamie Irvine (29:57):
I agree with you completely.
Tell me a story about a Bettscustomer who you know really
relied on Betts to get the rightpart at the right time, and how
did it all turn out?
So how does everything you guysdo come together?
Tell us one of those stories.
Joe Steward (30:13):
Yeah well, like I mentioned earlier, we've gone
out of our way and taken greatlengths to make something happen
for our customer, at our ownexpense, just to make sure that
they had a good experience In asituation where somebody made a
phone call, had to drive here,had to drive actually to this
location here in Portland fromTri-Cities in Washington it's a
several-hour track right andmade their way down and got here
(30:35):
and what we had wasn't whatthey needed.
And while they were here.
We had to.
We had to make the phone calls.
They watched, they observed our, our counter staff hustling to
try and source the part thatthey did need.
And then, you know, the branchmanager drove over across town
to pick, pick one up and bringit over and take care of them.
And you know situations likethat.
(30:56):
I, you know.
I think that you know people inour industry.
They're very familiar with thattype of that type of service
that you have to provide inorder to to keep that customer,
you know, to have any chance athaving somewhat of a decent
experience for the customer inthat, in that type of situation,
other situations where acustomer, like I said earlier,
(31:18):
where we're prepping for aservice job, hopefully ahead of
time, so when the truck shows upwe have what's needed, we can
disassemble and reassemble in amuch quicker fashion, but we
prepped with the wrong order orthe wrong parts, maybe having
used the VIN number and findingout, like another thing that we
mentioned earlier is, you knowthese trucks go through in some
(31:39):
cases several iterations of useand so it doesn't have what it
did have when it was made stuffand having to go again either.
You know trying, you knowstarting close and working your
(32:00):
way out in geographic distancefrom your, from your pinpoint
location, to try and find thatpart.
Hustle out and get it and bringit back to the shop so that we
can keep going and get the rightstuff.
Jamie Irvine (32:09):
One thing I know is when you do it right, people
do appreciate it, but when, whensomething goes wrong and then
you hustle and you fix it,oftentimes they never forget
that hustle right.
So that is part of the game.
It's part of what's necessaryto be successful.
You've been listening to theHeavy-Duty Parts Report.
My name is Jamie Irvin and it'sbeen my pleasure to talk to Joe
Stewart, general Manager ofBetts Truck Parts and Service.
(32:32):
If you'd like to learn moreabout Betts Truck Parts and
Service, go tobettstruckpartscom.
Links are in the show notes.
Well, I really hope you enjoyedmy interview with Betts Truck
Parts.
I thought there was so manygood points that were made about
what it takes to get the rightparts to the customer the first
time.
It's now time for our segmentthat's Not Heavy Duty.
(32:55):
In this edition of that's NotHeavy Duty, I want to continue
the conversation about notgetting the right parts to the
customer and installing thewrong part and how devastating
of an impact that can have on acustomer.
So we went to a legal websiteand we looked up a case study of
what happens when the wrongpart is sold and installed on a
(33:19):
vehicle.
Now here's the background.
This vehicle was taken to aCummins engine repair shop, so
it's probably just aCummins-approved,
independently-owned repair shopand it was in Mobile, alabama.
Now what happened is the truckwas fixed and when they were
driving away from the shop itbroke down again.
(33:40):
The truck was towed back tothat shop and has been in repair
ever since.
So now the truck has been downfor a total of two months.
Now here's what the customer issaying.
The manager of this repairfacility told them that it was
the fault of the mechanic,because they installed an
(34:01):
incorrect part.
The part was the wrong size,they installed it and that's
what caused the breakdown.
So at the root of this problem,this is a parts identification
issue.
Right, the wrong part wasinstalled on the vehicle.
So the customer goes on to saynow it's been three weeks beyond
(34:26):
a reasonable repair time andthey have lost $8,000 in income.
Now the question that thiscustomer is asking for legal
advice.
This is the question we'retrying to find out if there's a
way to get compensated fordowntime, since this was all
caused by the repair facility.
Here's the response from thislegal website.
They say, and I quote if therepair shop was negligent in
installing the improper part,then legally you can sue them
(34:49):
for their negligence, which caninclude lost income for use of
the vehicle.
If you have no other vehiclesthat you can use as a substitute
during this time, unfortunately, it is likely the company will
deny your claim, so that meansyou would have to file a suit
and you would need to get awitness to testify that it was
indeed because of the wrong partthat this damage occurred to
(35:12):
your vehicle.
This whole situation can beavoided by identifying the
correct part and really, at theend of the day, we all know that
things go wrong from time totime, but as heavy-duty parts
professionals, it is really ourresponsibility to ensure that
the mechanics who are installingparts get the right part the
(35:35):
first time right, so that thiswhole situation can be avoided.
Parts identification is such acritical, foundational piece of
the repair process and we've gotto get it right.
Yes, as time goes on,technology will become more and
more part of that process, but,as we've discussed, it can still
(35:56):
be a part of the problem, partof the failure, if the data
isn't correct.
So, again, if you are trying todigitize parts identification,
if you're trying to usee-commerce to distribute parts,
you've got to make sure thatthat data is correct so that
people can make a good buyingdecision.
And as parts professionals, wehave to continue to be diligent
(36:18):
and hone our skills and learnhow to identify the right parts,
how to ask the right questionsto make sure that repair
technicians get exactly whatthey need.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode.
As we've mentioned over the lastcouple episodes, the Heavy Duty
Parts Report team has been onvacation.
That's why we're re-airing acouple of our most popular
(36:40):
episodes.
I hope you enjoyed them and ifyou haven't already, because
next week we've got a brand newinterview and we are back from
vacation and we are going to bebringing you a lot of excellent,
excellent information andinterviews coming up.
So if you haven't already, headover to heavydutypartsreportcom
, sign up to our weekly email.
(37:01):
You only get one email a week,no spam, no marketing.
Just one email a week that says, hey, this is the new content
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We've heard that that helpswith reach and we really could
(37:23):
use the support.
Thank you for that.
Also, if you like the videoversion, go over to our YouTube
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Hit that subscribe button, hitthe bell notification so you
never miss out.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of the
Heavy-Duty Parts Report and, asalways, I want to encourage you
to be heavy-duty.
You're listening to the Heavy-Duty Parts Report.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin, andthis is the place where we have
conversations that empowerheavy-duty people.
Welcome to the Heavy-Duty PartsReport.
I'm your host, jamie Irvin.
In this episode, we're going totalk about how things are
really changing when it comes toparts identification.
(00:22):
Later on in this episode, we'regoing to rerun a very popular
episode from 2024 where wetalked about parts
identification.
Now let's talk a little bitabout how technology is changing
parts identification Really.
At the end of the day, when youthink about the transition of
older ones with a lot ofexperience leaving the industry
(00:45):
because they're retiring, andyou think about how there are
less people right now who areavailable to take parts calls
and have that kind of what theycall tribal knowledge of how to
identify parts, there's a realproblem right now that,
technically, should be easilysolved by technology, and yet
(01:06):
parts identification is a stilla big issue.
If you run a repair shop andyou can't get the correct parts,
your customers are going tohave more downtime, or if you're
doing that on behalf of a fleet, they're going to have that
downtime.
This leads to frustration, butit also leads to a real economic
impact on that trucking company, whoever it is, because
(01:27):
downtime is so very expensive.
So in this interview we'regoing to talk to Joe Stewart,
who is the general manager atBetts Truck Parts, and he really
gives us some insights intosome of the challenges of
getting the correct parts tothose trucks and getting those
trucks back on the road.
When I think about a recentstudy that we saw that was put
(01:48):
out by McKay and Company, it'sunsurprising that there's a real
move towards e-commerce Now.
Still, the vast majority ofheavy-duty parts, according to
this study and in our ownexperience at the Heavy-Duty
Consulting Corporation, is thatpeople are still phoning in
orders.
Right, they're talking topeople on the parts counter, but
year over year we're seeing anincrease in parts being
(02:11):
purchased with e-commercewebsites and, unsurprisingly,
the fax, for example, hasstatistically gone to zero.
Not that no orders are orderedby fax, but it's such a small
number that on the macro datanationwide it registers as 0%.
So this shift has happenedslowly over a couple decades and
(02:33):
really I think, and what we seewhen we consult with our
clients is we are seeing thiscontinuous increase in the usage
of e-commerce to buy heavy dutyparts, and this is definitely
part of the solution.
But one of the things we see atthe Heavy-Duty Consulting
Corporation with our clients iseven if you invest heavily in a
great e-commerce site, youchoose the right platform, the
(02:56):
user experience is very good.
If you don't have the data toback up what you're selling on
that e-com site, it can causesignificant problems.
Now when we talk about data, wewant to talk about it in a
couple different terms.
There's PIES data, which that'san acronym P-I-E-S, and that
really is the standard forinformation related to the
(03:19):
dimensions of the product,specifications of the product,
but what the product actually is.
Then there's what's called ACESdata, a-c-e-s, which is a
standard for year make modellookup information.
Now we all know in theaftermarket and heavy duty, year
make model is very, verydifficult.
But additionally, if we don'thave the right information about
(03:43):
the part on the site and wedon't help our customers to make
the right buying decision, theycan inadvertently order the
wrong part.
If they do that, it creates allkinds of problems.
So we're going to take a quickbreak to hear from our awesome
sponsors.
When we get back we're going tolisten into our interview with
Betts Truck Parts, where theyreally talk through these issues
(04:04):
and how they've been dealingwith it, what they do to try to
ensure that their customers havea great experience and get the
parts they need, and they talk alot about the cost associated.
And later on in the episodewe're also going to give you an
example where something wentreally wrong because the wrong
parts were installed, and thelegal advice that was given to
(04:24):
this customer.
So we're going to take a quickbreak.
We'll be right back.
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commercial equipment.
We're back from the break.
Before the break, we weretalking about how important it
is to get the right informationin, especially if you're using
an e-commerce website, how youhave to be able to give our
customers the right informationso that they are very confident
that they are buying the rightpart.
So listen into my interviewwith Betts Truck Parts Now.
(06:13):
This interview was originallyaired back in November of 2023.
It was episode 291.
This is a re-airing of thatinterview.
It's one of our most popularinterviews of the last 12 months
and since we are all onholidays at the Heavy Duty Parts
Report this week, I wanted tomake sure that we had an
(06:33):
interview for you to listen to,so I hope you enjoy it.
Listen in.
Parts identification is achallenge if you are on the
independent service channel sideof the business, if you work in
the OEM and the dealershipenvironment, as long as you've
got a VIN, parts identificationis pretty straightforward.
But if you work on the dealerside or if you're on the
aftermarket side and you stepoutside of that where you're all
(06:56):
makes, it's a completelydifferent world.
Today we're going to talk aboutthe challenges associated with
parts identification, the costsassociated when we get it wrong
and proactive steps we can takethat will improve the way that
we identify parts and make surethat our customers are getting
the right part the first time.
(07:17):
To help me with this, I'm veryexcited to have Joe Stewart, the
general manager of Betts TruckParts and Service, with me Now.
Joe has been a general managerin the heavy-duty truck
transportation industry for over20 years.
He has always been interestedin understanding how things work
and has dedicated his career todoing just that in all aspects,
(07:39):
from parts and service topeople and process.
Joe, welcome to the Heavy DutyParts Report.
Glad to have you here.
Joe Steward (07:46):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
I'm excited to engage.
Jamie Irvine (07:49):
All right.
Well, let's talk about partsidentification.
If you're on the independentside of the business, it is a
challenge.
You and I look like we're kindof coming from roughly the same
age group, so let's talk alittle bit about the way things
were when we were first enteringthe business and learning the
business.
Joe, when you first got intothe business, what was the way
(08:12):
that people went aboutidentifying parts, especially on
that aftermarket side of thebusiness?
Joe Steward (08:16):
Oh man.
Well, we have the table full ofcatalogs.
Hopefully we had a customer whowas competent enough or had the
technical ability to tear downwhatever project they were
working on or at least be ableto limp their product or their
vehicle in so that we couldclimb underneath it and identify
whatever part was broken andneeded to be replaced needed, uh
(08:46):
, to be replaced.
Jamie Irvine (08:47):
So let me, let me ask you something were you a fan
of the catalogs on a bookcase,or did you have those big metal
bins with the the big rings thatyou could put all the catalogs
together kind of on your on yourdesktop?
Joe Steward (08:55):
I got lost in that because that typically that you
know that I like to see thespine of it okay, so you were.
Jamie Irvine (09:01):
You were a bookcase guy.
Joe Steward (09:04):
Totally yeah, so I could.
Then I can kind of order themby you know alphabetical or you
know.
However, however, your brainworks, man.
Jamie Irvine (09:11):
So I had I had it the other way I use the big, the
big metal contraption that youput all your catalogs in and I
had just tabs and I had it alllaid out, not an alphabetical,
but I had it laid out by aproduct type.
So I had, like, air systems,electrical, you know, suspension
wheel and stuff like that, sothat so okay, so there's some
differences, but you know,that's the way it was done,
right right yeah, I mean the wayyour brain works right.
Joe Steward (09:34):
And we also had, uh , some microfiche and all kinds
of other uh sources of technicalbreakdowns and data.
Aside from being able to, youknow, a lot of these guys that
we have in the aftermarket areable to take a phone call and
ask oh, you know what are youworking on and you know, in
these trucks they're all 100%custom built right.
It's not like an automotiveindustry where you know
(09:56):
everything kind of has the samestuff in it.
You could have, you know,different transmissions or gear
sets or you know braking systemsand all kinds of stuff on these
vehicles, and so it'sinteresting to see and hear the
questions that have to be askedand answered to narrow down
exactly what it is we're lookingfor.
Jamie Irvine (10:16):
That's a good point, joe.
What I remember distinctlyabout, especially the way I was
trained, is that you had to askthe right questions, right, like
the first question is this on atruck or is this on a trailer?
But you had to know intuitivelyhow to ask those correct
questions, because if you didn't, you could easily be going down
the wrong road.
Joe Steward (10:35):
Not only that, but you could be frustrating your
customer On the automotive side,going into a parts shop and
asking for a set of wiper bladesand then having the
counterperson ask you that year,make and model of your vehicle
and whether or not it was anautomatic or a manual, and
whether or not it was four-wheeldrive or two-wheel drive, for a
set of wiper blades.
Jamie Irvine (10:55):
you're like come on, man like that's the type of
thing that you know in ourindustry.
Joe Steward (11:00):
your reputation is on the line your ability to to
hold your own and have those,have that dialogue with your
customers in a way that'sproductive and makes them want
to come back.
On top of like we alluded toearlier, finding the right part
the first time and the way thatyou handle those situations is
imperative.
Especially in the aftermarketit's a little bit more scrappy,
(11:22):
it's harder to get that business.
Jamie Irvine (11:25):
It is.
It is.
I remember when they firststarted showing up and they
would have catalogs like on a ona disc, like a CD ROM that you
could put in your computer.
But you know, those things wereoutdated, just like the printed
catalogs.
Like you, you were just alwaysanxious for the the newest
catalog information possible.
I think you also had to learnhow to read a catalog, which I
(11:46):
think was a good thing.
It taught you kind of how tothink through identifying the
part, and I think that'ssomething we lost when
everything went online.
When things did move to online,one of the things that I
noticed right away is thereliability of that information
really deteriorated ratherquickly.
Like if I had a Bendix catalog,even if it was an older one.
(12:09):
I was pretty sure that when Igot it figured out I had the
right part.
But a Google search doesn'tnecessarily point you in the
right direction.
Joe Steward (12:16):
No, you have to be really careful, right?
So some of the stuff that yourun into is, you know, suggested
or something along those lines,and it very quickly.
You can think that you'relooking at the part that you
need and you've taken aleft-hand turn somewhere and
ended up in some other aspect ofthe vehicle, or, you know, for
a product that's related, butnot necessarily the part that
(12:39):
you're looking for as well.
Jamie Irvine (12:40):
Yeah, and one of the things like I just I did a
lot in air systems.
So you know, if you have thesevalves and they've got different
crack pressures, they lookidentical Visually.
They look the same same numberof ports.
They're all three-eighths onthe bottom or they're all
half-inch.
They have the same number ofinlet and outlet.
It's all identical, but there'sa different crack pressure and
(13:00):
there's no way to visually knowthat.
So if you don't have the rightset of data in front of you, you
don't have the information infront of you that's accurate
from the manufacturer, you couldeasily give someone the wrong
part, and that's just oneexample.
I mean, you get intoelectronics.
It's like that, probablyexponentially worse than on the
air side.
Now, you've always worked onthe service side as well as
(13:21):
parts, whereas for me I'vepretty much predominantly just
been in parts.
How has it been on the serviceside?
Like, just thinking back tothose years past, what unique
challenges were there if youalso had a service shop?
Joe Steward (13:35):
I would say that you know, preparing for a job
before it came in and thenfinding out the stuff that you
prepared with is wrong becauseof a conversation with a
customer maybe went the wrongway between the service manager
and the customer, or there wasjust a slight misunderstanding
on one thing or another onexactly what the root cause of
the failure or the issue was,prior to the truck showing up
(13:57):
for its appointment.
And then showing up and beingalmost Afraid is probably the
wrong word, but very hesitant totake it apart without having
what's needed to replace, whatneeds to be replaced in stock.
And so you know then, doing thehurry up and rush and run
around, you're actually shoppingyour competitors for parts that
(14:17):
you need to fix a truck that'sin your shop.
So it's a little bit humblingon that front as well.
As you know just wanting tomake sure that the customer has
the best experience possible inyour shop and wants to come back
Right.
And so you know, hustlingthrough that, that is when the
truck shows up, it's like kindof hunting that whale or that
(14:38):
elephant or whatever.
And then you know, once you getit, it's like now now the work
starts right now.
Jamie Irvine (14:41):
Now I got to figure out how to make this
happen in a way that's efficientand and it everybody happy yeah
, and now I I've seen you know,you kind of move into the more
recent times and we've kind ofseen an explosion of people
trying to solve this partsidentification issue from a
technology perspective and youknow, we've seen different apps
(15:03):
roll out, different softwareplatforms, integrations with
telematics, like all kinds of ofthings, and it's almost, at
this point, like there's a bitof overload there.
But there still seems to be acore issue, which is it's very
difficult to narrow down all thevariations.
So, you know, even if you wereto be able to get the data from
(15:24):
the OEM let's say, you got theBendix data from Bendix and it
was accurate that doesn'tnecessarily always correlate to
the Kenworth truck sitting infront of you versus the
Freightliner and the variationin 2016 on one option or another
right.
So parts identification,despite all of the technological
advances, still seems to be aproblem.
Joe Steward (15:45):
Well, there's a whole other layer that you
didn't mention, right, and thatis and that is how many
iterations of this truck havehave since it was produced to
where it is right now.
Right, did it?
Was it used as a roll-off andnow it's a tractor, and then it
was a dump truck.
You know how many lives hasthis truck lived and what did
they do the, the?
You know the ownershipthroughout.
(16:06):
You know what have they done tochange the suspension to.
You know for the requirements,you know for that particular
application and all those typesof things, and so it's
definitely complex.
I mean, you have to almost havethe vehicle or the part in
front of you to make sure thatyou're giving them the right
thing the first time, every time.
Jamie Irvine (16:24):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
And when I was selling inNorthern Alberta, we were very,
very heavy oil and gas, but in2016, the oil prices, the
commodity prices, collapsed herein Canada and it was real tough
times for about two years there, and so we had all kinds of oil
fleets that were in oil and gasand they were re-rigging their
(16:45):
trucks to go logging oil and gas, and they were re-rigging their
trucks to go logging and thenthree years later, right, like
the cycle and logs goes and oiland gas comes back.
So then they rig again.
Right, and you're absolutelyright.
Every time they rig that truckfor a specific vocation, and
that's predominantly driven bythe fact that these are work
vehicles, these are assets thathave to be out in the field
(17:06):
making money, otherwise, why doyou even have them right?
So no, that's definitelysomething that adds to the
complexity of it.
Joe Steward (17:12):
It's tricky, you know, especially in the
aftermarket, when you don't knowwhat that truck.
You know what that truck has onit because of its age.
I mean, especially inCalifornia it's a little bit
easier, right, because typicallythe year range of the trucks
has to be pretty tight in orderto fit CARB standards and all
that, and we don't have to getinto that today.
But we're lucky enough tooperate also in Oregon and
(17:34):
Arizona, so we get a lot of thatflavor in those states where
those trucks have gone throughdifferent iterations of
different lives that thosetrucks have lived, and it
definitely makes it fun livedand it definitely makes it fun
right, and I think the customersgain a lot of respect for a
counter person or a servicemanager whoever it is that's
trying to help them identifysomething that didn't
(17:56):
necessarily come on that truckwhen it was built.
And it wouldn't matter if youhad a VIN number or not, because
you know it's going to take anexpert to get the visual
identification and then do somedigging to make sure that you
get the right thing.
Jamie Irvine (18:15):
Yeah, and also I think of how vehicles have
changed so much over the last 25years.
When I entered into thebusiness, what was being
produced there was long,consistent runs, so you'd have
the same kind of setup,suspension-wise and engine
platform and everything on aspecific make and model, and
maybe that run would last forseveral years, and so it was
almost identical parts.
As long as it was within thatage range, you were pretty sure
(18:38):
that the part you were lookingfor and it was all mechanical,
so there's a lot less toremember.
Then, all of a sudden, you haveso much more electronics.
Now.
We have all of these ECMs thatare running different things.
You've got all these faultcodes, you've got all this
complexity to the technology,and that's really changed the
game on parts identification aswell.
Joe Steward (18:58):
I agree, you know we've been in an aftermarket and
we don't necessarily do.
In my business it's mostlysuspension and wheel in type
work that we're in right now andI got to tell you, you know
we're we're pushing our fleet,our technicians and our service
managers to plug into everytruck that comes in the shop,
just like a dealership does pullcodes prior to and after
(19:20):
appointment.
And you know, just even on,even on the ABS and traction
control systems, just to showyou know that we're paying
attention to everything thatcomes through the door and
trying to show the customereverything that's going on with
their truck while it's in ourcare.
Jamie Irvine (19:34):
I'd like to talk a little bit about the impact all
of this has on everybody in thesupply chain.
So if you don't get the rightpart, if you misidentify the
part, you send it out to thecustomer directly or you try to
install it on their vehicle andyou find out oh, it's the wrong
part.
What does that do for that enduser customer?
What's the cost associated withthat?
Joe Steward (19:56):
Well, I mean, you know we use uptime in our
industry every day, right Likeit's the most important thing in
the industry is making surethat these assets are rolling
and making sure that we'redelivering all the products and
services around the nation oraround the world that are stuff
is constantly moving.
I would just say that there area lot of cases where we're up
(20:25):
against a situation and Imentioned it earlier about
having to go to some of yourcompetition to try and pick up a
part, to hustle and get thistruck back on the road because
these customers our customershave customers and their
customers have customers and itcreates a whole chain of
disappointment and frustrationand delay and pricing changes
(20:48):
because of it and it just causesall kinds of logistical
nightmares for most times.
I would say we don't reallyfully understand the end impact
at the location you know you'retrying to service the customer
at.
Jamie Irvine (21:00):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I think about like's,say, a fleet right, and they've
got a truck and it misses adeadline.
That could jeopardize therelationship with their customer
that's using them and theirservice.
You think of an owner-operator,right?
Their families are reliant onthis truck and their mom or dad
to work and make money, sothat's food on the table.
(21:21):
I tell this story quite a lot,but I remember I'll never forget
the one guys whose wife calledme and said if you hadn't helped
me with that transmissionproblem, I don't know what we
would have done for groceriesnext week.
And it was just such a movingmoment for me because it made me
realize how important it is toget this right.
The cost isn't just for the enduser customer, though, too
(21:44):
right.
The distributor and thesupplier all obviously are
impacted when the wrong part isshipped.
So walk us through a little bitof what that feels like from
your perspective.
If the supplier sends you thewrong part, what does that do to
your business?
Joe Steward (21:59):
Yeah, we're all positioning ourselves for, you
know, realistic and sustainableprofitability right, and I think
that when these types of thingshappen, it puts all that in
jeopardy.
As a supplier to my customer,I'm battling to keep the price
in line and even though maybe Imade the mistake or maybe the
supplier made the mistake andshipped me the wrong part,
regardless of where that mistakelies, I'm kind of trying to
(22:21):
position myself to not lose onit, right, and my customers
positioning themselves to notlose on it and same with the
supplier and beyond.
And so that's whererelationships come in, really,
and I think that we need to makesure that we're responsible
with one another and how wenavigate those things
respectfully and just try towork it out.
(22:42):
I mean, we've done crazy things, man.
We've put trucks on airplaneseats and in Uber cars and all
kinds of different methods totry and make things happen for
our customer, made hot shot runsto meet up with another
location that we own becauseit's the only one in the West
Coast or something crazy, wherewe're trying to each drive four
(23:03):
hours to meet in the middle andbounce back out.
It's hectic, and for us to doall of that and have the
customer still miss a deadline,man.
I mean, it's a tough market,it's a tough industry.
Jamie Irvine (23:15):
Yeah, and you're right.
You mentioned the importance ofrelationships and that
relationship with your customer.
They don't expect perfection,but when something goes wrong
they want to see you take action.
I remember times where therewas a lot of like I'll get you
the part and we'll figure it outafter it's like, because the
downtime was going to be farmore than any freight cost or
any delivery charge or anything.
(23:36):
So just the get the customerthe part, whatever you have to
do and then figure it out on thebackend.
And I think that from thedistributor the customer the
part, whatever you have to doand then figure it out on the
back end.
And I think that from thedistributor's perspective,
profit is not easy to come by.
It's not like we're just makingdouble or triple digit profit
on every sale.
The reality is that sometimesmargins are slim and then
(23:57):
something not showing up on timeor having to go to those extra
lengths, we're losing money andthat's a real cost to the
distributor, and sometimes theyhave to just eat that it's not
even their fault, right?
I can't tell you how many timesI had to just eat something
because the supplier missed theshipping deadline and now it's
like it doesn't matter becausemy customer needs to be taken
care of.
So I'm going to get the jobdone and we'll figure it out on
(24:23):
the back end.
So, yeah, there's a real costthere, and I think from the
supplier too, if they don'texecute well over a period of
time, that pushes thedistributor to reconsider who
they buy the product from.
And so I think, up and down thesupply chain, the stakes are
really high, and all foridentifying the part correctly.
Joe Steward (24:39):
Well, when we're selling to you call it retail or
business to business, eitherway, right.
We're selling to a customerthat sometimes pays cash or
sometimes has net terms, and Ithink that you know when we're
trying to sell at a reasonablemarket price, you have to buy in
volume to do that, and whenthese one-offs come at you,
(25:00):
they're not cheap.
You know they're not cheap andit causes potential strain on on
relationships in bothdirections.
Jamie Irvine (25:07):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
So what is Betts doing toinvest in the technology you're
using training Like?
What steps is your companytaking to make sure that all of
their parts professionals havethe best tools and are trained
well so that they are able toidentify the parts the customers
(25:28):
need?
Joe Steward (25:29):
We're using Motor and some of the other cataloging
opportunities.
A lot of the vendors these dayshave great cross-reference
guides built into their websites.
We use those.
We've also engaged with anonline store builder for our
industry who has done a greatjob of helping us with our
(25:49):
online store, providingcross-reference information and
things like that that we can useto help customers out when
maybe we don't have X brand butwe have Y and can help them
through those types of methods.
And really it's just with thegenerational changes that we've
seen and the decrease in theworkforce volume in our industry
(26:11):
, we don't have that knowledgethat we used to have, the guy or
gal that could answer the phoneand give you the part number
off the top of their headwithout looking at the catalog.
No longer they you know they'redwindling right, they're harder
and harder to come by, and sowe're having to rely more and
more on technology and onlinecatalogs and sourcing methods
(26:33):
that are different than theyused to be, because the
workforce simply doesn't havethe experience that they used to
have, the depth of experienceand so we're trying to cover up
the lack of experience withtechnology and it's in some
cases successful and helpsexpedite certain things, but it
(26:53):
definitely comes with its ownset of challenges, because
you've got to make sure thatthey're paying attention to the
details.
I mean you kind of mentionedearlier, you do a Google search
or something for a part and itcould send you to a related part
or something that's very, verysimilar.
It looks exactly the same andmaybe even the background image
is the same.
So you got to read the fineprint that says image used not
(27:17):
necessarily.
Whatever that verbiage is orthe terminology they use, you
have to really pay attention towhat you're doing because, um,
again, looping back into therest of the conversation that
we've had so far is just, youknow, find yourself, uh,
offering the wrong part veryquickly, very easily.
Jamie Irvine (27:34):
Yeah, and the the training that is required.
Now, like I think back to whenI was first being trained, right
, I remember I went and I said,hey, what is this?
And it was actually a MV3 valveand the person who was my
mentor was training me.
He said I can tell you the partnumber or I can show you how to
figure out what that part isRight.
And he goes it's your choiceand it was a test.
(27:54):
It was a test to see.
I was like an 18 year old kid,right.
It's like, well, what kind ofemployee do we have here?
Joe Steward (28:00):
And I said Are you going to ask me every time, or
am I going to teach you?
Jamie Irvine (28:03):
Yeah, exactly.
So I said show me how to lookit up.
Right.
And he goes right answer,correct answer.
So once I learned how toidentify that, suddenly you know
, on those particular group ofair valves, I was asking him a
lot less questions, right?
You know that same philosophystill stands today.
It's just what we use isdifferent, right?
(28:27):
So it's like let me show youhow to go to this website, let
me show you how to use thissupplier's tool, Let me show you
how to use this technologywe've invested in.
Let me show you how to figureit out for yourself so that you
can be independent, movingforward.
But I still feel for the youngpeople in the industry, because
the complexity of the equipmentis so much greater than it was
25 years ago, so their learningcurve is much more let's say
(28:49):
it's a steeper learning curvemaybe than what we experienced.
We just had to learn how toread catalogs and kind of
memorize the most common parts.
For them it's a different world.
Joe Steward (28:59):
Definitely and I think you kind of brought it up
there you know, leveraging thevendors that make these parts to
help with that training as well, and using their websites and
coming in and showing.
You know there's a lot of timesour vendors will come in and
ask you know how's it going?
Do you have everything you need?
And they get the yeah, yeah,right.
But a good vendor rep willstart asking tougher questions
(29:22):
like, well, do you know how tolook this up?
Or do you know, have you loggedinto our website and have you
used this cross-reference tool?
Or have you had to search forthis or that type of part and
really get over someone'sshoulder and be involved in
helping them realize that theyhave a tool that they you know
that they could learn from,rather than kind of having oh no
(29:44):
, I got it, you know, I'llfigure it out mentality.
So you know, leaning on thosevendor partners, supplier
partners, you know is reallyimportant and it's another great
aspect to the training you knowportfolio or options.
Jamie Irvine (29:57):
I agree with you completely.
Tell me a story about a Bettscustomer who you know really
relied on Betts to get the rightpart at the right time, and how
did it all turn out?
So how does everything you guysdo come together?
Tell us one of those stories.
Joe Steward (30:13):
Yeah well, like I mentioned earlier, we've gone
out of our way and taken greatlengths to make something happen
for our customer, at our ownexpense, just to make sure that
they had a good experience In asituation where somebody made a
phone call, had to drive here,had to drive actually to this
location here in Portland fromTri-Cities in Washington it's a
several-hour track right andmade their way down and got here
(30:35):
and what we had wasn't whatthey needed.
And while they were here.
We had to.
We had to make the phone calls.
They watched, they observed our, our counter staff hustling to
try and source the part thatthey did need.
And then, you know, the branchmanager drove over across town
to pick, pick one up and bringit over and take care of them.
And you know situations likethat.
(30:56):
I, you know.
I think that you know people inour industry.
They're very familiar with thattype of that type of service
that you have to provide inorder to to keep that customer,
you know, to have any chance athaving somewhat of a decent
experience for the customer inthat, in that type of situation,
other situations where acustomer, like I said earlier,
(31:18):
where we're prepping for aservice job, hopefully ahead of
time, so when the truck shows upwe have what's needed, we can
disassemble and reassemble in amuch quicker fashion, but we
prepped with the wrong order orthe wrong parts, maybe having
used the VIN number and findingout, like another thing that we
mentioned earlier is, you knowthese trucks go through in some
(31:39):
cases several iterations of useand so it doesn't have what it
did have when it was made stuffand having to go again either.
You know trying, you knowstarting close and working your
(32:00):
way out in geographic distancefrom your, from your pinpoint
location, to try and find thatpart.
Hustle out and get it and bringit back to the shop so that we
can keep going and get the rightstuff.
Jamie Irvine (32:09):
One thing I know is when you do it right, people
do appreciate it, but when, whensomething goes wrong and then
you hustle and you fix it,oftentimes they never forget
that hustle right.
So that is part of the game.
It's part of what's necessaryto be successful.
You've been listening to theHeavy-Duty Parts Report.
My name is Jamie Irvin and it'sbeen my pleasure to talk to Joe
Stewart, general Manager ofBetts Truck Parts and Service.
(32:32):
If you'd like to learn moreabout Betts Truck Parts and
Service, go tobettstruckpartscom.
Links are in the show notes.
Well, I really hope you enjoyedmy interview with Betts Truck
Parts.
I thought there was so manygood points that were made about
what it takes to get the rightparts to the customer the first
time.
It's now time for our segmentthat's Not Heavy Duty.
(32:55):
In this edition of that's NotHeavy Duty, I want to continue
the conversation about notgetting the right parts to the
customer and installing thewrong part and how devastating
of an impact that can have on acustomer.
So we went to a legal websiteand we looked up a case study of
what happens when the wrongpart is sold and installed on a
(33:19):
vehicle.
Now here's the background.
This vehicle was taken to aCummins engine repair shop, so
it's probably just aCummins-approved,
independently-owned repair shopand it was in Mobile, alabama.
Now what happened is the truckwas fixed and when they were
driving away from the shop itbroke down again.
(33:40):
The truck was towed back tothat shop and has been in repair
ever since.
So now the truck has been downfor a total of two months.
Now here's what the customer issaying.
The manager of this repairfacility told them that it was
the fault of the mechanic,because they installed an
(34:01):
incorrect part.
The part was the wrong size,they installed it and that's
what caused the breakdown.
So at the root of this problem,this is a parts identification
issue.
Right, the wrong part wasinstalled on the vehicle.
So the customer goes on to saynow it's been three weeks beyond
(34:26):
a reasonable repair time andthey have lost $8,000 in income.
Now the question that thiscustomer is asking for legal
advice.
This is the question we'retrying to find out if there's a
way to get compensated fordowntime, since this was all
caused by the repair facility.
Here's the response from thislegal website.
They say, and I quote if therepair shop was negligent in
installing the improper part,then legally you can sue them
(34:49):
for their negligence, which caninclude lost income for use of
the vehicle.
If you have no other vehiclesthat you can use as a substitute
during this time, unfortunately, it is likely the company will
deny your claim, so that meansyou would have to file a suit
and you would need to get awitness to testify that it was
indeed because of the wrong partthat this damage occurred to
(35:12):
your vehicle.
This whole situation can beavoided by identifying the
correct part and really, at theend of the day, we all know that
things go wrong from time totime, but as heavy-duty parts
professionals, it is really ourresponsibility to ensure that
the mechanics who are installingparts get the right part the
(35:35):
first time right, so that thiswhole situation can be avoided.
Parts identification is such acritical, foundational piece of
the repair process and we've gotto get it right.
Yes, as time goes on,technology will become more and
more part of that process, but,as we've discussed, it can still
(35:56):
be a part of the problem, partof the failure, if the data
isn't correct.
So, again, if you are trying todigitize parts identification,
if you're trying to usee-commerce to distribute parts,
you've got to make sure thatthat data is correct so that
people can make a good buyingdecision.
And as parts professionals, wehave to continue to be diligent
(36:18):
and hone our skills and learnhow to identify the right parts,
how to ask the right questionsto make sure that repair
technicians get exactly whatthey need.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode.
As we've mentioned over the lastcouple episodes, the Heavy Duty
Parts Report team has been onvacation.
That's why we're re-airing acouple of our most popular
(36:40):
episodes.
I hope you enjoyed them and ifyou haven't already, because
next week we've got a brand newinterview and we are back from
vacation and we are going to bebringing you a lot of excellent,
excellent information andinterviews coming up.
So if you haven't already, headover to heavydutypartsreportcom
, sign up to our weekly email.
(37:01):
You only get one email a week,no spam, no marketing.
Just one email a week that says, hey, this is the new content
that's out, so you never missout If you listen on the podcast
player of your choice, if youcan, we'd really appreciate for
you to follow us, but also togive us a five-star rating and
review if it gives you thatoption.
We've heard that that helpswith reach and we really could
(37:23):
use the support.
Thank you for that.
Also, if you like the videoversion, go over to our YouTube
channel.
Hit that subscribe button, hitthe bell notification so you
never miss out.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of the
Heavy-Duty Parts Report and, asalways, I want to encourage you
to be heavy-duty.
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