Heavy Duty Truck Parts – It’s About Total Cost of Ownership

Heavy Duty Truck Parts – It’s About Total Cost of Ownership

Heavy duty trucks are expensive, but they can become down right unaffordable without the proper parts and service. The total cost of ownership is not always the first thought when purchasing heavy duty truck parts but it should be.

We are all consumers in one way or another, and so we’re susceptible to falling for the hot deal on a low price. If our own minds are programmed to immediately go for the cheapest option, it makes sense that most businesses make the same choice. The problem with this mindset however is that it does not factor long term value and costs into the equation.

Often, the most cost-effective purchase decision is one that pays off big down the road rather than saving a little up front. Consider this scenario: you have the option of paying $300 for a particular part that will have to be replaced again in six months or paying $500 for a part that will last two years. Which one do you choose? The obvious answer is to purchase the $500 truck part (as shown below):

Buying more expensive $500 truck parts actually save the buyer $700 throughout the working lifetime. However, this simple example does not even factor in the cost of three additional heavy duty truck service appointments and the extra labour hours of a mechanic. So, let us add the cost of labour hours, assuming that each time the truck part needs to be replaced, it will take a mechanic two hours and $50/hr:

Now, the more expensive aftermarket truck parts will have a total cost of $600 over the course of two years. Had you skimped out initially and opted for the cheaper, less quality truck parts, you will end up paying $1000 more over the working life of the truck parts. The obvious choice is clearly to buy your aftermarket truck parts from a reputable supplier that ensures quality of parts and quality of service.

In some instances, the obvious choice is not always feasible though. Some industries that utilize heavy duty commercial truck equipment are often tied to pay schedules that only start after a 120-day waiting, or processing period. In the aforementioned example, the truck parts were well under $1000, but when a heavy duty truck repair is needed and the costs balloon to the tens of thousands of dollars, you might have to bite the bullet and go with the poorer quality option for a cheap price up front. This despite the fact that you will likely end up having to pay much more in the long run due to having to continually replace a poor quality truck part.

Heavy Duty Truck Service Means Downtime

Downtime for a heavy duty truck is the absolute worst thing that can happen to an owner or an operator. We have seen that it is often better to pay more for a part up front that lasts longer because the extra mechanic costs can cause a cheaper part to actually become more expensive. However, the biggest advantage to buying quality parts and having them installed properly is that it reduces commercial truck equipment downtime.

When you have 150 trucks in your fleet and one of your trucks is down, you lose a little off the bottom line. A larger emphasis is placed on shrinking bottom lines these days, but the negative repercussions become more significant, the smaller your fleet is. When you only have 3 trucks in your fleet and one of your trucks goes through downtime regularly, you might not be able to eat. Clearly the stakes are higher with small fleets; however, the irony is that the owners of small fleets are often the owners who opt for cheaper, lower quality heavy duty truck parts.

It all comes down to how long you want your truck on the road. Most warranties will last half the working life of a truck. Even with extended warranties, chances are you need your truck to last at least four or five more years operating at peak performance levels. Hence the need for OEM standard parts sourced from the aftermarket. Not all aftermarket heavy duty truck parts distributors are created equally. At Crane Carrier Canada, our Pacific Truck and Artic Truck Parts and Service brands deliver consistent quality heavy duty truck parts and service to Central and Western Canada. Canada Powertrain serves Eastern Canada with the same high level of quality and service standards. When you focus your buying power to a company like Crane Carrier Canada, you will be dealing with a company that understands how to lower the total cost of ownership of a vehicle to increase your bottom line.

Cost vs Quality Breakdown

Even the most budgetarily stringent finance manager knows that you should never simply choose the cheapest option without considering other factors first. This is because the cheapest option may prove to actually be more expensive in the long run. A famous business principle states that when making purchase decisions, you can only have two of the following three things:

Cheap

Fast

Quality

This means that if you automatically want something for as cheap as possible, you have to sacrifice something else. Say you opt to sacrifice quality; well the truck parts you buy are likely to break and need to be replaced. Suddenly, you have lost the feature of saving money. Or potentially, you could sacrifice the speed at which your heavy duty truck parts get to you and are installed. This scenario results in more down time where your truck is not operational and you are not making any money with it. Again, here we see that selecting the cheapest option, can still result in losing more money.

What you need to do is find an authorized rebuilder that can provide remanufactured truck parts and also carries fleet products for commercial truck equipment. Pacific Truck allows you to maximize the above business principle. This is because you are guaranteed the best quality delivered to you on the day you need it for a competitive price with no hidden costs.

How to Identify the Real Cost of Heavy Duty Truck Parts

Identifying the real cost of heavy duty truck parts is an area many mechanics, truckers, and even professional buyers often oversight. With aftermarket truck parts and heavy duty truck repair, factors such as shipping costs, core return costs, administrative costs, and labor costs are not always analyzed properly.

The cost per mile of a cheaper product vs a quality product is neglected at times because it is often offset as a future cost. This article analyzed and identified the real cost of heavy duty truck parts. Make the right choice to work together with the right heavy duty truck parts and service provider so you can be sure that your total cost of ownership stays low and your profit stays high.

I appreciate how you said that you should never simply choose the cheapest option. Getting some spare truck parts would mean that you look for something that is going to work well for your vehicle, not just keep to the budget. Talking to a professional who can help you get what you need would be really helpful because then you should be able to get the best of both worlds.

That’s good to know that if a commercial fleet works with a heavy duty truck parts and service provider then they could cut the costs of repair, shipping, core return, administrative and labor. This would help an owner of a fleet be able to save expenses while also being able to fix their trucks with less downtime. If the company had less downtime they would make more money, and because they wouldn’t pay as much for services on the fleet they would end up making even more.

I like what you said about the business principle of only having two of three things. My older brother works in the trucking industry and mentioned one of his trucks breaking down and needing repair in the middle of his route the other day. Thank you for the information about how if he wanted something done fast, he could only have it done fast and cheap or fast and quality, not both.

Thank you for suggesting you find someone authorized to get you the right parts. Making sure your truck is working properly seems like it would be important to any truck drivers career. Hopefully, they look into finding the best parts to keep their truck running.

Thanks for explaining it so well. There really will be something you’d have to sacrifice if you opt for purchasing the cheaper ones. The cost of expensive parts would break your bank but perhaps the investment would be better in the long run, it’s about balancing the pros and cons of the whole thing.

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It’s interesting how you said that small truck fleet owners oftentimes have poor parts to use in repairing their vehicles. Getting a heavy-duty truck repair with high-quality materials would certainly be a better idea. That way you can be sure to have vehicles that will work at all times and won’t be super expensive to fix.

I think it’s great that you said that by sacrificing quality, your truck parts will likely break and need to be replaced. I think that’s why it’s so important to find a heavy duty truck repair service that offers quality among all things, to help your heavy vehicle run well for a long time. My friend was recently in a truck accident, and is looking for a good place to have his truck repaired. I’ll have to recommend that he find a workshop that offers quality service as a priority, so that his vehicle can be restored to its previous condition and run for a long time.

I did not know that choosing truck parts can boil down to being cheap, being fast, and keeping quality in mind. If I were to buy trailers for a fleet of trucks, I would do so by finding different suppliers then comparing their prices and features one by one. This will not only help in saving money for procurement but also be able to use the savings for important repairs and upgrades later on.

I like what you said about everyone being consumers in one way or another. I think maintenance is vital to the functionality of any truck, so it’s important to know a place to purchase quality parts. If I were to need parts for my own truck, I would contact a reputable service in my area that provides the best parts around.

Pacific Truck has set the standard for performance and quality in OEM products since 1947. We specialize in new and remanufactured transmission, drive train components, and supply a broad range of brand name products for on-road and off-road commercial vehicles. We are a leading supplier of truck and trailer parts and equipment, serving our customers throughout Canada.