Heavy-Truck Repair, Maintenance Costs Have Soared, But Prices for Common Parts Could Decline in ’16

The cost to repair and maintain heavy-duty trucks has surged in recent years, rising more than 50% since 2008, based on a study by the American Transportation Research Institute. But prices for the most common truck parts, such as filters and brake shoes, have been fairly stable and could fall in the year ahead as the costs of oil and other raw materials remain low.

The biggest factors driving the overall increase in repair costs, industry executives said, are new emissions-control components on trucks and the fact that many parts have software or other technological features that make them more costly to buy but offer benefits, such as increased fuel efficiency, that can reduce operating costs.

“Newer equipment is far more complex and expensive to maintain,” the ATRI study noted. Another factor is a shortage of technicians, which ATRI said was “driving up wages” of service technicians.

The average cost of truck repair and maintenance rose to 15.8 cents per mile in 2014 from 10.3 cents per mile in 2008, ATRI reported. During the same period, the cost of tires rose to 4.4 cents a mile from 3 cents, a jump of 47%.

At the same time, an annual survey of parts distributors conducted by the research firm MacKay & Co. found that prices for truck parts overall rose only 1.8% in 2014 compared with the prior year.

For some components, such as tires, the expectation is that prices may fall this year as the cost of energy and raw materials remains low and manufacturers shift their focus from supplying parts for new trucks to the aftermarket, industry executives said.

“It’s starting to change,” said Peggy Fisher, president of TireStamp Inc., a Rochester Hills, Michigan, firm that provides remote tire monitoring and tire training services.

Prices for truck tires about doubled over the past decade due to rising oil and commodity prices. In recent years, manufacturers have struggled to keep up with demand after cutting back on production capacity during the recession, Fisher said.

Now, however, with a slowdown in new truck and trailer sales forecast for 2016, ample tire production capacity and plummeting raw material prices, Fisher said that she expects to finally see a pullback in tire prices as manufacturers compete for market share.

“Everyone expects prices to fall,” Fisher said.

Independent distributors also are helping to keep a lid on the cost of parts by remanufacturing replacement parts.

Don Cameron, owner of Dawson Truck Parts in Dallas, said he is able to sell hoods for commercial trucks for up to 50% less than what original equipment manufacturers charge by subcontracting production to factories in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Other parts, such as grilles and bumpers, are made in Taiwan.

“We’re looking at expanding into ancillary parts,” he said, noting that he recently has begun supplying external mirrors and is looking at adding air-conditioning components and radiators to the company’s main line of body parts.

Some truck makers are encouraging distributors to buy parts in bulk and, while that may reduce the price of some parts, it also contributes to an increase in the amount of inventory that must be held, said Tom Brown, owner of Surplus-Solutions.com, a website that helps truck dealers find buyers for slow-moving and obsolete products.