During the 2019 Covid pandemic, the world experienced a huge shortage of consumer goods. This highlighted many deficiencies in the current transportation system in America and other countries.
The first and foremost deficiency was the shortage of truck parts, which deeply affected truck drivers, service station employees, technicians, and even truck dealerships.
In this article, we will explore the causes of truck part shortages and how you can combat these issues.
What are the causes of truck part shortages?
For a long time, truck manufacturers, instead of building an inventory of truck parts, would manufacture the parts as and when required.
This helped them reduce wastage and make the process of manufacturing truck parts cost-efficient. Service stations saw a huge demand during the pandemic for truck parts like power steering, shocks, tires, and windshields.
The pre-pandemic levels of part availability were quite high. Service stations could place orders for these parts and get them delivered the next day.
But when the pandemic hit the world, this supply chain was deeply affected, leading to a truck part shortage. The CEO of the world’s largest truck manufacturer, Daimler Truck, expressed that it was the worst shortage that he had ever seen.
Let us take a look at some of the major causes of truck part shortage.
- High demand caused during the pandemic-
During the pandemic, the supply chain of truck parts was affected. This resulted in a backlog of truck parts in America. It would take service stations weeks to get their hands on parts that were readily available before.
Plus, the service station employees could no longer work on the same truck simultaneously as they had to maintain distance. This resulted in a longer wait time.
- Staff shortages-
Before the pandemic, the supply chain of truck parts ran pretty efficiently with minimized overhead costs. This was because the parts were made to order instead of mass-produced. This also meant that manufacturers needed a very small team.
When the pandemic hit, this production line was halted severely because of a labor crisis. The situation became even more dire when there was a shortage of truck parts that required a great deal of specialization, like sensors and EGR coolers.
- Reliance on International Manufacturers-
Truck drivers, dealers, and service shop owners in America are at the mercy of international truck manufacturers. With most of the manufacturing plants situated in different parts of the world, procurement of truck parts became extremely tough.
How do we overcome the issue of truck part shortage?
In the long run, there needs to be a massive paradigm shift in the production of heavy-duty trucks. Many fleet owners and truck drivers propose the promotion of American-made manufacturing parts.
This will create job opportunities in America and also lower America’s reliance on international manufacturers and supply chains to deliver automotive parts.
To overcome the issue of truck part shortages, truck drivers, service station owners, and dealers came together to look for innovative solutions in the short run. This is how many truck drivers were able to mitigate this issue in America-
- Personalized maintenance strategy-
To overcome this issue, truck drivers and fleet managers analyzed decades of work order data to identify which trucks face more difficulty in some situations than others.
This helped them uncover the lapses in their transportation strategy and become proactive when it comes to the maintenance of the trucks.
- Preventative Maintenance and repairs-
Truck drivers started to get their trucks serviced more often to reduce the need for new parts.
Service shops have started to advise their regular customers to get their trucks repaired more frequently for regular maintenance works like brake pad changes, oil changes, and filling coolants.
Additionally, repair shops have started paying more attention to smaller repairs as they can reduce the risk of a truck part becoming obsolete completely.
- Stockpiling on Common Equipment-
Fleet buyers started to stockpile regularly used truck parts and equipment to avoid truck part shortages. Planning during this time is a great way to avoid truck part shortages in your fleet.
However, it is important to create an inventory of all the equipment and use them in just dire conditions.
- Alternative Options-
Due to the truck part shortage caused by the pandemic, truck drivers and service station owners started to source their parts from online marketplaces instead of the manufacturers. Many even reached out to smaller, domestic automotive parts manufacturers to find a substitute part.
Truck drivers also started researching for truck parts from older trucks or cars that would be compatible with their trucks. This has, however, led to great delays in the truck resale market.
The damage done to the trucking industry during the pandemic was ginormous. However, it has taught us a valuable lesson in domestic self-reliance.
Since 2021, the American automotive industry has made a concerted effort to promote the interest of American truck drivers and the transportation industry. The global scenario has improved significantly as well.
