Why fleet teams can't afford to ignore the parts problem any longer

With a growing labor shortage, fleet teams are facing bigger problems than ever when it comes to parts ordering management. 

Ben Preston, cofounder of Gearflow, shares why sticking to the old ways of handling parts just isn’t cutting it anymore. The manual processes and constant back-and-forth with vendors are costing fleets downtime and lost labor.

In this Q&A, Preston explains why now is the time to embrace the “software version of the electric bike” to bridge the labor gap and add more horsepower to your parts team.

Q: Parts have been handled pretty much the same way for decades: When a part is needed, you call your vendor. What’s the problem with that?

Ben Preston: “We’ve found parts are at the center of a fleet’s most critical problems: downtime, lost labor, and lost wrench time. On top of that, there's really no technology that's designed for parts.

"So the only way that we solve this today is by throwing more people at it and more processes, which still leads to this death by a thousand cuts, including tons of manual, repetitive steps and endless calls and texts.

Q: So why is now the time to address this?

Preston: “If we zoom out, we actually need to invest in technology today because of the pressing changes that are about to come.

"We go across the country and visit with fleet teams everywhere, and for every fleet team that we talk to, the labor gap is felt most by maintenance teams. One out of every 5 construction workers is nearing retirement age.¹

"On every team, there’s at least one person that fleet managers are terrified to lose, because they have 30 years of parts and service knowledge in their head that might walk out the door any minute.”

Q: So short of figuring out how to manufacture people in labs to replace these outgoing folks, what can we do?

Preston: “The only option we have is to create technology to augment the people we have, which means we need the software version of the electric bike.

"What that means is we need to be able to go 10x further and 10x faster with the same amount of pedaling, the same amount of inputs, and the same amount of people.”

Q: “So how does technology do that? And how does this relate to parts?”

Preston: “First, we had to figure out where technology was needed in parts.

"We believe it starts with keeping the fundamental things that make parts go, like the relationships you have with your vendors, but automating the processes that suck, such as the countless check-ins and the massive amounts of data entry that go with every single parts transaction.

"That’s why we built Parts Hub Pro.”

Q: Within today’s fleet teams, who exactly does this help?

Preston: “Parts Hub Pro means different things for different people. What it does for fleet managers is it maximizes visibility into everything going on, so they’re not caught firefighting on every single problem, and allows them to catch problems before they happen.

"For parts managers, it helps them control the chaos and get time back in their days so they can actually spend it where they're most impactful.

"For mechanics, they just need to be able to click a button for the parts they need and move on.

"The vendors play a critical piece too. We had to build software to allow them to serve their customers more efficiently.”

Q: So how does this all work?

Preston: “Requests can be made by the mechanics out in the field on the Parts Hub Pro app, which flow directly into the parts management team for review or out to your local vendors that can support you, depending on how your organization prefers to work.

"Price and availability all come back in one place. You can make a purchase with a single click, and anyone that is relevant to the order is going to get notified.

"So collaboration and coordination between the fleet, the field, and the office is all seamless, all the way to the point of picking up a part.”

Q: Why is improving communication for parts among fleet teams so essential to reducing the critical problems of downtime and lost wrench time?

Preston: “Before remote or hybrid work was a thing, fleet teams really were the first virtual teams – they had to communicate with folks all around the country at various job sites about the parts they needed. And it’s a lot of lines back and forth, trying to figure out the status of an order or reporting problems.

"The benefit of having everything in one place is now you can easily spot any issues with orders and drill into problems, such as why a machine is still down if the part is on backorder or whether you are spending too much on a certain asset.”

Q: For fleet teams that are using Parts Hub Pro, what benefits have they seen?

Preston: “The short-term impacts are pretty dramatic and pretty instant. Fleet teams see decreases in vendor fulfillment time and improvement from the service they’re receiving, as well as parts costs saved immediately.

"Long term, fleet teams have seen dramatic swings in wrench time, downtime, and the most important thing, the happiness of your team, which is trying to stay out in front of the chaos of every day.

"But it extends far beyond parts, because ultimately, your parts data should be your biggest asset.”

Q: What do you mean by that?

Preston: “What I mean is it gives us the ability to provide fleet teams with the opportunity to add horsepower to your existing team members. And we do that in four ways.

"First, we can automate away the things that are dragging your team down when it comes down to parts, so they can spend their time on the most important stuff.

"Second, we can actually make informed decisions. We can tell you what parts to stock or what machines to fix to start to bridge that knowledge gap that you might have with your team.

"Third, we can make predictive maintenance a reality, and we can prevent work before it needs to happen.

"And finally, we allow everyone to work together more seamlessly.”

Q: So who’s working with Gearflow today?

Preston: “We’re just getting started, but we already have nearly 10,000 users from fleets across North America.

"We're working with over 1,000 vendors that you already know and love, as well as alternative options that are part of our Gearflow Network.

"We're backed by the top construction tech investors, led by Brick & Mortar Ventures, which is part of the Bechtel family.

"And we integrate with some of the top work order systems, including HCSS, Teletrac Navman, and Fleetio, with more on the way due to our open API that helps close the loop on parts procurement with your existing technology.”

Q: How do fleet teams get started?

Preston: “That’s simple. You can sign up for a free 30-day introduction to Parts Hub Pro today by creating your account at https://gearflow.com/signup/parts-hub and opting into the trial.

"You can also connect with our team about how this solution will work best for you.”

¹https://www.abc.org/News-Media/News-Releases/abc-2024-construction-workforce-shortage-tops-half-a-million