During ConExpo a session was held called Overcoming Off-Highway Repairs: The Future of Maintenance.
Tyler Robertson, CEO, Diesel Laptops, moderated the panel, asking participants a wide range of industry questions. The panel included:
- Bruno Gattamorta, Chief Commercial Officer, Cojali
- Matt Klasel, Director Customer Satisfaction, Tadano
- Melissa Petersmann, Social Media Influencer known as the Diesel Queen and Heavy Equipment Mechanic
- Nathan Clark, Gold Rush Heavy Equipment Mechanic
- Tim Davison, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Stellar
The panel tackled several challenging topics, and the Service Truck team has broken it into two articles, one focusing on training and industry image issues and this article about current challenges in the industry.
Robertson asked panelist about their thoughts regarding electrification of the construction industry. Davidson said that he believed to move to electrification in construction was a little premature, but he said there are times when it is required, such as when you are in a residential neighborhood and cannot use noisy diesel.
“Like it or not it is going to be coming,” said Clark, “I don’t think it will be prevalent in the industry for up to another 20 years.”
Todano has some EV products but Klasel said that “EV is here” but that the infrastructure to support it was behind. Klasel also noted that EV is useful in restricted areas, when noise levels have to be kept low.
Robertson then asked panelists about their thoughts related to data. He said that with regard to vehicle repair, today’s model is we wait for something to break down, then we diagnose to know what to get it fixed, but with data coming, but asked if data would enable better decision making.
Gattamorta noted that you can now get the information to help you make repairs before something breaks down. You can introduce data models that let you monitor and predict what parts and components will need repair.
Davison noted that Stellar likes to use data to better understand how customers are using their product. He suggested that dealerships could use the data to help them right size their equipment and there fleet in the future.
Maintenance Strategies
Robertson asked the panelists about the importance of implementing maintenance strategies. He asked Clark his thoughts. Clark said that regardless of what may be portrayed on the TV show Gold Rush, the maintenance on their trucks is planned well in advance. “The reality in Alaska is delivery of parts can take a long time, so you have to make sure you schedule everything well in advance. If you don’t you are going to fail.”
He asked Petersmann if in her experience her customers are planning their maintenance. She said that some customers do plan maintenance, but the majority do not.
Robertson was passionate about the benefits of predictive diagnostics when things to break down. “If you have data before you get there, you can be more efficient have the right tools and parts and equipment for the repair. Which leads down the path to predictive diagnostics. I used to think it was a futuristic and impossible thing, until I saw it working.”
Right to Repair
Robertson invited panelists to share their thoughts on the Right to Repair issue and noted that there is currently momentum in Congress to pass the Right to Repair bill.
He asked Gattamorta for Cojali’s stance on the issue. “Cojali is obviously in between, we like Right to Repair and talk about democratization of data and tools to repair.” But Gattamorta said that he understands certain things have to be exclusive to the OEM, because certain things have to be kept under control.
Klasel shared with the audience that Todano’s motto is Lifting your Dreams. He said that Todano is definitely sensitive to its distributors and customers’ needs, but said that sometimes for safety reasons the company wants to maintain exclusivity in certain areas.
Current state of supply chain issues
Robertson invited the representatives on the panel to share their thoughts on the current state of the supply chain.
Klasel said that Todano has a good supply now in 2023, but that they did have issues in 2022, where their chip manufacturer could not keep up with the demand for chips. He also noted that these issues are the cause for many of the price hikes that they have had to implement on their products. To get their parts they have had to pay significantly more, and they have had to reflect those higher costs into the price of their products.
Petersmann shared that last year at the dealership where she worked, there were issues even for simple things like fuel filters, where they could not get enough stock and the parts would have to be sent by overnight courier. She said they were aware the prolonged downtime of the vehicles was an issue for their customers, but there was nothing they could do to get the parts faster.
Clark said while he is not a fabricator, he did have to fabricate some parts to stay operational. He said he believes the problem is especially relevant in rural and remote areas. In Alaska it could take up to two months to get a part “It’s Alaska time”.
Davison said the service truck chassis supply situation in the US has started to ease, but that other issues have begun to pop up. “RAM stepped up in a big way in Class 5 trucks, but just recently they had an issue, and they had to put a stop sale on trucks.” Stellar says it will not be able to do anything on a RAM chassis until probably late April.
Davison shared an anecdotal a story that when RAM opened up orders in October 2022, they had four times more orders than what they could produce at the time.
Davison continued that he believes the chassis shortages will not resolve itself until 2025 and that he expects a 30% increase in chassis costs in the next two years. Supply chain issues equate to an increase in acquisition costs on a lot of equipment.
Robertson agreed the issues and cost increases have hit everything including diagnostic tools and cables.
Gattamorta agreed that components and parts have gone up considerably. He said that one of Cojali’s containers was stolen in transit in 2022 because the parts were so valuable. He said the Cojali team has had to be pretty creative in solving supply chain issues, sometimes for example, mixing and matching cables to meet customer needs.
Roberston agreed and that “it was amazing how 10 cent items all of a sudden became a big problem for everybody in the world.”