By: paula sparks,
n.w. missouri
when my husband was alive he worked on our truck and i noticed how expensive the parts were especially the major ones….so i decided i would call all the main parts places and ask for them to fax me their best price quotes for parts…we could quite often get our parts cheaper than our mechanic on the major things we didn’t have the equipment to fix… once his price was $2800.00 and we got a fax at his shop with a quote for the same part from the same place for $1800.00….really upset him that his base price was so much greater then ours…
—–
Response from Vicki:
Hi, Paula,
Wow! Thanks for sharing your story about how you were able to obtain truck parts at better prices than your mechanic could get them. We commend you for your ingenuity.
We wonder a few things, though, and would appreciate your follow-up (or the follow-up of other drivers who have experience with this):
1. Is it the case that your mechanic “wouldn’t” or “couldn’t” get the truck parts for lower prices than what he cited you? This would help folks learn the real reason why he was upset.
2. Have you ever had the experience where a mechanic doing work on your truck refused to do the work if the part didn’t come through him or his business? Is the “mark-up” (if that’s what it is) part of a built-in profit or commission at the customer’s expense?
3. Other than getting a best truck parts prices quote by “fax,” is there an alternative method — such as maybe getting a quote by email? Perhaps you had a lower cost method of getting faxes than setting up a separate fax line? Perhaps the suppliers have their truck parts prices on their website where you don’t have to call at all?
4. How did you decide which truck parts places to call? Was it on the basis of how far the places were from your home (like within 50 or 100 miles)? Where did you find the list of suppliers — or did you create one based on your own research? And did the quotes you received include the cost of shipping the truck parts to you or did you have to go pick them up?
Perhaps your experience and our questions will spur other professional truck drivers to be more savvy when it comes to buying truck parts and having truck repairs and preventive maintenance done on their vehicles.
Thanks again for sharing. We look forward to hearing back from you on this (and any other ways that truckers can save money).
If you’re still on the road, we wish you safe travels and lots of money saving opportunities.
Best regards,
Vicki Simons
