Month: July 2018

United Truck Parts in Gooding, Idaho has been a part of the TPI family since August of 2017.  It was started by Scott Burnett and Curtis Merrill in order to provide the local community with another option for heavy-duty truck parts.  Scott is the owner of a truck repair facility and this experience, together with his lifelong passion for trucks, gives him the insight and practical knowledge necessary for the successful launch of a yard.  Curtis is the owner of a meat-packing plant in Southern Idaho, and his skills in running a business have helped to ensure a strong start in a very competitive industry for this young company.

In August of 2017, when United formally began, there were two employees in addition to the owners.  Today, one year later, Scott and Curtis are able to employ 5 full-time employees and 4 part-time.  What factor can explain this expansion in such a short period of time?  In a word, relationships:  in various ways, United has put an emphasis on relationships as a core value in its business, and this focus seems to be paying off.  They want every experience with United to be a good one, and they are grateful to come into work to do something they love, and deal with people that make their day better.

At United, the customer is paramount, and understanding who the customer is and what they might need is a priority.  At the moment, farmers in Idaho are experiencing a recession, and so United is pleased to be able to offer them lower-price alternatives for their machinery in the form of used parts, at a time when they need to cut costs.  By helping farmers, the company is also giving back to an essential service, and helping out people who dedicate their lives to ensuring there is food on the table.

Jeff Mortenson, the General Manager at United, also recognizes the close bond that exists between a trucker and their truck.  As Mortensen observes, changes to a truck become an emotional transaction, as the truck has generally been with the driver “for millions of miles, or in some cases, passed down for generations.  Trucks are personalized, each one is different, and they all have the same pieces but different character, it seems.”  Understanding a trucker’s point of view in this way leads to customer service that is more thorough, accurate and complete.

A challenge that United has experienced has been connecting with businesses like their own, but Mortensen says that using TPI has helped with this, as “TPI and the users meeting programs [Sellers Groups] have made that so much easier.”  He also says that using TPI has helped them find new customers in areas beyond their own, and he can’t emphasize enough how much the TPI staff have done for United, noting “what a world of difference it was when we began to fully utilize what TPI had to offer.”

When asked what advice he could give to someone starting up a yard today, Mortensen emphasized, you guessed it, relationship: “Network.  Get to know people.  Know your customer.  Know who they are, and what they need.  Know how to take care of them.  At the end of the day, the customer is why we are in business, and why we all get to take care of our families.”

Happy first anniversary, United, and here’s to many more years of building a strong network with deep roots.

by Martin Mercer-Deadman, Customer Care Guru

Charging for Cores is a standard procedure in salvage yards, and TPI’s invoicing system is set up for it. What do you do, however, when a customer returns a core? How do you credit them back in the system? Here are the steps to follow:

Bring up the original invoice with the relevant core charge. Go to More Options on the right-hand side and click on Credit Transaction.  Click on the left drop-down menu next to the Engine (see screenshot below; in this example, we have used an invoice from an engine).  In the window that opens, click on the Remove button.

The engine will be removed.  Click on +Credit Core Exchange and from the new window select Core.  Click on +Add.

The core will be added to the credit note.  Check credit to see if all the details are correct, you will also have to fill the in the field for Reason for Credit, then click Credit.

If you then go to Connect, Sales Overview, you will see the credit.

Related Post:  http://insider.truckpartsinventory.com/what-exactly-are-cores-and-why-is-there-a-charge-for-them/

Miami, Florida is one busy place. With a steadily increasing population and a solid reputation as an international business center, the city is constantly in motion. As a trading hub, Miami is crucial for its proximity to Latin America and the Caribbean, and its port and airport are the busiest in the country in terms of cargo handling. With all of these shipments coming and going, Miami’s distribution infrastructure is dense, and trucking is a part of this network. Of course, where there are truckers, there are services that cater to them, and that includes salvage yards.

The entrepreneurial spirit encouraged by Miami’s growth and development has allowed for the creation of many new yards over the past 15 years, and one of them is One Stop Truck and Parts. But in a highly competitive market such as Miami’s, how does a company stay afloat and continue to progress? For One Stop, we discovered that family values are the motor for its success.

In 2003, Andry Gonzalez started One Stop as a family business, bringing a decade’s worth of industry experience with him. Now, 15 years later, he is joined on a regular basis by his son, Andre, who is actively involved in the running of the business when he is not attending high school or playing for his football team. Andry’s emphasis on the importance of such things as respect and trust has allowed him to develop a loyal customer base that appreciates the effort and commitment he puts into supplying them with the best possible parts, every single time. For Andry, the customer is everything, and his dedication to meeting their needs is second to none.

One Stop’s employees are friendly and knowledgeable, and they practice Andry’s customer-centered business philosophy every day when they are helping people find the part that is best for them. Andry has ensured that his facility is clean, organized, and up-to-date, making the yard easy to navigate and the parts quickly found. His commitment to supplying only the best parts, together with the way he runs his shop, has had an impact on Miami’s used parts’ industry, and One Stop’s level of quality has become a standard.

The company has also been able to embrace changes that enhance its commitment to its customers. At the initiative of Andre, One Stop recently began selling its goods online, its quality and selection now available at any time, and to a much wider audience. With this digital expansion, Andry hopes that, much like a family, One Stop will continue to grow and just get better.

At One Stop, customers know that they are the focus, and that they can trust the company to do what is best for them, each and every time. So, while new salvage yards might be popping up regularly in Miami because of the city’s continued growth, it would seem that older things, like the family values of respect, commitment, dedication, and focus, are the solid foundations upon which to base an enduring success.

By Scott Tetz, Owner of TruckPartSolutions.com

There’s a big shift in the way people look for parts. You used to be able to put a small ad in the Yellow Pages and the phone would ring. I recently had a customer ask me if he should advertise in the Yellow Pages. I thought he was joking but he wasn’t. I told him I haven’t seen a Yellow Pages book in 10 years.

People are using the internet more and more to find what they are looking for. Our traffic continues to grow year after year. The customers we add to TruckPartsInventory.com (TPI) say, “This is like a light switch for sales.”

The above being said, you need to be able to ship parts to accommodate orders. For those companies who don’t ship parts, this is for you. Here’s a step by step guide to get you up and running fast:

1. Get in the habit of weighing and measuring the part when you add it to TPI. Its a bit more work up front but saves you time when you get the order.
2. Buy shipping supplies, like boxes, packing tape, and/or pallets. This doesn’t cost a lot but will save you a ton of time hunting for shipping materials.
3. Figure out who you will use to ship. See the sales rep, talk about pricing. Try a few shipments.
4. Our customers add shipping to the prices they charge. Some even mark up the shipping a few percent to make up for packaging the product. On larger items they charge for pallets and other prep for the parts.
5. Its best to stay away from shipping to other countries until you get the basics down. When you ship to other countries its better to ship smaller parts and use DHL or UPS. They do the customs clearing for you although there may be more forms to fill out.

Remember you may get a few shipments back. Use these as a learning source to ask better questions on orders you ship. After you get the basics down, train someone else to manage shipping. This allow you to move to another area of the business.