Commentary: Truck Parts Suppliers Step Up Online Presence
Denise Rondini
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More than ever, fleets are focusing on maximizing vehicle uptime. Having the right parts on hand for a repair is one key component to achieving this goal. Recognizing this need, truck and component manufacturers are stepping up and making changes to their online parts catalogs.
Cummins recently launched www.parts.cummins.com, which it calls “an innovative approach to its online parts catalog.” Users can search the site for parts information using any serial or part number available on their Cummins engine or components, including Holset turbos, Onan generators, aftertreatment solutions and Fleetguard filtration solutions. Cummins says customers no longer have to go to multiple sites to research Cummins-associated parts.
“Parts.cummins.com was built to empower our customers’ success by finding the right part the first time, every time,” says Mike Champlin, director of aftermarket information management for Cummins.
Katherine Stevens, Cummins’ aftermarket information program manager, explains that the development and release of the site was motivated by functional, strategic and technical factors. “Functionally, 75% of all the traffic on our existing service website [QuickServe Online] visited the parts catalog. Seeing this as the largest content draw for our engine customers, we strategically tried to improve our overall parts catalog experience with our global customers.”
She adds, “With features like a part number search, individual part graphics and future part catalog language translations [coming in Q2-2018], users feel confident that the part they see on the website is the correct part to keep them up and running.”
Parts pages include part dimensions, alternative parts options, and applicable part-related kits “to ensure customers get all the parts they need the first time,” the company said in a recent press release.
Once the fleet finds the correct part, it can create a pick list on the website and then export, print or email that list to its local parts …Read the rest of this story
