Fleets Turn to Remanned Parts to Reduce Operating Costs

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The impact of a three-year freight recession, along with consistently rising costs, is providing both opportunity and challenge for truck parts remanufacturers in the dubbed “reman” market.

As prices for new trucks rise precipitously, owner-operators and fleets of all sizes are often running trucks longer. That’s requiring more maintenance and repair, and creating more demand for quality, refreshed replacement parts — a sweet spot for remanufacturers.

And with trucks remaining in service for longer periods of time, part obsolescence becomes a factor. As older units age and eventually are retired, OEMs, sensing a declining market, stop producing new replacement parts for them, which boosts demand for remanufacturers.

Also, the increasing focus on sustainability creates more interest in remanned parts, which conserves energy, repurposes scarce raw materials and prevents waste from going into landfills.

In all, it points to a rising groundswell of support for truck and trailer remanufactured parts for operators most concerned about total cost of ownership.

Maximum Uptime

“The key objective for any fleet is to find ways to manage the cost of ownership as low as possible, while keeping the fleet running with the highest uptime and consistently reliable operation,” said Jeff Stukenborg, head of remanufacturing engineering for ZF Group, which has one of the nation’s largest remanufacturing operations serving the heavy-truck market. He added that a remanufactured part should perform as reliably as new, and often comes with the same or better warranty as an original equipment part.

By definition, a remanned part is a used OEM part that has been stripped down, inspected, cleaned, repaired where needed, worn components replaced, and the unit reassembled and tested, bringing it back to factory specifications.

Wade Jones, senior director of operations for JLG Industries, noted that remanufactured parts are especially ideal for repairing older pieces of equipment. JLG Industries produces “access equipment,” such as forklifts, boom and scissor lifts.

“The process is like how the part was originally manufactured, but instead of all new parts, some of the com…