Aftermarket vs. Dealership: Bridging the Gap in Heavy-Duty Parts & Service
This episode argues that both dealerships and the independent aftermarket are vital to keeping fleets running, each offering unique strengths amid rising complexity, labor shortages, and shifting industry dynamics.
Episode 364: This episode explores the evolving relationship between dealerships and the independent aftermarket in heavy‑duty parts and service, highlighting how rising equipment costs, advancing technology, technician shortages, and tight freight markets are forcing fleets to make smarter decisions about where they source parts and repairs.
Jamie Irvine, joined by Jeremy Smallwood and Chris Norris of KEA Advisors, compares the strengths and weaknesses of both channels—dealers leveraging telematics, OEM support, and improved customer communication, while the aftermarket excels in flexibility, innovation, and entrepreneurial problem‑solving.
They discuss pricing misconceptions, regional performance differences, the impact of economic cycles, and the growing need for both channels to invest in training, technology, and people. The conversation emphasizes that both dealership and aftermarket networks are essential for up-time, especially as equipment becomes more complex.
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Disclaimer: This content and description may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, The Heavy Duty Parts Report may receive a commission.
Transcript of Episode
Jamie Irvine
Welcome to The Heavy Duty Parts Report. My name is Jamie Irvine, and in this episode, we’re going to be talking about how fleets can make the best possible decisions when deciding where they should get their parts, where they should get their service done. And to help me with that, I have two guests to talk to today. Both of them, are strategic advisors at KEA Advisors. They work with dealerships regularly to help them with their operations. And they’re also podcast hosts on a new podcast, The Heavy Duty Hub. So I’d like to welcome Jeremy Smallwood. Welcome to the show, Jeremy.
Jeremy Smallwood
Oh, thank you, Jamie.
I appreciate it. Glad to be here.
Jamie Irvine
And Chris Norris, welcome to the show, my friend.
Chris Norris
Thanks, Jamie. I really appreciate it. Excited about our conversation today.
Jamie Irvine
I think today we’re going to take opposite sides of this argument. I’m going to represent the aftermarket, you guys are going to represent the dealership world. I think it’s going to be a great conversation. Why this conversation matters to our listeners? Well, I think there’s a number of reasons. When I look at the situation that fleets are operating in today, we’ve got rising equipment costs, we’ve got advancing technology that is adding complexity. There’s an ongoing technician shortage. We have tight freight markets. It’s not been the easiest markets to operate fleets in over the last few years. And so I think the stakes are really high when making decisions around your parts, around what parts you use, where you get them, who does the service. All of that is very important to fleets. So I’m excited about today’s conversation, guys.
Jeremy Smallwood
Yeah, it definitely is. Right now, uptime is key to everything. with the market being so tight, those trucks aren’t running, they’re not making money, and nobody’s happy. Dealer’s not happy, aftermarket’s not happy, and ownership of those fleets are not happy. So those trucks have to stay running.
Jamie Irvine
What would you say from your perspective, dealerships are doing that perhaps the independent service channel aftermarket can’t?
Chris Norris
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, no, I really see, dealerships now are really focused on the full customer experience and really the communication side of what that looks like. So, really getting an estimate in a timely manner out to the customer, as well as a promise date and doing everything in their power to adhere to it. You also had brought up that technology side of things and what we’re seeing a lot of OEs currently doing are telematics, meaning the truck will identify, hey, there’s an issue, your truck’s here, the closest dealer’s here, they’ll contact the fleet and say, hey, you go here, and they’ll already have sent the parts for the repair. So utilizing the technology to really enhance the fleet and customer experience, to help drive to Jeremy’s point, what he said earlier, the uptime aspect, and that’s just, it’s key to success, right? If the truck’s not running, it’s not making money. So that’s where I think dealerships and the OEs have really gotten together and are really embracing technology, as well as using a lot of predictive type data sets and analysis to determine, hey, we’re seeing failures of this part in these regions. We want dealerships to stock these parts. So these dealer managed inventories, all that technology coming together, we’re really seeing a big improvement in that overall quote unquote customer experience.
Jamie Irvine
Do you guys think that is filtering down beyond the first owner? Is that is are these solutions that the dealers are so positioned to provide? Do they do they have the same value to a second, third, 4th owner?
Jeremy Smallwood
I would say in the past, that answer was it was a hard no. But now things have changed so drastically. It’s kind of interesting. One exercise we do, if we’re engaged with a customer and doing a service engagement, we have them call around, not to other dealers, but to all the aftermarket shops in their area. We have them call around and get pricing on certain repairs. And we compare the aftermarket repair to the dealer cost of repair. Now, everybody always wants to talk about, well, what’s your labor rate? I’m not concerned about a labor rate. I want to know how much the job is going to cost. And so when you start calling around and getting these prices, nine times out of 10, the dealer is actually cheaper. And that is blowing people’s minds because when we go in and do that engagement and we do this exercise and they call around and realize, hey, wait a minute, I’m not the most expensive guy. They are revamping the way they do business. with the owners because they know that that second, third, fourth truck was not coming to them. They’re changing things so that it is coming to them. And with the training that they have, it makes it really worthwhile once you sit down and compare what’s total cost, not just labor rate, but what’s the total cost of that job and how quickly can it get done? The dealership for that first, second, third owner is becoming more and more of the top choice.
Jamie Irvine
More of a viable option. So when I started in the business 30 years ago, I mean, the reality was the dealers, their parts were more expensive because they were supplying an OEM part and the aftermarket was giving an alternative. I’ve seen that erode over the years. You know, the amount of growth the dealership networks have had on the all makes aftermarket side has been significant. There’s no question about it. Although when I travel around the country and I’m working with different clients, I’m working with different people, one of the things I still hear is that depending on the region, depending on the dealership group, that all makes kind of approach is stronger with some and weaker with others. And so I think this is becoming instead of it, you can’t really look at it from a national perspective. It’s becoming more regional in who’s able to perform at what level. Do you see that as well?
Jeremy Smallwood
100%. That is so accurate because, you know, the same way with the aftermarket is with the dealer. There are some locations you go into where that ownership of that particular facility is aggressive and goes after the business and has all these options that you can choose from. And other places you go in and it’s, you know, what’s your VIN number? If you don’t have a VIN number, they tell you, sorry, I can’t help you. Or if you walk in and say, you know, you walk into a Freightliner dealer and you have an International, they tell you, well, go call international. So it really does depend on the dealership itself, the aftermarket, and how much time and effort they’re willing to put into the training to be aggressive in their marketplace.
Jamie Irvine
When you talk about aggressive, another experience that I had, and it was extremely frustrating, so I would be representing an aftermarket part supplier. I would do a lot of work to focus on, to your point, not just the purchase price, but the total cost of, you know, installing part A versus part B. I would do a lot of work with my customers. And then every few weeks or a couple months, I’d have a dealership send a salesman out into my area. And all of a sudden, they just dump all this like ridiculously low pricing on parts. And it would just muddy the water. And I had like, I had that experience for several years now. That was when I was operating in a smaller region. And, you know, there was a large urban center about two hours away. So they would send their salespeople out into our area, like I say, maybe every two months. What do you guys think about that situation? Is that something you see dealerships doing? Is that a mistake? Are they actually benefiting in some way from that? And what’s driving that kind of approach?
Chris Norris
The economy drives that 100%. If the economy is very strong, dealers don’t need to go further to keep, because everybody’s buying, everybody’s happy and fat, so to speak. But as the economy tightens, they’re not as, they’re hungry. They want to go out. So I can go further. I’ll make the investment to send someone out. And see if we can get some business further out. And then you see dealerships do these milk runs, so to speak, where they’ll have, okay, we’ll be here every day at 2:00 PM or 3:00 PM. And if the expectation is set for the customer, I think that really drives, okay, fine, it’s not going to impact me. I know I’m going to get my part at two o’clock. So I think really when the economy kind of goes into these tighter spots, that’s where you see these dealer groups, even on the aftermarket side, they reach further because they’re not, it’s not as easy. They’ve got to work for that additional revenues. So it’s just, I really see the economy is a big driver of that.
Jeremy Smallwood
Yeah, it really does in the long run. It hurts whoever’s doing that, okay? They’re going further, which costs more. They’re lowering their price, which erodes margins and bottom line. We always equate it with, you know, there’s a reason there’s 3 million Starbucks in North America. There’s a reason you’re paying $8, $9 for a cup of coffee. And it’s the brand. We would encourage to build your brand, you know, be that trusted source in the marketplace, be the place where everybody calls for their parts, for their service, to buy their trucks. They know that you are the name in the marketplace. We would much rather see dealerships, aftermarket go that direction. Because again, once you start chasing after the dollar, you’re always going to be chasing it. And then it becomes an emotional decision, not a logical business decision. And I teach a lot about not allowing emotion to dictate what we do in the business world. And as soon as you start getting outside salesmen involved and price, and everybody wants to be the cheapest, and I’m going to lose my customer, I’m going to lose my business. Now it becomes all kinds of emotional. So we try and teach people to stay away from that tactic. But as you said, it happens more often than not. And it’s sometimes you just can’t break that habit.
Chris Norris
And it’s keeping up with the Joneses, so to speak, when you have an OPS or you have a front counter person, and you know, I know if I drop my price, I can get this additional business. And all you do when you do that is you devalue whatever OE you represent or aftermarket. You’re devaluing the brand to keep up with someone who’s not providing the same level of service that potentially you do. And Jeremy brings up that point, right? You really want to focus on your brand and your identity to strengthen the value to the customer, the return on value, right? That’s what matters at the end of the day and profitability.
Jamie Irvine
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We’re back from our break. Make sure you go and check out the links in our show notes to all of our sponsors. Okay, let’s get back to this episode.
Gentlemen, I think we’ve just started the conversation to talk about some of the strengths that the dealerships offer, also some of the things that they sometimes do that create some pain for the aftermarket. You know, earlier you talked about technology, and you talked about the, you know, the resources that dealerships have. And as the equipment becomes more complex, do you see a world where we no longer can have an independent service channel? And if you do, do you think that’s good for the industry?
Jeremy Smallwood
I would certainly hope not. Obviously, there needs to be alternatives out there. There’s a lot of things going on in the industry right now. And I’ll just use this one example. You know, a lot of the wiring harnesses right now, they’re no longer color coded. They’re all white so unless you have the technology, the training to know which pins go for what and can trace them down that way, there’s no way you’re going to be able to work on that. Now, there’s companies out there and they’re doing a fantastic job of coming up with some aftermarket stuff that’s on the market, which is starting to break down some of those walls. You know, there’s a lot of talk about right to repair and they’re doing fantastic. And the technology is increasing and speeding up day after day. But that’s something that, you know, we’re dealers are always going to want to try and keep everything they can proprietary, at least for a certain amount of time. But the aftermarket is making it harder and harder because the technology is getting better and better where they can break into those, you know, let’s say, codes and things where they can get in and learn how to fix those trucks without relying on a dealer.
Chris Norris
Well, the level also, Jeremy, too, you know, you talk about technicians and what it takes to be a factory trained technician in that level of technology and all this complexity now, especially not even, I don’t want to jump in this rabbit hole, I’m just going to mention it real quick, as far as the hybrid side now, all this electrical. So, getting someone in the aftermarket channel that can go in and diagnose and repair, it makes it even more challenging as technology evolves and those trucks go into that second, third owner scenario. It just gets even more complicated for that aftermarket channel to be able to maintain that vehicle.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah, I think one of the things that I have a large concern about is just capacity. The reality is when things get going and booming, the dealerships are packed. And I’ve known of a couple individuals on the independent service channel that made it a strategy to set up their locations near dealerships because they just relied on the overflow. And so I think the independent service channel is absolutely needed if we’re going to keep trucking as a whole up at the maximum amount of uptime, because there’s just no possible way the dealers could handle all the volume. I think, and maybe you guys can tell me, weigh in on this, but I think what we’re going to see as the complexity continues to evolve is we’re going to see a rise of specialists on both the independent service channel that who are going to focus more on these like specific areas and they’re going to develop this deep expertise as opposed to everybody just kind of being generalist. And I think the dealership groups, I mean, they’re going to continue to have that support, have those resources from the OEM. So I think as time goes on, it’s going to be interesting to see that entrepreneurial spirit that you see on the aftermarket side where people are figuring out problems and solving them and coming up with unique solutions. I think that’s going to have a heavier impact on changing the aftermarket than it will on changing the dealership group model. What do you think?
Jeremy Smallwood
I completely agree with that aspect. You know, and that was something I wanted to ask you, you know, we’re in the dealer world all the time. We play in the aftermarket occasionally here and there. What are you seeing in the aftermarket that the aftermarket does really, really well that the dealer channels may be missing out on or just can’t do.
Jamie Irvine
I’ve got this theory about companies and it goes something like this. When a company is founded, it creates the DNA, the foundation of the business. And I find that it is very difficult for companies to escape that in the long term. So even 10, 20, 30, even 100 years out, I’ve worked with companies that are legacy companies and they’re still that DNA of how they got started is still just part of who they are. And so the aftermarket, I mean, you got to think about it, right? You get trained to basically say yes to everything, right? You become, your specialty in the aftermarket is to figure it out. And so it kind of creates this real ability, natural ability to find solutions with very limited information. And one of the reasons The Heavy Duty Parts Report even got started in the 1st place is because I recognized that the independent service channel had a lack of resources compared to the people who work in the OE channels. And I wanted to contribute to give them something of value. But when you see the entrepreneurial mindset, you see that kind of original DNA from the way that you’re trained to be very scrappy, to find solutions, be very solutions oriented. I think that allows, especially the mid-level and smaller companies to make rapid changes and to react to the needs of customers very, very quickly. And I’ve seen the dealerships, some of them really improve in that area with their all makes program. And I’ve seen some of those people really grasp onto those programs and grow them quite a bit. But I still think the aftermarket will be better suited to do that than the dealership groups. Now, when you get to the big national players, they move very, very slowly, just like the larger dealership groups do. I also think that you’re going to see the continued development of products and solutions that the original manufacturers can’t possibly create. And that comes just from the ability of doing large amounts of failure analysis. So I think the aftermarket’s pretty good at that, right? They can look at a situation, say hey, look, man, this thing keeps failing. We’ve torn it apart 1000 times. We see the, let’s come up with an innovative solution. So that’s to me where the aftermarket continues to be strong and probably will be for some time. That being said, I mean, I’ve got genuine concerns about how long they would be able to do that in an environment where right to repair isn’t upheld.
Jeremy Smallwood
Right. It’d be very, very difficult if that was the case.
Jamie Irvine
So as I said those things, guys, what came to mind?
Jeremy Smallwood
We need both to keep the trucks running, right? You know, that’s the bottom line. You’ve got to have both out there. There’s pros and cons to each. But more importantly, I think the pros and cons, when we really talk about the pros and cons, that depends on the facility and the ownership more than just aftermarket dealer. You know, there’s some fantastic dealers out there. There’s some fantastic aftermarket. There’s some very poor dealers, some very poor aftermarket. It’s who’s willing to invest the time and money into everything, the technology, the training, the people, building the systems that are sustainable and long-term. Who’s willing to do that? You know, right now we’re kind of seeing a little bit of an erosion of, you know, the small one-off mom and pop dealers, just like the aftermarket is seeing. And it’s because they’re not willing to do what it takes to keep up with today. In today’s technology, in today’s world, with today’s training, they’re just not willing to do what it takes. So I think it more depends on the ownership and the leadership than it does aftermarket dealership.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah, Daimler just announced that heavy-duty aftermarket dialogue in January that they are actively eliminating their kind of mom and pop operations in favor of the more professionally managed groups. And they also talked about how, and I thought this was so interesting, because they finally hit a billion dollars in sales on their e-commerce platform, and they’re looking to double that in five years. But what is their top three problems? Cross-reference, fitment, and images, which is the top three problems of all the aftermarket people as well. So I think you’re right. There are distinct differences, but there’s also a lot of commonalities between the two. And at the end of the day, that systems-oriented approach, that investment, you know, some of the other things that the aftermarket’s really good at is really that flexibility to work on that wide range of products, especially as they get older. But you still need to invest. You still need to stay up with how things are changing, because let’s face it, the stuff that we all worked on when we entered in the industry, most of that iron doesn’t even exist on the road anymore. So you’re going to have to, if you haven’t yet, you’re going to have to pretty darn soon.
Chris Norris
The other side too, and Jeremy, you both brought up, and Jamie brought up really good points as far as, the smaller dealerships or even aftermarket aren’t willing to do the investing, but in a lot of cases, they’re not able to. That financial investment to bring in hybrid chargers, things like that, you know, you’re talking hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, to meet those standards. And it’s that weighing that risk versus reward. Is it worth the investment? Is it going to net me back? So, you know, in the world, as it evolves and changes, technology advances on both sides, it’s going to be very interesting to see who’s left standing in 20 years. You know, is it all going be large conglomerates or are there going be a few? And I believe there will be some smaller size groups that just their level of service is much higher and they’re capable of doing that, and they’re going to win out because of that, you know, investing in that training and that customer experience. But new blood is the problem on both sides, right? How do you find people that are, I want to come into this industry and repair trucks, or, I want to sell parts. I know when I started, this was not even a thought to me. So, you know, here I am 25 years plus later, and I’m doing it and I love it and it’ll never let me go. I’ll go on the ground still doing this. That’s just how it is. But it didn’t start that way. So how do you get that passion in our people of tomorrow on both sides?
Jamie Irvine
I think that’s one of the reasons the consolidation has been so successful too, because even if the smaller organizations had the willingness to make the investments needed to keep up, if you’re like in your 60s and your kids aren’t interested in taking over the business and you’ve got no, Fleet Pride Truck Pro already bought two of your competitors around you or one of the truck dealerships bought one of your, you know, one of the competitors around you and they’re not interested in buying you, where are you going to go? What are you going to do with your business? And are you really going to invest multi-six figure or seven figures to bring that business up to where it needs to be to sustain it for the next 20 years? Probably not. You’re just going to keep doing what you’ve been doing until you’re done, and then you’ll figure it out, right? I can’t tell you how many people I meet that have zero succession plan, and they are right at the door of being at the end of their careers and of owning these businesses. So that being said, this consolidation trend over the last 25, 30 years has been consistent and persistent. But just because that’s true doesn’t mean it’s going to continue to be true for the next 25 or 30 years. I actually think it’s very plausible that we could see some deconsolidation in the future. And I also, again, go back to that idea of specialists. And that’s where I see the entrepreneurial spirit. I see young mechanics getting their five to eight years of experience and then looking around and saying, okay, what can I do? And I see a lot of entrepreneurial spirit still in those, albeit a much smaller group of people than in years before.
Jeremy Smallwood
It’s just like fast food chains. Okay. There’s one or two really good ones out there and they’re consistently really good. And there’s a couple of them out there that are just huge, massive, massive machines. And the quality just goes away because like you said, you just can’t keep that sustained. You can’t keep your finger on the pulse of the entire nation of every single store that you have out there. So I agree with you. I could see that definitely happening because again, some of these places are just getting way too large to be managed properly.
Jamie Irvine
I actually heard one independent owner say, I absolutely, and I won’t say whether this was aftermarket or dealership, because I don’t want to give it away. But he said, I absolutely love it when so-and-so makes an acquisition of one of my competitors, because within six months, I get all their best people coming to want to work for me. So yeah, so there’s definitely some challenges with consolidation. Guys, let’s talk a little bit about where both channels are more alike than people might think. So let’s go through a fun little exercise here. And we’ll go Jeremy and then Chris, Jeremy, Chris, Jeremy, Chris. True or false, Jeremy, both channels now focus on uptime, not transactions.
Jeremy Smallwood
True.
Jamie Irvine
Chris, true or false, both invest heavily in training and diagnostic capability.
Chris Norris
I’m going to say half-truth on that. I think some do better than the others, but overall, they’re both attempting it. How’s that?
Jamie Irvine
All right, sounds good. Okay, true or false, Jeremy, both are facing technician shortages.
Jeremy Smallwood
100% true.
Jamie Irvine
All right, Chris, true or false? Both are pressured by data, telematics, and changing things like emissions regulations.
Chris Norris
100% true.
Jamie Irvine
Jeremy, true or false? Both want long-term customer relationships, not one-time purchases.
Jeremy Smallwood
True.
Jamie Irvine
Chris, true or false? Both are building digital commerce and parts lookup tools.
Chris Norris
That is true.
Jamie Irvine
You know, I think at the end of the day, What I’m hearing from your side and mine is that there’s a recognition that we need both sides of these channels to be really strong and healthy for the trucking industry to continue to grow and be strong and healthy. You guys would agree with that?
Jeremy Smallwood
Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. Gotta have options.
Jamie Irvine
What do you see as you work with dealership groups that are giving them heartburn for the future?
Jeremy Smallwood
Well, and we’ve hit on it a couple of different times. It’s a people deficit. If we can just get people into the industry, we can train them. We can give them the talent. It’s getting people to want to be in this industry. It’s a fantastic industry. One of the best industries you can be in. The pay is fantastic. How do you get people to want to be in the heavy-duty world, whether trucks, trailers, equipment, how do you get these people in it? That’s the biggest problem I’ve seen.
Jamie Irvine
Have you done any research on demographic conversion?
Jeremy Smallwood
That I have not myself, no.
Jamie Irvine
Do some Googling and listen to Peter Zion about, if you look him up and Zion, I think is Z-I-E-H-A-N. He’s got some fantastic information on the full impact of demographic conversion and why we’re having such a difficulty with people, not just in our industry, but across populations. it’s a fascinating deep dive for sure. Chris, you were going to say something.
Chris Norris
Oh, no, just piggybacking on what Jeremy had said a little bit there too. You know, it’s just people are the key to success. You know, this industry as a whole, just, and I’ll use myself as the example, you know, it’s someone who I started out in the fire service. And to kind of morph into this accidentally and just where it’s taken me and what it’s enabled me to do and just getting that out there, it’s almost like a trade, right? I think if we viewed the heavy-duty industry more like a plumber or an electrician or those trades, they make fantastic money, but I don’t think people have that visibility because it’s not in the norm. So it’s just as a whole, our industry needs to market itself much better to people.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah, I agree with you 100%. And that’s both sides of the OE or aftermarket side. Well, we’re coming to the end of our time together. So, let’s give any of our fleet maintenance managers and fleet operators who are listening some practical advice. Real quick, kind of rapid fire guys. Jeremy, when should they be choosing a dealership versus an independent service channel provider, aftermarket provider? What’s your quick level thoughts on that?
Jeremy Smallwood
Quick level, when you have a newer truck and you want that truck repaired correctly the first time and you want it done fast, you definitely go to the dealer.
Jamie Irvine
Chris, the mixed channel strategies that both channels now, dealership with their all makes programs, aftermarket have always been that. How does that in the end reduce downtime for a fleet?
Chris Norris
As a whole, it gives customers choices and options. So if one doesn’t have it, because they’re all focusing on very similar things, there’s a very good chance that the other will. So, the dealerships are really focused on that now, building up that side of their business that they, I’m not going to say they’ve ignored, but they haven’t had to focus on it. So I think it makes the whole industry as a whole better.
Jamie Irvine
Jeremy, how would communication and transparency influence a fleet’s decision about who to work with?
Jeremy Smallwood
Oh, my goodness. This is one of my favorite topics. I can’t believe you saved it to the end of the program. When you have a customer that you can be completely transparent, completely honest. And even if you screwed up, if you could sit there and look that guy in the eye and tell him, hey, I apologize. I’m the one who messed up. It’s not your fault. This is what we’re going to do to take care of you. That in this industry still matters a lot. It may not in other industries because of the transactional way other industries are run, but in our industry, in the heavy-duty industry, that I think is more important than anything else when it comes to customers, the relationships we have with them. And yeah, I think we need another show just to talk about this.
Jamie Irvine
All right, we can set that up. I’m going to take this last one. I think regardless of who you’re dealing with, if they are not regularly talking to you about lowering your total cost of operation, if they are just coming in with the hottest price and flyer deal of the week, that’s not a partner for you. I mean, you’ve got to surround yourself with people who truly understand that and are helping you get to the heart of lowering your total cost of operation. Gentlemen, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Before we say goodbye, can you tell our listeners about your podcast? Just give us a quick brief overview about what it’s about and what they will enjoy when they listen to your show.
Jeremy Smallwood
Sure, I’ll go first and I’ll let Chris go real quick. We are a couple heavy-duty nerds. The best way I can say it, we love the industry. We’ve been good friends for many years. And even when we’re not at work, this is all we’re talking about. And we realize that, you know, you’ve got your podcast, we want to do something similar because there’s a couple podcasts out there right now that are very, you know, heavy and into the ownership or, you know, at least GM director level. We wanted an everyday nuts and bolts for the technicians, for the parts people, for the accountants, for the salespeople. And we just love doing it. You know, we wanted to do this and we just, it was a crazy thing and it happened quickly because we were both like, well, why do we keep putting it off? Let’s just do it. But we love the industry. We love the people in the industry. And this is our lives.
Chris Norris
Well said, Jeremy. You took half of what I was going to say, so I appreciate that very much. Nah, but all kidding aside, you know, for us, we just wanted that everyday person to have a voice, whether you’re in aftermarket, dealerships, in this industry, the problems and challenges you face every day. We want to talk about and potentially give solutions. If you Google something you’re dealing with, odds are you’re not going to find very much, if any. So just to have a forum that, you know, our viewers can ask us questions, and we delve into these topics and answer. That’s what it’s all about. We love this stuff. I’ve lived and breathed it for a very long time. So has Jeremy. And I’m passionate about it. I’m not emotional. Passionate.
Jamie Irvine
You’ve been listening to The Heavy Duty Parts Report. I’m your host, Jamie Irvine. Today we’ve been speaking with Jeremy Smallwood and Chris Norris. They are both dealership operations advisors at KEA Advisors and podcast hosts of the new hot show, The Heavy Duty Hub. You can find that over on YouTube. We’ve included a link in our show notes so that you can find it easily. And I believe that they will be expanding where they distribute the show as the show continues to grow. So gentlemen, once again, thanks for being on the show. I really appreciate it.
Chris Norris
Thank you very much. Yeah, it was awesome. Thank you.
Jamie Irvine
Just by way of conclusion, I think the heavy-duty industry works best when fleets are able to take advantage of the strengths of both the dealership channel and the aftermarket channel. And I think that it’s very important that both of these remain strong and vibrant and continue to do what they do every day to support this great industry. So thank you so much for listening and watching to the very end. And as always, I want to encourage you to be heavy-duty.
