Podcast

“If You Bought It, A Truck Brought It” – New Program for the Independent Service Channel

See the importance of having a strong ‘why’ for your heavy-duty parts company and learn about a new program by HDA Truck Pride.

Episode 344: Having a strong ‘why’ for your heavy-duty parts company is critical for success. It also is what will guide you when faced with decisions and opportunities. In our That’s Not Heavy Duty segment, we discuss why working without purpose is not heavy-duty and how many employees would prefer working for a company that has purpose.

Our guests today are Tina Hubbard and Clint Carter from HDA Truck Pride. They discuss their strong ‘why’ that led them to create a new membership program, MOHD. The MOHD program will allow members to access tier one products and education programs to benefit their business.

See the importance of having a strong ‘why’ for your heavy-duty parts company and learn about a new program by HDA Truck Pride.

Links

Sponsors of this Episode

Heavy Duty Consulting Corporation: Find out how many “fault codes” your heavy-duty parts business has. Meet with us today. Visit HeavyDutyConsulting.com

Hengst Filtration: There’s a new premium filter option for fleets. If you’re responsible for a fleet, you won’t believe how much using Hengst filters will save you. But you’ve got to go to HeavyDutyPartsReport.com/Hengst to find out how much.

Diesel Laptops: Diesel Laptops is so much more than just a provider of diagnostic tools. They’re your shop efficiency solution company. Learn more about everything Diesel Laptops can do for you today by visiting DieselLaptops.com today.

HDA Truck Pride: They’re the heart of the independent parts and service channel. They have 750 parts stores and 450 service centers conveniently located across the US and Canada. Visit HeavyDutyPartsReport.com/HDATruckPride today to find a location near you.

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:

You are listening to The Heavy Duty Parts Report. I’m your host, Jamie Irvine, and this is the place where we have conversations that empower heavy-duty people. Welcome to another edition of The Heavy Duty Parts Report. I’m so glad you’re here. In this episode, we are going to talk about why it is so important for you to have a strong why if you want to do anything meaningful.

We’re going to talk about how HDA Truck Pride was first established in 1982 and how really the independent distribution channel and HDA Truck Pride specifically is the real heartbeat of that independent service channel. We’re going to talk about a new program they’ve introduced and we’re going to round out our conversation with why it’s so important to be purpose driven in your heavy duty business.

It’s going to be a great episode, so let’s get started. When you’re doing something meaningful, inevitably you’re going to have some difficult times.

When you’re building a business, for example, in the heavy-duty industry, you are going to run into challenges. And when you run into those hard times, having a real strong why behind the very existence of your business is critical to give you fuel to keep going despite the challenges.

Also, when you are faced with a difficult decision and maybe you have more than one pathway forward, having a strong why behind what you do can really guide you in making those decisions.

We recently had a situation at The Heavy Duty Consulting Corporation where we really were contemplating going down a road that if we had gone down that path, it was going to involve legal action.

It was going to involve some real nasty business. And after really taking some time to think about the situation, to look at the people that were involved in their situation, we had to take a step back and we had to consider why did we create the Heavy Duty Consulting Corporation?

Why do we publish this weekly podcast, The Heavy Duty Parts Report? At the end of the day, our why is centered on helping heavy-duty people thrive.

And so despite it being a situation where we were going to take a loss, we felt that sticking to our why and not going down that path that was going to lead to legal action and taking an alternate path despite it incurring some loss for us was the best possible decision, and it helped us to stay centered on why we created this business in the first place.

So one of the things that we do with our clients when we start working with them is we always start with why does your business exist? It’s a question that can be difficult to answer. We might want to say, well, we sell heavy-duty parts, or we provide parts and service to commercial trucking fleets.

That’s what you do. It’s not why you do it. Deeply thinking about this can really help you. And as part of our greater mission to help heavy-duty people thrive, we want to encourage you to think about why your heavy-duty business exists in the first place.

We’re going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors when we get back from the break. We’re going to have an interview with one of our partners, HDA Truck Pride. They are a purpose-driven company. They know why they’re there.

They know why they’re in business, and they are actively working within that framework of why they’re in business to provide their members and the industry at large with some pretty impactful programs to really help heavy duty businesses make it in this crazy world that we live in. So we’re going to take a quick break here of our sponsors.

We’ll be right back. Are you deferring maintenance because of filter cost or availability, or worse yet, are you trading down to no name filters to try to save a few bucks?

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HDA Truck Pride is the heart of the independent parts and service channel. They have 750 parts stores and 450 service centers conveniently located across the US and Canada. Visit heavydutypartsreport.com/hdatruckpride today to find a location near you. Again, that’s heavydutypartsreport.com/hdatruckpride and let the heart of the Independent service channel take care of your commercial equipment.

We’re back from the break. Before the break, we were talking about why it’s important to start with why I briefly explained the heavy duty consulting corporations, why and the why behind this podcast to help heavy duty people thrive.

My guests today are people who share in that passion. My guests today are Tina Hubbard, CEO, and President of HDA Truck Pride, and Clint Carter, Chief Commercial Officer at HDA Truck Pride. Both are returning guests. Tina, welcome back to The Heavy Duty Parts Report.

Tina Hubbard:

Thank you Jamie. Glad to be here.

Jamie Irvine:

Clint, glad to have you back.

Clint Carter:

Thank you, Jamie. I’m glad to be present.

Jamie Irvine:

So one of the exciting things that we saw recently is the announcement of a brand new program that HDA Truck Pride has put forward. And before we get into the details of the program, Tina, could you tell me kind of the big idea behind why this program was developed?

Tina Hubbard:

Yeah, Jamie, thank you so much because a lot of people dive right into the details and they forget about the big picture. So thank you for the opportunity. We have the saying if you bought it, a truck brought it, it doesn’t matter what you bought. It could be groceries, medical supplies, gasoline, a birthday gift for Tina, whatever it is.

A truck had existence throughout that supply chain at some point, and our industry, as you well know, is absolutely essential to the economy of the country. And how does the HDA Truck Pride Network fit into that supply chain?

Our mission has been to create, enhance and protect the value that our membership brings to the commercial vehicle aftermarket, and we excel at that, whether it’s coordinating supplier programs, service initiatives, connectivity of end users, whatever that might be throughout this ever evolving industry that we have, and we have some dynamic changes that are happening in our industry.

That’s been what we focused on and we kind of sat back and said HDA was the first buying group back in 1982 and so much has changed. How do we help bring that value statement to more distributors? Because independent distribution is the heartbeat of this industry. So that was a premise behind the big idea, as you said, of expanding and introducing the MOHD group.

Jamie Irvine:

Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about that. The MOHD Group. What does MOHD stand for?

Tina Hubbard:

Mode MO is for Missouri, which is tribute to the heritage of HDA, which was based in St. Louis originally. So Missouri and Heavy Duty as you well know for our industries.

Jamie Irvine:

Okay. Okay. So that’s what it stands for. So let’s get into the details of this program and to help us with that. I want to bring Clint back into the conversation. Clint, can you describe the ideal company you’re looking to provide the solutions that the MOHD program provides?

Clint Carter:

Sure. It’s a great question, Jamie, and one that has been present for us since the beginning of our journey. So that was asked countless times internally, who is our target audience, where are we going? It’s not as simple as parts distributors that have scale, parts distributors that need assistance, parts distributors that need our value proposition.

It really came down to an elegant simplicity of companies with passion. We were looking for companies that were passionate about what they do, passionate about their customers, passionate about their staff, and passionate about the heavy-duty aftermarket.

That’s the core criteria on what we wanted to focus in on. And within that, obviously there’s a variety of companies that fit that mold. Everything from large multi locational operations to simple, corner store home varieties and everything in between. The passion is what we look for.

The passion is what creates somebody as an ideal candidate for us, because we’re passionate about what we do, we’re passionate about the value we provide our members. We’re passionate about the value we provide our suppliers, and we want our new members in this new MOHD membership level to share that passion with us.

Jamie Irvine:

Okay. So what would you say then are the benefits that this new program offers membership and how does that differentiate from what you did before?

Clint Carter:

Sure. So the ability to be part of the MOHD Network gives you access to a variety of value providers. The big three for us are quality brands throughout the heavy-duty aftermarket from Acuride to ZF, and everything in between. Quality incentives on those affirmation brands and then a consolidated payables process. Those are our big three deliverables that create value throughout.

But in addition to that, in addition to gaining all this products access and this competitive nature by the incentives we can provide, you’re also gaining other things on the service side with our TSE group, gaining access to our Fuse Fleet Network program, gaining access to our training and education initiatives.

So the MOHD membership catches people with that big three, but once somebody looks in the door and sees more than just the big three, there’s a whole field of value that’s created, whether you’re focused in on parts and service parts alone or specialized parts and niche markets.

It can be education, it can be marketing, it can be service and training, but it always comes back to the big three of valuable products and brands, valuable incentives associated with those brands and a centralized payment process that makes your life easy and not have to deal with every particular supplier on a one-on-one basis.

Jamie Irvine:

Okay. So what’s the difference between what you historically have done with members and this new program? How does it differentiate between what you did before and what you’re doing now?

Clint Carter:

Great question. There’s a lot of similarities and a few really important differences. Overall, the program shares all the same value creators, but by, and Tina mentioned it in the opening questions, our value proposition has evolved a lot since 1982 when we were founded, but some of the core restrictions that were in place in 1982 were still in place here in 2024.

When you look at the market like so much has changed in the last 42 years. So what we did was we tried to adjust the value proposition and the criteria for membership and the services we provide to better reflect the market opportunities. So the big three exist in both programs.

There’s a deeper value proposition for our stockholders than there is for the MOHD members because they’re stockholders and they also share some potential challenges and liabilities with the co-op, but the MOHD value is similar.

It’s just more curtailed and designed for a company that exists in 2024 that may have one location and may have a family that owns it and do a nice job and be valuable on their local marketplace, but also not be interested in some of the additional fees and services that we offer with a stockholder level of membership.

Jamie Irvine:

And there really is a growing group of people, especially on the repair side of the business that are wanting to get into also parts distribution and when they make that step, one of the big first hurdles is whether or not they really qualify to get the attention of any suppliers and whether those suppliers want actually do business with them.

So I’m excited about this. I think it’ll open the door to more of that independent service channel, especially people who want to maybe get out of just service and go towards parts and service. Let’s talk a little bit about how membership is determined and then we’re going to circle back to competitive programs. So first, how is membership determined in this program?

Clint Carter:

Sure. Ironically, we determined membership the same way. So again, these are a couple of these questions or questions we had internally once we had the idea and said, Hey, how do we actually execute this in the marketplace? So we’ve always had a really good, really robust vetting process to vet new prospects.

We’ve always been blessed with a steady flow of companies that are interested in joining the HDA Truck Pride Network. When we created the MOHD membership level, we thought about tweaking our membership vetting process and we didn’t really, we go about the same thing. It’s all about connecting and transferring information. We want to know as much as we can about potential MOHD members.

So we spend time conversing with ’em electronically, spend time with physical visits. We spend time sharing information on what we are and our value proposition and getting to know more about them and their value proposition in the local marketplace.

We also take all those things and wrap it up and look at how do they fit into our existing network. 42 years, we’ve developed a great network. We have some of the best and brightest stars in this industry, and we want to continue to add to that while remaining true to the value proposition that we give all of our stockholders and members so we don’t overpopulate any market.

So the vetting process is really an exchange of information where we make sure that the prospective member gets to know everything they’re getting in HDA Truck Pride, whether it’s as a stockholder or a MOHD member, and we get to know everything we can about them. We get to know where their passion is, where their passion comes from and what their future looks like.

So it’s really about finding that win-win. We’ve been approached by some really great companies who after we got done talking with ’em, we both looked at each other and said, we have both great organizations, but we’re not a great fit for each other. We look a lot for fit, and we find the fit through the vetting process of exchanging information.

Jamie Irvine:

So then there’s always options out there. There’s competitive programs in the marketplace. How is MOHD different than the competition?

Clint Carter:

Well, you said it right, Jamie. There’s always, you almost never operate in a vacuum and there is a competitive marketplace and there are good competitors in the marketplace. The advantages we have really is built from what we started off in 1982. So over all these decades we’ve built this expansive network and we’ve built this process of doing things slightly different than other people do.

When you join MOHD, you’re joining the most extensive network throughout North America, and you’re also getting access to more programs because most of our programs are built on the concept of our suppliers will sell everyone in the network. That doesn’t permeate every possible vendor line, but the vast majority of our vendors have agreed to sell everybody that’s within our network.

So as opposed to joining a competitive program and having to find out if you’ll be accepted or not on a vendor by vendor basis as you go, when you join mode, you join the HDA network of companies and all of a sudden you’re part of the family.

It’s again, it’s not a hundred percent. There are some suppliers where we still have great relationships, but work back and forth on market dynamics, but overall, when you join MOHD overnight, you gain access to a whole bevy of products that may have been hard or impossible for you to access before, and that access is given.

It’s not conditional. So that’s one of the biggest value providers for us. Additionally, I think the second best thing I would say is it’s back to the network.

With such a large network and such a long tenure of experience within our network, you’re gaining access to a group of other people who can help you navigate the competitive landscape as it continues to evolve, whether it’s in the independent service channel, the independent parts distribution channel, or a combination thereof.

If you’re a mainstream player or a niche player, there’s somebody in the HDA Truck Pride network that already participates in your space and can help you with challenges because you now have comrades to talk to and share ideas with.

Jamie Irvine:

Yeah, that’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. We like to celebrate all of our successes. This program has just come out, but could you talk to us about an early example of maybe a member who’s had success with the program already?

Clint Carter:

Sure. There’s a lot of examples and not driven by, hey, we just reinvented the wheel, but we have a great value proposition. And when we opened it up to this initial group of new MOHD members right away, there were some really good wins for each and every one of ’em.

We’ve had multiple MOHD members that had been looking to gain access to certain tier one brands and tier one products and hadn’t been able to get them, and all of a sudden found that within a week of joining the group, they’d been contacted by the supplier, they had an account set up and they could now move away from the product they were selling, which had worked for them, but wasn’t really a tier one brand and move into more of a branded premier product.

That’s happened, even ones that I’ve been involved in at least to five or seven different members already.

We’ve also had a couple of the members who have just been overjoyed with the educational resources we have in the independent aftermarket. Knowledge is a valuable thing like it is anywhere, but knowledge has always come strictly through experience and time.

We have a great university and our university has been made available to the MOHD members, so the MOHD members have enjoyed getting to see it, getting to learn from it, and kind of looking at the future as to how they can integrate our education platform with their day-to-day life and further develop their staff and their organization.

Jamie Irvine:

I want to circle back to how we started the conversation when you talked about these individual members getting access to these tier one products. One of the things we talk about on the show all the time is not just buying on purchase price, but lowering total cost of operation for fleets.

So you can imagine all of a sudden this tier one product comes into that location, they’re able to get that into the hands of their customers. What does that do for the end user customer, the backbone of society, the fleets and owner operators that operate trucks and trailers?

Clint Carter:

I just think it makes those vehicles more reliable. It makes the operators of those vehicles happier in their jobs. It’s a tough job moving parts and products and food and everything across this country in Canada and Mexico, and when you get sidelined by a subpar product, it’s just the difficulty that doesn’t need to be endured.

And there’s plenty of good products out there, plenty of great tier one brands and plenty of good aftermarket brands, but when you haven’t had access to the tier one brands and you open that up to people and you open up the end user to those opportunities, they love to engage in that because they want their vehicles to run.

They want them to run efficiently and smoothly, and they want to be focused in on their next load as opposed to their next maintenance interval.

Jamie Irvine:

Yeah. Tina, your thoughts?

Tina Hubbard:

Yeah, same thing. I mean, when you look at the bigger picture, it goes back to the beginning.

That was what we had in mind when we broaden the horizon and make sure that basically everyone deserves a fair shake at this industry and helping get the product to every nook and cranny across US, Canada and Mexico, there certainly have been geographic areas where we were void and helping to make sure that that end user has that full experience and has a reliability of the product that they have.

Jamie Irvine:

Yeah, and I think the independent service channel is so important as well, because the dealerships, let’s just face it, they would never be able to handle the volume anyway, and we’re trying to fight for right to repair.

We’re trying to make sure that our industry stays vibrant and competitive, and there’s a free market and there’s no monopolies dominating verticals. So I just think that all of that plays into these kinds of programs that keep the independent service channel thriving.

Tina Hubbard:

Absolutely.

Jamie Irvine:

So when we think about the educational side, unfortunately for all three of us, we’ve been around a while, and because of that, we’ve seen a lot of great mentors and people in the industry that were just, they were just like, well, what’s that saying? We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

As I watch one mentor of mine after another retiring and leaving the industry education and trying to get that knowledge into the younger generations that are coming up behind us is such an essential part of that.

So Clint, you talked about education. I’m just curious, Tina, from your perspective, how do you see that educational component being such a strength for these new MOHD members?

Tina Hubbard:

Yeah, I think it’s one of the biggest benefits that we have to offer to them. As Clint mentioned, everything that we can provide them with, but on the independent distribution side, it’s very difficult to come across that training.

If you’re trying to do it yourself, you’re spending exorbitant amount of money and a lot of time to put it together. What we have done with our education platform, it’s taken us years to pull it together, but things as simple as communication and listening skills, to something as extensive as technical training for a repair facility on transmissions and differentials and everything in between, quite honestly.

But the industry is lacking on training. We’re doing a better job than we did 42 years ago, which isn’t saying much, but we’re getting there and we know that we need to keep adding to it. Having access to that is absolutely essential as we move forward.

Jamie Irvine:

Yeah, when you think about the technical skills, as you mentioned, technical skills for repair technicians, for counter people, maybe for even outside salespeople, that’s very critical. But there’s also the management side, the recruiting and retention, all of those additional skills that when you’re a counter person and you step into a parts management position for the first time, all of a sudden you have these new responsibility responsibilities.

And how do you get that education and experience? Well, you have to have someone who’s willing to teach you and you need a little bit of time to absorb it and put it into play. So some of the programs that we’ve helped you develop in parts management, we have a parts management course that’s in production right now.

We have a recruiting and retention course that’s live on the university. We’ve got a program specifically for outside salespeople. So it’s those other programs that stack on top of all the technical learning that I think makes your university truly unique in the industry and just provides so much value to the members.

Tina Hubbard:

And it’s an easy flow process the way that it’s been designed and the information that you guys have shared with us and created for the different curriculums. But it’s a very easy process, so you got to make it easy or people aren’t going to utilize it.

Jamie Irvine:

Yeah, hit that easy button. So I’m excited to share with our audience this new program. We’re also excited at the Heavy Duty Consulting Corporation to work alongside of HDA Truck Pride and try to help our clients who are wanting to take that next step and come to the program.

So it’s an exciting collaboration for all of us. Exciting times. Love it when these new programs, thank you very much for your ongoing commitment to the independent service channel. If it wasn’t for the vision that your organization is bringing, then I think our independent service channel would take a step back. So I really appreciate that. With that said, Tina, what’s the one thing you want people to remember from today’s conversation?

Tina Hubbard:

I’ll go back to the beginning. If you bought it, a truck brought it, and the HDA Truck Pride Network is here to keep your trucks up and running.

Jamie Irvine:

That’s a great way to end our conversation. If people want to learn more about the program, they can go over to theMOHDgroup.com, theMOHDgroup.com. The links will be in the show notes. Today we’ve been talking to Tina Hubbard, CEO, and President of HDA, truck Pride, and Clint Carter, Chief Commercial Officer of HDA Truck Pride. Tina, thank you so much for being on the show again.

Tina Hubbard:

Thanks, Jamie, appreciate it.

Jamie Irvine:

And Clint, great to have you back on the show. Thanks for taking the time to talk about this new program.

Clint Carter:

Thank you, Jamie. It was a pleasure. Really enjoyed it.

Jamie Irvine:

Well, that brings our interview with HDA Truck Pride to a conclusion. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you have a chance, check out their new programs. If you’re in the independent parts and service side of the business, it might be something you should seriously consider.

It’s now time for That’s Not Heavy Duty in this edition of That’s Not Heavy Duty. I want to talk about operating a business with no purpose. If you go over to the show notes of this episode, you’re going to find a link to a Forbes article entitled, working Without a Purpose is a Waste of Time.

And in that article, it really highlights that purposeful organizations create an atmosphere of open exchange. People know what is expected of them because management is clear in its objectives. It also goes the extra mile and connects the work employees do with the success of the organization.

And people feel connected because they know they are contributing not simply in their function, let’s say finance or marketing or parts or service, but they also are contributing to the success of the whole enterprise. And that enterprise actually stands for something meaningful that they can get behind.

So when you work in a purposeful organization, you know what you do contributes to the overall ability of the organization to deliver on its mission. Now, this, to some people, they think this is just like pie in the sky, that it’s not important, that business is business and there’s no place for this, but there is a growing body of evidence that points to the opposite.

And while everybody recognizes that a job is a job, you still have bad days at your job. If you got to work, where would you rather work? Right? For a company that actually stands for something and is working towards something meaningful or a company that really has no purpose at all, and let’s say the objective is to just make the shareholders more money.

In a world where we are competing for people, where retention is an ongoing issue in our industry where recruiting is at all time lows, it is more and more important on an hour by hour basis almost that we as heavy-duty companies find our purpose.

We start with why. We get a purpose. We get a mission that makes sense, that contributes to the success of our organization financially, but also that gives our people that greater feeling of purpose, that they are part of something meaningful. And let’s face it, the trucking industry is the backbone of society.

So there are so many aspects to that that we as leaders can grab onto and say, this is our mission. This is why we exist, this is what we do and why we do it. And like I said at the intro of this episode, and I think is a great example with HDA Truck Pride, they are a purpose-driven organization.

And like I mentioned at the top of the episode, in our own experience at the Heavy Duty Consulting Corporation, when faced with difficult decisions, this purpose, this drive, this mission that takes us beyond just our job and just making money is the very thing that can sustain our companies as we move forward. So that ladies and gentlemen, is being heavy-duty.

Thank you again for listening to this week’s episode and your ongoing support of the show is I can’t express enough how much I appreciate it. Now, there’s a couple ways that you can show your support. One, sign up to our weekly email, head over to heavydutypartsreport.com. Hit that button, sign up to the weekly email.

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