Scaling a Heavy-Duty Parts Business in 2026
A heavy-duty trucking entrepreneur shares how he built a fleet maintenance and parts business from the ground up, highlighting the challenges of scaling, the importance of family and systems, and a new partnership with an innovative hub component manufacturer.
Episode 371: In this episode, Paul Kunz of Precision Fleet Maintenance discusses his journey from running a side service truck to building a full-scale heavy-duty repair, shop, and parts distribution business driven by a desire to support his family and serve customers better.
He explains the challenges of entrepreneurship in the trucking industry—from fear and long hours to managing growth, hiring, and implementing systems—while emphasizing the importance of family values and strong team culture.
The conversation also explores the transition into parts distribution and the complexities of supplier relationships, culminating in the announcement of a new partnership with The Hub Corporation, bringing innovative wheel-end technology to customers and reinforcing the critical link between service providers and manufacturers in keeping fleets on the road.
Links
- Precision Fleet Maintenance
- Episode 356: Reinventing the Hub Cap with XTRACTOR
- The Hub Corporation
- Watch the Video Version
Sponsors of this Episode
The Hub Corp: Introducing the new standard in wheel-end protection: The Hub Corp’s revolutionary XTRACTOR™. The only line of heavy-duty hub caps with a built-in 3-Stage Magnetic Oil Filter that safeguards critical axle components under extreme loads for longer. And with the patent-pending HexThread™ cartridge, the XTRACTOR makes hub oil servicing and inspections faster, easier, and cleaner. The Hub Corp: Challenge The Standard. Visit TheHubCorp.com to learn more and join the waitlist.
Fullbay: Fullbay is built for the heavy-duty world, giving your operation the tools to keep your fleet or independent repair shop running. Features like streamlined scheduling, real-time inventory tracking, technician efficiency insights, and detailed reports are how Fullbay helps shops reduce downtime and keep your vehicles on the road where they belong. Check out Fullbay.com/power to maximize your shop’s productivity.
GenAlpha: Equip360 by GenAlpha helps manufacturers and distributors grow their parts sales and make life easier for their customers. With real-time insights into inventory, pricing, and order tracking, it keeps customers coming back. Plus, it saves time by automating routine tasks and making repeat purchases simple. Explore Equip360 at GenAlpha.com.
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
What do you think about when you hear the word entrepreneur? Some people might think of people like, I don’t know, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s or the Walton family for Walmart, Sam Walton. Or maybe others are thinking about Bill Gates of Microsoft or Steve Jobs of Apple. Or more modern examples like Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX. Is that who you think of when you think of entrepreneur? But that’s not the kind of entrepreneur that I’m thinking about. In fact, those kinds of people are the exception, not the rule. The kind of entrepreneur that I’m thinking about is like Paul and Jessica Kunz, owners of Precision Fleet Maintenance. These are two individuals who’ve laid it all on the line to build a business and they are, in my opinion, the real entrepreneurs. They’re the story behind the success of the trucking industry in many ways, because without people like this putting it all on the line, our industry wouldn’t be what it has become. And I’m so excited to share their journey with you today. And we’ve even got an exciting announcement where they’re taking the next step in their entrepreneurial journey. So come along with us and let me introduce you to Paul Kunz.
Paul Kunz
So Paul?
Jamie Irvine
You’re on The Heavy Duty Parts Report. So glad to have you here, man.
Paul Kunz
I appreciate you having me.
Jamie Irvine
So I got a question for you. What was the motivation for you to start your business all the way back in 2013? You’re a technician. You’ve learned the business. You’re working for someone else. Walk us through that day where you had that thought, I need to start my own business.
Paul Kunz
So I always had the business on the side as I had jobs and I had actually which some will call a great job, a career. I worked for a local municipality, and I ran a service truck on the side. And to be honest with you, I wanted, as we, me and my family, we had kids and stuff like that. And I was working a job, working on the side and it was, we got to pick one or the other. And so I said, you know what, I wanted to build a service business. Basically, I said, if I’m going to do it, I’m going to put everything into it. We’re going to scale it. We’re going to have employees and do everything the right way, get contracts. We scored our first contract with a local municipality where we were working on the trailers that were hauling all the waste out. And from there, I was able to put another service truck on. And work still repeated. So here we are. Then we were doing a lot of road service. We got into we were finding that when you get a call at nighttime, there were no parts open. So what we started doing was we started putting parts in stock so that at nighttime we wouldn’t lose those calls. Then we’ve seen that we had a lot of parts sitting on the shelf. And we said, you know what, there’s an opportunity here. There was a lot of places going out of business at the time. We branched out and opened up a store. Then we got a shop and we was going directs and We just kept going.
Jamie Irvine
But at the beginning, the heart of the motivation, what I’m hearing was that it really came down to your family. You wanted to provide for them, but you also wanted to be there for them. And doing double duty, you couldn’t do it.
Paul Kunz
No, it was working day, night, seven days a week. I wanted to be there.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah. And that makes total sense. I think that’s something that a lot of people who have never owned or operated their own business at the level that you have, they kind of fail to understand, they look at the big captains of industry and they think that it’s all about winning capitalism. But at the end of the day, most of the people I talk to in heavy-duty that start a business, there is some connection to family and to supporting their wife, supporting their children, building something of value. And then also there’s the side of it where they really have a desire to take care of their customers. So I’m sure for you, as you started to get more customers, you saw there was opportunity for you, but that opportunity came in the form of you filling a need.
Paul Kunz
Absolutely. I mean, our customers are definitely always, top priority, but, and it wasn’t only for my family. It was also, all the guys we bring on and we drill in into all of them that family’s number one. This is why we do things. We went above and beyond to provide benefits and time off and all this stuff. So then our employees also get to enjoy that time with their family as well.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah, absolutely. So talk to me a little bit about the early days. What was it like, what would you say was the most challenging thing you had to face when you first got the business going? You made that tough decision to quit your job and go full time. What were the challenges you encountered at that point in your journey?
Paul Kunz
I would say probably scared. I mean, you can always go back and get a job is basically what I looked at. I mean, I did get some kickback from the family and you have a safe, secure job and that’s always what it’s about. You got a job, you got benefits. But I just wanted to give more and that’s a real thing.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah, that’s fear if you haven’t done it and you haven’t experienced it.
Paul Kunz
And I don’t have a family that I wasn’t brought up that way. So it’s a lot of trial and error. And so I’d probably say just every step you took, it was a new fear.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah.
Paul Kunz
It still is.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah. You know how on Facebook it’ll pop up and remind you of a post that you did years ago? Yeah. I got one the other day and it was a post that I had made eight years ago and it said, be careful that the entrepreneurial dream you’re chasing doesn’t become a nightmare.
Paul Kunz
And it can.
Jamie Irvine
And it can pretty quick. So you’ve scaled your business now. As you mentioned, you’ve got six service trucks. You’ve got a shop. You’ve got a parts and office building. For many people on the outside looking in, they would look at what you’ve built and they would be maybe envious even to think of that, wow, you actually made it in such a short period of time, like just a few years really to get there. What are the challenges or how have things shifted now that you’re at this stage that maybe the average person who hasn’t run a business before wouldn’t even think?
Paul Kunz
So if I put myself back then, it was hustle, run the truck, make the money. And now it’s more of, and it was like that for a couple trucks, like, we’re going take care of this customer, we’re going do this job, we’re going do that job, or we’re just going rinse and repeat. Now it’s to the point where it’s building systems, not just giving jobs, building careers, how to do that, what to do. You know, we hire people to help us along the way that have more experience and can teach us how to do these steps. So I’d say it’s more of the system side now. We got to that point.
It’s time to hear from our sponsors. We’ll be right back.
The Hub Corp: Lowering total cost of operation involves looking at critical components that you put on your commercial vehicles and making sure that you are making the best selection for your application. With all of that in mind, I want to introduce you to the new standard in wheel end protection.
The Hub Corp’s revolutionary Xtractor. Now what I like about this product, it’s the only line of hubcaps that comes with a built in three stage magnetic oil filter, and this is a safeguard for your critical wheel end components. In addition to that, it is actually a serviceable component on your vehicle now and so it has a patent pending hex thread cartridge and the Xtractor makes hub oil servicing really simple and easy. And guess what? If you’re not servicing that hub oil regularly, you are going to have premature failure of key components. It’s just the way it works. So I highly encourage you to get on the wait list today. You can do that by heading over to the hubcorp.com.
Check it out. Get on the wait list and you will get the most up-to-date information about when this product is available and also some price discounts that you won’t get anywhere else. So go visit thehubcorp.com today.
Fullbay: It’s not just fleets and owner operators that need to look at their total cost of operation and find tools that help them with their business. If you’re running a repair shop, then you need tools to streamline your operations and that’s why I recommend Fullbay. Now Fullbay has features like streamline scheduling, real time inventory tracking, technician, efficiency, insights and detailed report on exactly every aspect of the business that you need to be paying attention to make sure that your repair shop is running as efficiently as possible. And what does this mean for you?
Well, it means in the end that Fullbay is the very tool that’s going to help you reduce downtime and make your shop more efficient, keeping the vehicles that you service on the road where they belong. Check out fullbay.com/power to maximize your shops productivity today. That’s fullbay.com/power.
GenAlpha: Manufacturers and distributors are a key component in the supply chain, and they play a vital role in keeping trucks and trailers rolling. I’d like to introduce you to Equip360 by GenAlpha. This platform helps manufacturers and distributors grow their part sales, but more importantly it helps them make their customers lives easier, and that’s so important. With real time insights into inventory pricing and order tracking, it’s going to keep your customers coming back.
Plus, it saves time by automating routine tasks and making repeat purchases simple. I encourage you to explore Equip360 at genalpha.com GENalpha.com. Check it out today.
We’re back from our break. Make sure you go and check out the links in our show notes to all of our sponsors. OK, let’s get back to this episode.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah, and the other thing too is that sometimes when I talk to people, not just in heavy-duty, but entrepreneurs in general, they will say something along the lines of like, they just feel like a conduit for cash, right? You’re sending cash to the IRS, you’re sending cash to your suppliers, you’re sending cash to the people you’re leasing your equipment from. Like you’re just, you’re just a conduit for cash, it can be a real struggle. And so as you’re trying to build a scaling growing business, there also has to be a new level of stress there when it comes to like, how do I get the capital? Not only that, how do I find the people? Like to your point, once I find the people, how do I make sure that they’re operating the way I would so that our customers are taken care of? Like now all of a sudden what you’re thinking about and concerned with is such a bigger scale, there’s a lot more weight on your shoulders.
Paul Kunz
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s where good systems, good management, we can have that trickle down effect where, we build a system, we build a protocol on how we attack certain tasks and we just teach it down the line and we multiply it and try and keep that same customer service.
Jamie Irvine
It’s funny, once the system is in place, the challenge is to now enforce it and make sure that it’s actually followed.
Paul Kunz
Which is not easy.
Jamie Irvine
Not easy. That’s its own kind of thing. Now, you also have a family business. So your wife works in the business, right? Your brother works in the business. What’s the pros of having family in the business? And we’ll talk about cons in a second.
Paul Kunz
Pros is, of course, most of the time you can trust your family and so, it’s always good to have people around you that you can trust and you can lean on. And so I think that’s a huge part of it. I think there’s a next level of care then, comes from family.
Jamie Irvine
The family’s invested. So I’m not going to ask you to talk about the cons of working with your wife. You can talk about the cons of working with your brother, maybe, but no. So I’ll tell you from my personal experience, and that way we keep Paul from getting in trouble with his wife. One of the challenges when you work with your wife is you have a tough day at work and then you commute home together. And then you’re instantly together again. And sometimes when you both have jobs in separate places, you can come home and you can kind of vent to each other. Well, a lot of times when things are stressful, the person you want to vent about is sitting across the table. Yeah. So that could be a real challenge. So, pros and cons. And then of course, the staff that have been with you for years, they become like family.
Paul Kunz
So 100% you’re with them most of the time more than your family.
Jamie Irvine
That’s right. Yeah. Okay. So I wanted to talk about another specific challenge that you have evolved the business. You’ve started off on the service side. You had mobile repair. Then you got a shop. Then you mentioned you started adding parts. What has been one of the challenges in reaching the goal of transitioning the business from service to a mobile and shop and then from mobile and shop to also add parts distribution?
Paul Kunz
Suppliers, getting direct with some suppliers has definitely been a struggle. Parts inventory and inventory management and stuff like that is.
Jamie Irvine
Like a complete different discipline.
Paul Kunz
It is. And we’re learning, we’re working with you and you’ve helped us along the way phenomenally. But yeah, I’d say it’s definitely managing the inventory, figuring all that end of it out and suppliers.
Jamie Irvine
So when it comes to picking suppliers that’ll work with you, there’s a couple things that I think are really important. And you and I have talked about this, but you have to have a supplier who’s not just going to sell you product, but they’re actually going to support your business. They’re going to help you to grow their business. You’ve had some success going direct with some suppliers, and we know that they’ve really helped your business. But we also have the opportunity to introduce a new supplier and to make an announcement. So to do that, I want to bring in the supplier that’s here today. How about we do that now, Paul?
Paul Kunz
Awesome.
Jamie Irvine
So we’re introducing Chris Miller from the Hub Corp. Chris, Jamie, you glad to have you here? Oh, good to see you.
Paul Kunz
Thank you.
Jamie Irvine
So I had the opportunity to introduce these fellows at HDAW this year. And before we get into our announcement, Chris, could you just give the folks who are listening and over your returning guests now on The Heavy Duty Parts Report, we will link the original episode in the show notes. But for those who are watching this for the first time, tell us about who the Hub Corp is and what they do.
Chris Miller
Sure. So the Hub Corp, we’re a manufacturer and our purpose is to challenge the standard. We make aftermarket parts, unlike parts that you’ve seen before, parts that are more durable, that have more functionality, that drive performance, that are easier to service.
Jamie Irvine
And of course, so the announcement that we’re going to make today is that Precision is an authorized distributor of the Hub Corp. So congratulations, Paul, on that.
Paul Kunz
Thank you.
Chris Miller
Congratulations. Thank you.
Jamie Irvine
So my question for you, Chris, is what are you excited about when you think about someone like Paul who’s built this great business and is now going to be distributing your product? What are you excited about with this partnership?
Chris Miller
What I love about Paul’s story is he’s done the startup journey, which is the exact spot that we’re finding ourselves in now. So I look to him as both a mentor and someone who’s kind of laid out a blueprint for what we can expect going forward. We’re a manufacturer. And he’s in service and parts. And what I’m really interested in is in finding new ways to create a tighter relationship to work together. I think it’s something that’s probably not done enough in this industry. And we’re excited to try to do that a little bit different to challenge a standard.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah. So Paul, from your perspective, how are you going to leverage the innovative products that the Hub Corp is bringing to market on behalf of your customers to improve their situation?
Paul Kunz
I think it’s an awesome product and that’s basically what I’m going to share with customers. Just like they call us out to do oil changes, engine oil changes, transmission fluid changes, differentials. This is going to be another preventive maintenance that we’re going to speak to our customers about and explain to them the hub oil needs to be changed just like all your other components.
Jamie Irvine
Yeah, anything else with oil has a filter and is changed regularly. Why not the hub, right? Absolutely. Yeah, awesome. All right, well, gentlemen, thank you so much for the time and thank you for being on The Heavy Duty Parts Report. Really glad to have you guys here and so great to be able to do this get out of the studio and do it actually at Paul’s location.
Paul Kunz
Thank you.
Jamie Irvine
If you’ve been watching or listening to the podcast for any length of time, you know that I say repeatedly that the trucking industry is the backbone of society. Without it, people’s lives and our way of life really do hang in the balance. And let’s be honest, without small business entrepreneurs like Paul at Precision Fleet Maintenance, putting it all on the line to start and build businesses like this great business he’s built, our trucking industry wouldn’t be as strong as it is today. And really that partnership between manufacturers and people who provide service and parts to the end user customer, the people who are operating the heavy equipment that make up the trucking industry, this is such an important part of our entire industry. And it is really my privilege to be able to bring these types of people together and to work with them on an ongoing basis. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you haven’t already, hit that follow or subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, I want to encourage you to be heavy-duty.
