WASHINGTON – A new report from American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council and Decisiv Inc. showed continued declines in heavy-duty parts and labor costs, but cautioned those declines slowed in the second quarter.
According to the latest Decisiv/TMC North American Service Event Benchmark Report, parts and labor expenses fell 0.7% in the second quarter across 25 major cost categories, following a 1.6% drop the previous quarter.
“These declines reflect a continued leveling off of expenses following historically high increases that resulted from supply chain challenges,” said Dick Hyatt, Decisiv president and CEO. “Fleets and service providers are seeing a return to predictability and an enhanced ability to more effectively plan service cost allocations. Along with more predictable freight volumes and vehicle mileages, the resumption of more consistent parts availability and overall declines or only modest increases in parts and labor costs point to much-needed cost stability for fleets and service operations.”
Despite the overall drop, parts and labor costs rose in 13 of the 25 Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standard categories tracked in the report, up from the seven VMRS increases in the first quarter, according to the report. Parts costs fell 0.4% in the second quarter, the third straight decline, but smaller than the drops of 2.2% and 2.4% in the first quarter of 2024 and final quarter of 2023.
Labor costs slipped 1.1% in the second quarter, following a 0.6% decline in the first three months of the year.
“Continued trends for reduced parts and labor costs are welcome news to fleets, who have been weathering substantial increases for much of the last several years,” said Robert Braswell TMC executive director. “The Decisiv/TMC parts and labor cost analysis report provides Council members an excellent means of comparing how their operations are performing to industry trends so they can take action accordingly.”
When compared to the same period a year ago, combined parts and labor costs were down 1.4%. Labor costs were 0.7% higher in the second quarter than a year earlier, but parts costs fell 2.8% from the second quarter of 2023, according to the report.
The data that Decisiv collects and analyzes for the Decisiv/TMC North American Service Event Benchmark Reports on 25 VMRS system level codes accounts for more than 97% of total parts and labor costs for more than seven million assets and over 300,000 monthly maintenance and repair events at more than 5,000 service locations.
TMC issues the reports to its fleet members. The reports are organized based on the Council’s VMRS, sorted by VMRS-coded vehicle systems and geographic location.
TMC fleet members will receive the report electronically via email. For more information on joining TMC, call (703) 838-1763 or visit http://tmc.trucking.org.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
