Heavy Equipment Blog

An effective debt collection strategy can be the difference between success and failure for businesses selling parts for heavy equipment. In order to anticipate problems rather than going into crisis mode attempting to solve them later, sales representatives and AR professionals must work together so that debt collection practices are tailored to fit the nature of the business’ relationship with the debtor.

Understanding each of your customer’s businesses is critical to the effectiveness of your debt collection strategy. Approaching a lifelong customer who has hit difficult financial times the same way you would approach Bernie Madoff will have an adverse effect on your business. Because what happens when they dig themselves out of the hole and remember how you treated them when the chips were down? Or, in the worst case scenario, what happens when aggressive collection departments force them into bankruptcy and you lose both the customer and the receivable? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to work through the problem WITH that customer so that you can collect the debt AND keep them as a customer?

One way to take this approach is to make it as easy as possible for customers to make payments. By understanding the pros and cons of each payment method accepted, businesses can choose the best method of payment for a customer based on their situation. Consider the following chart:

Dealing with fraud is an unfortunately prevalent part of doing business in the aftermarket parts industry. How much it affects your business comes down to how well you are educated on the types of scams in the market and how well prepared you are to identify and stop potential losses from fraud. 

Here is a quick overview of some common scams and how we at ACTParts have been able to reduce our losses.

Stolen Credit Cards

Using information hacked from financial institutions, perpetrators are able to fool sales reps into thinking a sale is legitimate by providing a valid credit card number which authorizes for payment when entered. Once the real card holder disputes the transaction, the seller will be held liable for the total amount in addition to the cost of lost inventory. 

Ways to protect yourself:

• Sales reps should demand a faxed copy of both the front/back of the card as well as a government issued ID
• Credit managers should verify the legitimacy of the card’s use with the card issuer before any transaction is finalized

(Click here to view pt. 1 of this transmission rebuild)

How long it takes for an engine or transmission to require an overhaul depends on a lot of factors. Operators who perform regular maintenance and work in non-harsh environments are going to get a much longer life out of their heavy equipment components than operators who skip basic maintenance and work in a jungle or arctic tundra.  Still, no matter how well you take care of your machine and its components, you will eventually need to address critical maintenance issues and updates to keep it running efficiently.

At ACTParts, our rebuild department specializes in analyzing and identifying the parts inside of a component that are preventing it from working at full efficiency. Addressing these not only enables the component to work properly, it helps prevent other critical component parts from becoming worn or failing prematurely and, eventually, causing more problems and downtime.

The transmission being rebuilt in the video below was updated to include all major engineering updates. As long as its end user makes regular maintenance a high priority, such as replacing filters, they can expect thousands of hours of use out of their component before having to worry about another overhaul. 

In our next video, we will be finishing the rebuild of this transmission and moving it to the dynamometer (dyno bench) so that we can be sure our customer is receiving a quality-tested product which we stand behind. 

Winter can be a long and grueling time for contractors and fleet managers. Contractors have to dig in while business slows and working conditions become harsh. Fleet managers must deal with the arduous tasks of winterizing equipment and performing extensive inspections.

Managers who perform scheduled oil samplings, or S.O.S., at regular intervals throughout the year are in a great position to make the most efficient use of their winter downtime and avoid running into costly mechanical issues on job sites in the spring.The samples enable them to identify which machines have abnormal metal or contaminant levels in them and are more likely to require unscheduled maintenance when put back to work.

One of the most significant characteristics of American Crane and Tractor that distinguishes us from our competition is the quality and availability of our rebuilt components for heavy equipment. Customers without the time, money, or manpower to do a complete rebuild on their own come to us with a strong confidence that we can get them the component they need at a fraction of the OEM price without sacrificing quality. And since all of our rebuilds come with a 6-month warranty they can be certain that we stand by the products coming out of our shop.

However, what many outside of ACTParts do not know is that the quality of our rebuilds also fulfills a critical role for us internally: quality control. We replace every bearing, seal, and electrical element on all of our rebuilt components using parts from our own stock as well as incorporate all critical engineering updates. Any hard parts that do not meet OEM specs are also replaced with a brand new, OEM quality part that comes directly off the shelf at our warehouse. And through vigorous testing to ensure quality, we make sure every one of those parts works as it should. If any parts do not perform up to our standards they are immediately pulled from inventory so that they never see the inside of our customers’ machines.

In the video below, you can see the first of three internal sections of a 9W1285 transmission being assembled for a 621E scraper by one of our 30-year veteran mechanics, Bill. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing your comments. 

Shop managers and mechanics in our industry play a critical role of balancing efficiency with frugality. Everything they do will ultimately affect the company’s bottom line. And each minute the machines they work on are not in use the company loses money and productivity; putting tremendous pressure on them to get machines running as quickly as possible.

This pressure often leads fleet managers into making uneconomical purchasing decisions for the sake of convenience. Since the market for heavy equipment replacement parts has become saturated with manufacturers and distributors that run the gamut from inferior to OEM quality, buyers with no experience in the aftermarket are likely to have strong reservations about seeking out a new supplier.

However, these reservations will inevitably lead to missed opportunities for the business to save money without having a negative effect on productivity.

“We get a lot of customers who find us because they find themselves stuck in a situation where they can’t afford to go with OEM parts or can’t spare the manpower to do a rebuild,” says ACTP sales manager Dave Sellinger. “They’re thrilled when they find us because we offer them a filtered selection of only the best quality aftermarket parts and components so they can save money without having to worry about inferior products.”

Water trucks are a staple of many industries including agriculture, construction, and, especially, mining. In some parts of the United States their presence on construction and mine sites is required by dust control regulations.

Dust is an inescapable by-product of the industries we serve at ACTParts. Earth movers are in the dirt all day every day and not keeping the dust under control can be a dangerous and expensive oversight both for the workers nearby and the equipment on site. It can also open contractors up to regulatory fines for non-compliance with local and federal laws. In fact, the EPA has been known to shut down job sites that are contaminating the air with high levels of dust particles.

In the global economy for heavy equipment, Colombia has established itself as a land rich with opportunity. With the passage of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, over $200 million in tariffs required by manufacturers in the past have been eliminated. And the country’s economy is growing at a rate that requires heavy investment in infrastructure in order to sustain itself.

To be more specific, the country's growth is expected to reach 4.3% by 2016 compared to 2.9% in Latin America as a whole. This kind of growth would not be possible without the construction sector which made a 21.3% increase between July and September of 2013; driven by a rise in agricultural production fueling the country’s export market.

Lowell Snow, ACTP’s resident mining expert with over 40 years of experience in heavy equipment, has said, “Managing a fleet of machines in mining requires a balancing act between time, cost, and quality.  Everyone from the equipment operators, mechanics, and purchasing managers have to work hand-in-hand with one another to anticipate problems that could lead to downtime.”

The three factors Lowell describes (time, cost, and quality) are all interconnected. Let’s take a closer look:

Time

Machine downtime on a mine site reduces productivity of the operation as a whole until the equipment is up and running again.  Whether it is planned maintenance or an unplanned breakdown, with the size and complexity of the equipment it can take days to perform even simple repairs. 

When a machine (i.e. a wheel loader) becomes inoperable, the operation will see a significant decrease in productivity (and revenue) until it is back scooping and loading product. Since revenue is being lost for every hour the machine is not operating, fleet managers must try to minimize the amount of time to fix the machine.

Maintaining your equipment’s fuel system is a great way to ensure a longer life for your engine. When contaminants get into the engine through the fuel, they have the potential to increase wear on everything they touch. The good news is, there are two simple things you can do to avoid them.

1. Buy your fuel from a reliable supplier with a good reputation.

Since environmental regulations require machines to operate using fuel with low levels of sulfur, diesel is put through a process known as hydro-treatment so it burns cleaner and emits less sulfur.  While lower sulfur levels do not have a negative affect on the fuel, the process also removes many of the compounds that give diesel its lubricity. 

Quality fuel suppliers have the knowledge and ability to increase diesel’s lubricity through the use of additives. This increase reduces the amount of friction in your engine, extending its life as it burns the more eco-friendly fuel. 

2. Check your filters often and replace them regularly.

The fuel filters used in your machine’s engine are your last line of defense against contaminants. Buying high quality filters is an essential preventative measure that will help get the maximum life out of your engine. If foreign particles begin to build up in your fuel injectors, the engine’s cylinders will not get the amount of fuel needed to perform at maximum efficiency.  Remember that using dirty fuel can lead to costs that are substantially higher than the cost of replacing a filter.  

When we asked Jerry Duxbury, ACTP’s rebuild manager and a 30 year veteran of the heavy equipment industry, his opinion on the topic, this is what he offered, “Regularly replacing your filters is the easiest thing you can do to extend the life of your engine. A lot of people overlook it or put it off because they don’t want to spend the cash. But if you get your filters from a reliable aftermarket parts supplier like us it can actually be the least expensive way to extend your engine’s life too.”