In late 2021 into 2022, the average price of a used truck soared by over 40%. This has a huge impact, especially on smaller fleets with limited budgets. Fleets that buy used trucks at these record-high prices worry that when it comes time to sell these trucks they will have to do so at a loss.  

As long as demand continues to outpace supply, these prices will hold. But eventually, they will come back down and so buying used trucks that need a lot of repairs and maintenance instead of buying new trucks under warranty that is going to rapidly depreciate doesn’t make a lot of financial sense for many fleets. 

Regardless of whether a fleet buys additional used trucks or just decides to postpone buying new trucks until things stabilize, keeping existing equipment on the road and avoiding unscheduled downtime is critical to keeping up with the demand for transportation services.  

The need for a comprehensive truck maintenance program, utilizing predictive maintenance technology, and investing in high-quality heavy-duty parts that lower the total cost of operation and maximize uptime has never been more important. 

Keeping up with regular DPF cleanings will extend the life of your aftertreatment system is considered best practice for proactive truck maintenance. It’ll also help you avoid issues with a clogged DPF, broken sensors, and having the truck put into a derate limp mode. Additionally, analyzing the DPF can alert you to upstream issues that have not yet been diagnosed but will lead to unscheduled downtime in the future if not addressed.  

For the same reasons as new trucks, parts have also been in short supply these days. Sensors, in particular, have many components including the casing, catalysts, ceramic, glass, precious metals, electrodes, wiring, and more depending on the sensor type. If any of these components experience supply chain disruption, the sensor cannot be completed.  

We’ve seen difficulties with sourcing raw materials, overseas transport, delays from port congestion, and of course interruptions from COVID-related surges and lockdowns which have severely reduced the supply of these replacement parts. Therefore, it is important to identify sensors that will soon need to be replaced but have not yet failed, so that you can order the replacements and hopefully they will arrive before the truck is broken down from a faulty sensor.   

When replacing a part, some fleets go straight to the original manufacturer for replacements. Some other fleets look for the cheapest possible aftermarket replacements. The best bang for your buck lies in getting high-quality aftermarket replacements. You’ll still save money over OEM prices while making sure the parts fit as well or better than OEM and will last just as long. 

Additionally, the cost of having a truck back in the shop only a few days or weeks after a repair has been done because the replacement parts installed were poor quality and ultimately failed is far greater than investing in high-quality aftermarket replacement parts that are manufactured to OEM specifications. 

Diagnosing and identifying aftertreatment replacement parts for your diesel emissions system can be difficult. At Redline Emissions Products we have an extensive network of distributors who provide fleets with diagnostic services and our high-quality replacement parts.

We make diesel emissions systems easy for our distributors, service centers, and the fleets who are operating used commercial trucks. It starts with high-quality parts, a wide selection, and availability, but extends beyond that with industry-leading packaging that protects the products and provides OEM cross-reference information and training programs to help the trucking industry keep their commercial trucks on the road longer.