system is called Electronics Service Publication, or ESP, and has been available since 2001. With parts distributed through par- ent company Daimler Trucks North America, it’s where both customers and dealers come in to look up items dating back 1995, and dealers have special access to go back even farther to 1980. School district customers can set up accounts with their local dealers to see costs, availability and place direct orders. But that doesn’t mean the service is utilized on a wide scale, especially among smaller end-users. “Tere’s no question that the advantage to that is that they
can place orders and get pre-paid freight, set specific pricing,” said Brian McCool, the parts marketing and specialty sales manager at Tomas. “Te numbers are increasing. Some of the larger customers are definitely using it, but lots of school dis- tricts don’t have good access to the Internet.” Blue Bird has had online parts ordering and inventory for
about the last eight years to help its dealer network service school district customers. Te dealers set up accounts for their customers to continuously re-order parts through a third-par- ty ordering system. It’s a beneficial tool for the dealers so they can be more proactive in informing their customers what parts they need to keep on their shelves. “Dealers have full access to see what our pipeline is so
they know if we have it in inventory or if it’s on the way to us so they can know when to expect it,” said Dale Puhrmann,
vice president of parts and service. “We have connections behind a firewall for our customer service group to create a ticket item or case. Tied behind the scenes is parts forecast- ing, inventory controls and management to ensure we have the part as close as possible to the customer when they need it. Where some parts have a long lead time, the dealer may want to rely on our inventory.” Likewise, Navistar has an online parts catalog with an op-
tion for IC Bus customers to purchase specific school bus parts through an e-commerce vehicle, which is also set up by dealers. It’s all integrated with shipping and Diamond Con- nections Solutions, the company’s all-in-one maintenance tracking program for everything from parts and inventory to employee certifications and physicals to preventative mainte- nance schedules and fuel that can give users the value of true life cycle costs. But the number of users is still relatively small. “Te small- and medium-sized fleets, they don’t have the
solutions in place to best manage their fleets. A lot of school district-owned and -operated fleets may just not be that ad- vanced [technologically],” said Greg Baze, Navistar’s parts marketing manager, who started his career two decades ago with Mayflower Transportation before moving on to fleet op- erations with Laidlaw. “Diamond Connection Solutions is an excellent tool for school bus customers, but many times they just don’t have the infrastructure.” ■
38 School Transportation News Magazine March 2010
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