The truck is a warehouse you keep losing track of
Every van rolling around with $3,000–$8,000 of parts is mobile working capital. Most operations have no real visibility into what's on each truck, so they over-stock everything (tying up cash) while still missing the one part that matters.
Stock the right parts, not all the parts
- Run the frequency analysis. Pull your last 12 months of jobs and rank parts by how often they're used. The top 40–50 SKUs cover the majority of jobs.
- Tier the stock. A-items (high frequency) always on every truck. B-items on senior trucks. C-items ordered per-job.
- Set min/max per truck. Below min triggers a replenishment, not a panic shop run.
Track consumption at the point of use
The moment a part is used on a job, it should come off the truck's count — captured in the mobile work order. This does two things:
- Keeps truck inventory accurate in real time.
- Ensures the part actually lands on the invoice (uncharged parts are pure margin leak).
Replenishment that runs itself
- Auto-generate replenishment lists from consumption, so the warehouse restocks trucks each morning without anyone counting.
- Flag dead stock. Parts that haven't moved in 90 days are cash sitting idle — pull them off the truck.
The numbers to watch
- Truck stock turns — how many times a year inventory cycles. Low turns mean over-stocking.
- Parts capture rate — percent of used parts that make it onto an invoice. This should be near 100%; every point below is lost margin.
- Emergency shop-run frequency — high means your stocking model is wrong.