A look inside of one of LKQ’s parts warehouses.LKQ Heavy Truck goes to market with the slogan of Any Truck, Any Part, Any Where. And when you enter one of its 22 nationwide salvage facilities, it’s clear the company means it.
Nearly every component ever installed on a heavy-duty truck can be found at an LKQ Heavy Truck location.
LKQ Heavy Truck was founded in 2008 when LKQ Corporation entered the heavy-duty market. Like its automotive parent company, LKQ Heavy Truck specializes in recycled, reconditioned and rebuilt components, as well as aftermarket and OEM surplus parts and, at some locations, used truck sales.
“We want to stock pretty much everything we can from a truck,” says David Dabasinskas, marketing manager at LKQ Heavy Truck. “When a customer comes to us, we don’t just sell them one part, we want sell them a complete [unit] assembly to get them back on the road quicker.”
Though now operating as a single operation, the LKQ Heavy Truck network was built through acquisition of some of the strongest salvage facilities in the heavy-duty industry. Focus was directed at quality dismantling and rebuilding processes, which LKQ Heavy Truck says allowed it to quickly introduce a nationwide recycled part standard that meets and/or exceeds all competitors in the marketplace.
Today most LKQ Heavy Truck reconditioned parts come with a 180-day unlimited parts warranty, while its rebuilt components are warranted up to one year. And both warranties are of the full-cost variety, which means if a LKQ Heavy Truck part fails, the company will replace it at no cost no matter where it is in the warranty period.
Dabasinskas says this offers valuable piece of mind for end users and distributors alike.
“We sell parts we will back to service shops, so they can back them to the end user,” he says.
LKQ Heavy Truck also is active in growing two-way sales relationships with end user customers. The company’s recycled parts inventory is compiled from purchasing trucks across several avenues, including direct from fleet customers.
The company purchases cores, too. LKQ Heavy Truck has the largest core inventory in the industry, and sells to OE and aftermarket remanufacturers across the industry.
Click here to see a photo gallery from LKQ’s Toledo, Ohio, location.
That complete life-cycle relationship is a cornerstone of the company’s recent marketing efforts, Dabasinskas says.
“We like to say we are a trucking company’s best friend, they just don’t know it yet,” he says.
LKQ Heavy Truck also relies on near immediate product availability and an aggressive shipping strategy to build customer relationships. All LKQ Heavy Truck products are bar code scanned into the company’s inventory once removed from a donor truck, and soon after are available for purchase through its 22 locations and online. These locations allow LKQ Heavy Truck to make sure customers never wait long to get back up and running.
“We want to make sure the customer gets the right part as soon as we can get it to them,” Dabasinskas says.
