Following a multi-year trend of increasing parts and labor costs, the second quarter of 2024 marks the second straight year of these expenses trending downward. According to Decisiv and TMC's latest report, heavy-duty parts and labor costs are continuing to decline, although at a slower rate than in the first quarter of the year.
The North American Service Event Benchmark Report showed that parts and labor expenses fell 0.7% in the second quarter across 25 major cost categories, compared to a more substantial 1.6% drop the previous quarter.
“These declines reflect a continued leveling off of expenses following historically high increases that resulted from supply chain challenges,” noted Dick Hyatt, Decisiv president and CEO. “Fleets and service providers are seeing a return to predictability and an enhanced ability to more effectively plan service cost allocations. Along with more predictable freight volumes and vehicle mileages, the resumption of more consistent parts availability and overall declines or only modest increases in parts and labor costs point to much-needed cost stability for fleets and service operations.”
However, parts and labor costs did go up in 13 of the 25 Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standard categories despite the overall drop.
Read more: Decisiv/TMC report: Parts, labor costs stabilized in Q4 2023
Parts costs specifically fell 0.4% in the second quarter, the third straight quarter of decline, but smaller than the drops of 2.2% and 2.4% in the first quarter of 2024 and final quarter of 2023.
Labor costs fell 1.1% in the second quarter, following a 0.6% decline in the first three months of the year.
“Continued trends for reduced parts and labor costs are welcome news to fleets, who have been weathering substantial increases for much of the last several years,” said TMC Executive Director Robert Braswell. “The Decisiv/TMC parts and labor cost analysis report provides Council members an excellent means of comparing how their operations are performing to industry trends so they can take action accordingly.”
Combined parts and labor costs were down 1.4% compared to the same period a year prior. Labor costs were 0.7% higher in the second quarter than a year earlier, but parts costs fell 2.8% from the second quarter of 2023.
The data that Decisiv collects and analyzes for the Decisiv/TMC reports accounts for over 97% of total parts and labor costs for more than seven million assets and over 300,000 monthly maintenance and repair events at more than 5,000 service locations, the company said.
The full report is available to all registered TMC members.
