Dealers Weigh in on Manufacturers’ ‘Direct Ship’ Programs

Question: Does your dealership participate in programs where service parts orders placed with the OEM are shipped directly to the dealership from the manufacturer of the parts (direct ship)?

Question: If yes, would you like to see more or less of these type of programs?

Question: What are the advantages/disadvantages of these programs?

• “More. Advantage is cheaper price. Disadvantage is longer lead times.”
• “Yes, it’s easy to move parts and not worry about depreciation and space.”
• “Quicker delivery.”
• “Great discounts.”
• “Most of cost is passed on, but it’s quicker to receive if Deere stocks.”
• “Better timeline and pricing strategies.”
• “We get the product sooner; cuts out the middleman for problems.”
• “It saves time for the customer, but it also opens up people to sell outside their normal area of operation.”
• “Disadvantage is the lead time to get the parts.”
• “Bigger discounts! Use as selling tools.”
• “Volume purchasing discounts. I order more for higher discounts.”
• “The OEM minimum order quantities and amounts are often too high for us to qualify for programs and discounts. Therefore, we turn to aftermarket sources.”
• “Deal with too many OEMs and endless number of programs; impossible to track.”
• “More tracking for us with more vendors shipping things.
• More coordination at the dealer level.”
• “Can handle lots of lines through one supplier.”
• “Takes too long to direct ship. Deere doesn’t stock so when you run out you wait.”
• “Problems with orders are more difficult to handle.”
• “Too much at one time to handle. We pre-sell from these orders to build sales.”

Additional Coverage

June 2017 Issue Contents