How to avoid potholes in your auto parts delivery strategy | Roadie

Winter is no friend to the nation’s roadways and the cars and trucks that drive them. For auto repair shops, spring is usually a busy season. Once snow and ice melt away, roads are left with large potholes and vehicles ready for tune-ups. For parts retailers, that translates into a busy peak shipping season outside of the holidays.

As drivers begin to fill bays, don’t be caught off guard by slow parts delivery and supply chain inefficiencies. Now is the time to start planning how to get ahead of the spring warmup — and that means taking a look at your delivery operations. 

How crowdsourcing solves delivery woes for auto parts suppliers and repair shops

The auto repair industry has long been plagued by supply chain inefficiencies and inconvenient fixed schedules. While a repair shop’s end goal is to move cars through the shop as quickly as possible, overnight stays are sometimes inevitable. Delays are usually the result of the part needed not being on hand. Most shops carry as few parts as possible to keep inventory costs low. So aside from the most commonly used parts, many shops order everything else from OEM dealers and aftermarket parts stores. 

Crowdsourced delivery is helping to solve the industry’s challenges by promising a faster, more convenient and scalable delivery solution. Repair shops no longer need to wait more than a few hours for an out-of-stock part. With a crowdsourcing platform like Roadie, auto parts stores can send bulk and oversized part orders throughout the day, instead of being limited by strict availability windows or defined delivery routes. 

Thanks to a network of more than 200,000 independent crowdsourced drivers, Roadie enables  auto repair shops to get much-needed parts in just a few hours. With traditional delivery solutions, space can be limited. Roadie’s proprietary algorithm and crowdsourcing technology pair auto parts retailers and their customers with a driver already on the road and headed in the right direction, ensuring an auto parts retailer can find capacity to deliver parts to a repair shop when and where they’re needed. 

As an added bonus, using drivers on the Roadie platform gives auto parts retailers the flexibility to fulfill critical part orders at peak times without having to pull an associate from the warehouse for an emergency delivery. When factoring in the current labor shortage in warehousing, this benefit shouldn’t be understated.

Crowdsourcing improves flexibility for auto parts delivery

In the past, options for delivering auto parts were rigid and inefficient. With crowdsourced delivery, auto parts retailers and repair shops now gain flexibility in the following areas:

• Cost. Radiators, fenders, mufflers and other oversized parts garner weight surcharges and handling fees with traditional shipping can quickly add up. These costs can limit the overall growth of a business, resulting in lower margins, less available inventory and limited flexibility from store to store. A platform like Roadie helps auto parts suppliers circumvent a traditional carrier’s dimensional weight surcharges. For example, an order of  heavy or large-sized auto parts that costs $40 to ship with a standard carrier can cost  half as much using Roadie to crowdsource the delivery.
• Timing. By tapping into unused space in a network of personal vehicles already on the road, Roadie’s platform can help get parts to a retailer’s customers quickly and efficiently, often same-day.  Multiple delivery SLAs, like 2-hour, 4-hour, end of day or next-day, ensure that you can access a delivery method that meets your exact needs. Furthermore, crowdsourced drivers can pick up same-day orders throughout the day, while traditional carriers usually have strict cut-off windows.
• Delivery size. When using the Roadie platform a retailer can choose point-to-point delivery for their urgent same-day deliveries, or have Roadie’s algorithm batch their orders together on a single route for next-day delivery, often saving time and money.
• Location. Using Roadie retailers of all sizes can deliver to more than 20,000 zip codes with access to its nationwide network of independent drivers.
• Vehicle types. The drivers in the Roadie network use a variety of personal vehicles, ranging from sedans to pickup trucks and cargo vans. This variety gives retailers access to exactly the right vehicle for their delivery.

Streamline operations with a more agile and scalable delivery option

Ordering, delivering and managing car parts is time-consuming for auto parts suppliers and the repair shops they serve. When they let Roadie’s crowdsourced delivery platform handle their delivery operations, they can get their team back to what they do best: providing much-needed parts to repair vehicles and building better relationships with customers. 

Get ahead of the spring tune-up rush and find a more agile and competitive solution for your auto parts delivery. Contact Roadie today.