Truck Stock & Inventory: cash on wheels

Every truck is a tiny warehouse, and most are badly managed. Overstocked trucks tie up cash and let parts go obsolete; understocked trucks send techs to the supply house mid-job. Both quietly drain margin.

What it is

Truck stock is the rolling inventory every technician carries. Overstocked trucks tie up cash in parts that expire, break, or get lost. Understocked trucks send techs to the supply house mid-job — killing billable time. Add shrinkage and the absence of par levels, and every truck becomes a tiny warehouse that nobody is really managing. The cash sitting on your trucks is working capital you could be using elsewhere.

How to spot it

Truck inventory value keeps climbing year over year
Techs are at the supply house more than twice a week
Parts go missing at month-end with no explanation
Obsolete or discontinued stock is still riding on the trucks
No one can tell you what is on each truck

How to measure it

Inventory turnsannual parts cost ÷ average truck inventoryTarget: 6–8+

Shrinkage %missing or obsolete parts ÷ inventory valueTarget: under 2%

Supply-house tripssupply-house trips per tech per weekTarget: under 2

Inventory value per trucktotal truck inventory ÷ number of trucksTarget: right-sized, not maxed

Typical impact

~$20,000per year for a 3-truck shop

Picture 3 trucks carrying $8,000 each in stock — $24,000 tied up in rolling inventory. At roughly 20% shrinkage and obsolescence, that is about $5,000 a year lost outright. Add the billable time techs burn on supply-house runs — roughly $15,000 a year — and the combined leak lands near $20,000 a year. None of it shows up as a line on the P&L; it just quietly erodes margin and cash.

How to fix it

Set par-level inventory per truck. Define exactly what belongs on each truck so every vehicle carries the same right-sized kit rather than a random accumulation of stock.
Restock weekly from a central stockroom. Run a weekly restock cycle that pulls from a central stockroom instead of sending techs to the supply house mid-job.
Set min/max reorder levels. Assign a minimum and maximum quantity for every stocked part — reorder at the minimum and fill back to the maximum.
Run weekly cycle counts. Count one category of parts per week rather than counting everything once a year, so discrepancies surface early.
Adopt a will-call policy for non-stock items. Order the slow-moving long tail on a will-call basis instead of carrying it on the truck where it ties up cash and goes obsolete.
Enforce tool accountability. Sign tools in and out so each tech owns the ones they carry and missing tools are traced to a person, not written off.

The IronMargin angle: the inventory par-level playbook gives you the exact right-sized kit for each truck, and the rebate network layers on better pricing on the fast-moving stock every truck carries — so you free up cash and buy the parts you keep for less.

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