Two of North America’s largest heavy-duty aftermarket suppliers are becoming one: FleetPride and TruckPro will combine and operate under the FleetPride name, a tie-up aimed at boosting parts availability, service capacity and the sector’s digital buying experience. Former Advance Auto Parts chief Tom Greco, who took the helm at FleetPride earlier this year, will lead the combined company, while TruckPro’s Chuck Broadus will remain in a senior role during integration, according to the companies. The merger also follows a balance-sheet reset for FleetPride, with Moody’s and S&P withdrawing their ratings after debt was repaid, removing maturities that had weighed on the distributor’s outlook.
For fleets, the near-term promise is pragmatic: a larger footprint to shorten lead times, deeper technical support, and a single e-commerce platform for all-makes purchasing across Class 6–8 parts and service. Management has cast the combination as a way to pool complementary branch networks and service shops to deliver faster fulfillment and broader catalog coverage.
The timing is notable. Freight activity remains soft as 2025 winds down, a backdrop that typically pushes carriers to extend equipment life and lean harder on maintenance. During the week of Nov. 2–7, DAT reported steady spot-market activity with national seven-day average rates around $2.06 per mile for vans, $2.45 for reefers and $2.41 for flatbeds, pointing to a market that is firming only at the margins. Meanwhile, Cass Information Systems’ October report showed shipments at their weakest October level since 2009, with a 4.3% month-over-month drop and a 7.8% year-over-year decline. In that environment, a scaled parts-and-service platform can capture deferred-replacement demand and help fleets manage uptime at lower total cost.
The FleetPride–TruckPro deal also lands amid a broader aftermarket reshuffle. On Thursday, LKQ was reported to be preparing a sale of its Keystone specialty-parts unit as it streamlines its portfolio, a move that would redirect capital and focus toward higher-return areas. Two days earlier, Parker Hannifin agreed to buy Filtration Group for $9.25 billion, explicitly to deepen its exposure to steady, recurring aftermarket revenue across industrial and transportation end markets. Both moves underscore investor appetite for resilient replacement-parts businesses—even as OEM sales cycle.
What to watch next: how the combined distributor rationalizes overlapping branches without sacrificing local service; supplier negotiations as a larger buyer consolidates SKUs; and the pace of systems integration—especially e-commerce and inventory planning—which will determine how quickly customers feel the benefits in fill rates, turnaround times and pricing transparency. For independent distributors and service groups, the new FleetPride’s scale could compress margins on certain lines, but it may also expand opportunities for niche, high-touch support where national players have fewer resources.
Sources: FreightWaves (via Yahoo Finance), Reuters, DAT Freight & Analytics (via AJOT), Cass Information Systems (via Yahoo Finance)
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