You’ve placed your part order, thrilled that you were able to find the part you need. You either picked it up or waited for it to be delivered. When it is finally in your hands—because supply chain issues lead to longer delivery times—you eagerly open the box only to find that you somehow ordered the wrong part.

The problem could have been avoided if all manufacturers of heavy-duty truck parts adhered to heavy-duty product data standards. Those product standards exist thanks to the work of HDDA, the heavy-duty community of the Auto Care Association.

The heavy-duty Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) provides information on things like product attributes, dimensions, product descriptions, country of origin, pricing,  and more. It includes images, videos, and other digital assets. According to Auto Care, PIES is used to communicate product information between heavy-duty aftermarket suppliers and its selling chain under one format. The Product Attribute database part of PIES gives customers an objective way to compare two different products.

The data standards are said to enable and facilitate ecommerce, which is becoming an increasingly popular way for truck parts distributors and fleets to acquire parts.

PIES allows suppliers to efficiently communicate information about their products and helps ensure that the customer gets the right part, in the right place, and at the right time. When the standards went live in 2020, they included standardized descriptions of products that feature more than 9,000 components and 63,000 attributes, covering 85% of the parts sold in the aftermarket.

Work continues to be done on the database to expand and improve it. It’s the manufacturer’s responsibility to provide the information needed about their products. Fleets should encourage their parts suppliers to participate to reduce the number of times a wrong part is ordered and to improve the efficiency of the parts supply chain.

David Seewack is the founder and CEO of FinditParts. Seewack is focused on transforming how heavy-duty truck and trailer parts are bought and sold. Founded in 2010, FinditParts is the No. 1 supplier of these parts online, with more than 10 million available from more than 1,800 manufacturers and customers in over 210 countries.