[SOLUTRANS ONAir #38] Reconditioning and remanufacturing of heavy trucks: how the industry is industrializing a second life

Extending the life of a vehicle or a part is no longer just about delaying its replacement. It has become a genuine strategy, designed to combine economic performance with long-term environmental sobriety. From reconditioning entire vehicles to remanufacturing heavy components, two approaches mirror each other, shaping the outline of an industry that is becoming more professional. More insight from the guests of this new episode of SOLUTRANS ON AIR.

Hervé Rébillon: Reconditioning is a term we hear more and more today. How does TIP approach this topic for vehicles?

 

Daniel Gaspard (TIP): Reconditioning is kept separate from maintenance operations in the vehicle lifecycle. Some operations may be similar, even identical, but at TIP these are two distinct topics. Maintenance is about preserving a vehicle's condition, while reconditioning is about restoring its value. For us, it has become a genuine lever in managing the lifecycle of our units.

 

Hervé Rébillon: Can you give an example of reconditioning?

 

Daniel Gaspard (TIP): We have, for example, reconditioned tankers used to collect milk on farms. This isn't simple cosmetic reconditioning (changing a few side skirts or repainting), it goes much further: preserving the structure and chassis, fully replacing the axles and the ABS, and adding new specifications such as TPMS or a higher-capacity battery to make collection operations easier. Making it practically new is our ambition.

 

Hervé Rébillon: Are all vehicles suited for reconditioning?

 

Daniel Gaspard (TIP): No, not every vehicle qualifies. An inspection phase first determines whether the vehicle's specifications still match current market needs. An economic equation and an environmental benefit then confirm, or not, its eligibility.

 

Hervé Rébillon: In the milk tanker example, how many extra years of life does this give the vehicle?

 

Daniel Gaspard (TIP): We can practically double the lifespan, extending it by 6 to 8 years, after replacing the axles and a number of components.

 

Hervé Rébillon: How did TIP move from a maintenance business to a fully-fledged reconditioning offer?

 

Daniel Gaspard (TIP): It all started with listening to our customers. The Covid period lengthened vehicle manufacturing and delivery times, and pushed prices sharply higher. Our customers were then left with a binary choice: keep repairing or replace. We wanted to offer an alternative: an intelligent extension of vehicle holding periods, made possible by upstream work on maintenance optimization and workshop efficiency (planning, energy management, parts supply). The result: instead of the classic three-step lifecycle (acquisition, maintenance, resale), we give the equipment a second life.

 

Hervé Rébillon: Is the environmental impact more favorable for reconditioning than for replacement?

 

Daniel Gaspard (TIP): Yes. For a semi-trailer, the CO2 savings from a new vehicle remain limited, even if some projects move in that direction. On milk collection tankers, we measured a CO2 emissions reduction of around 35% per reconditioned vehicle.

 

Hervé Rébillon: To finish, what are the benefits for the customer?

 

Daniel Gaspard (TIP): A better TCO, potentially lower rental costs, and a better distribution of investment (which can help customers finance new-energy vehicles in parallel, which remain more expensive on the market). Operationally, reconditioning delivers a vehicle that is mechanically almost new, while reducing the risk carried by maintenance. It's also, for the customer, an arbitration between expense and investment, one that helps reduce their CO2 emissions, a topic our customers are very sensitive to. Remanufacturing spare parts: SAMPA structures an emerging industry.

 

Hervé Rébillon: It's less well known, but a genuine market for reconditioning spare parts also exists. How does SAMPA approach this?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): SAMPA didn't wait for the energy transition to get started, remanufacturing has been part of our industrial journey for several years already. Today, we produce, upstream, the expertise that players like TIP use to remanufacture complete semi-trailers, by supplying the components needed to replace parts when vehicles are restored. SAMPA remains, above all, a manufacturer that produces new parts from materials from a first melt or first casting, particularly for heavy parts, where remanufacturing makes the most sense in terms of CO2 savings and global material flows.

 

Hervé Rébillon: What pushed SAMPA toward remanufacturing?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): Both economic realities and a direction shaped by the Green Deal. A new investment in France will launch in summer 2027: a dedicated remanufacturing unit, designed to be local (all the environmental benefit of the approach disappears if heavy parts have to travel long distances). This is a new line of business for SAMPA, one that also helps re-anchor industrial activity in local territories.

 

Hervé Rébillon: Can you give an example of part reconditioning?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): We now manufacture wheel hubs, the first family of parts for which we've set up a complete remanufacturing program. Its relevance is even stronger given the significant mass of a heavy truck part: remanufacturing one heavy truck hub is equivalent, by weight, to about 10 light vehicle hubs. On a hub weighing 35 to 40 kg, only 7 kg of metal needs replacing, allowing two-thirds of the raw material to be reused in a product that gets a second life.

 

Hervé Rébillon: You offer parts packs, for purchase or rental, as part of maintenance contracts. How does this work?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): The system works in two stages. First, there's a complete parts pack, a remanufacturing kit supplied to carriers. Its value lies notably in the rational collection of the carcasses needed for remanufacturing: by targeting carriers running campaigns on their semi-trailers, we manage to concentrate, in a single location, enough material to organize rational transport. Beyond this pack, we offer a more advanced service called "100% Infinity", which involves running a full refurbishment campaign for the carrier's vehicles, in integrated garages. This also lets us recover components in a single location, making it easier to feed them back into our remanufacturing plant.

 

Hervé Rébillon: What is the financial and environmental impact of this approach?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): Financially, let's stay cautious: there's no guarantee remanufacturing will always cost less, once all costs are factored in. That said, the process must absolutely be carried out professionally by a manufacturer who masters production, and must guarantee that a remanufactured part offers exactly the same durability and safety characteristics as a new one. The impact is first measured on local employment and environment, since industrial skills are reused close to where they're consumed. It's also measured on the resource itself: not wasting material. On a semi-trailer, the hubs represent roughly 35 kg x 6, and the brake calipers a comparable weight, close to 400 kg of cast iron saved (one metric ton of cast iron representing 200 kg of CO2 saved).

 

Hervé Rébillon: How does the current economic context, marked by raw material tensions, influence this dynamic?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): Raw materials remain unstable, but the market has learned to factor that instability into its economic flows. This is also what pushes carriers to favor extending the lifespan of their vehicles rather than replacing them, as acquisition costs have risen by about 30% over two years. In this context, restoring a vehicle costs far less than replacing it entirely. Reconditioning and remanufacturing: toward a maturing industry.

 

Hervé Rébillon: Can we now talk about a genuine remanufacturing industry for heavy components?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): The industry is indeed becoming more professional. We're gradually moving from a model that used to be organized locally to one increasingly driven by manufacturers. Most major equipment makers now have remanufacturing programs starting up or expanding. For us, it's also an opportunity to set up community-based collection models, to optimize the recovery of used materials on the market.

 

Hervé Rébillon: Does the way carriers are embracing this represent a cultural shift?

 

Emmanuel Vincent (SAMPA France): It's a shift that is very much underway. Investments linked to electric vehicles are leading carriers to look at their existing fleet differently, a genuinely new development. Since the previous edition of SOLUTRANS, signs show that this shift is gradually taking hold in how carriers think, an industry that has traditionally been rather conservative.

 

Vehicle reconditioning and parts remanufacturing address, each on its own scale, the same challenge: extending the lifespan of industrial fleets while reducing their environmental footprint. A dynamic that is gaining ground as the industry becomes more professional, one that will be at the heart of the Rencontres de la Filière, as well as the next edition of SOLUTRANS.