That's genius, dude! All about Truck Genius. Truck Genius helps Fullbay-powered shops turn their existing data into useful visualizations - without forcing owners to wrestle with spreadsheets or manually pull reports. * Learn how Truck Genius began as a collaborative effort between an AI company and a heavy-duty shop. * See exactly what it does with data provided by Fullbay (and how it can make life easier). * Find out what's next in the Truck Genius adventures. Let's be honest: very few people get into the repair business because they love spreadsheets. Sure, data matters. It matters a lot! Shop owners want to know who's producing, which customers are driving revenue, where their margins are at, and what the next few weeks of work look like. And the more a shop grows, the more questions it tends to ask, and the more valuable it becomes to look at data from different angles. Fullbay gives shops access to a lot of operational data, from tech performance to customer activity to revenue trends and beyond. But every shop runs a little differently, and sometimes owners want extra flexibility: a different visualization, a custom dashboard, or the ability to combine information from multiple reports into one clearer picture. Enter Truck Genius, its newest partner in crime. Er, repair. What started as a custom software project to help a Fullbay-powered shop better visualize and use its data eventually grew into a platform designed to pull reporting information together, organize it, display it, and help owners spot what matters. And hey, Fullbay, Inc. liked the sound of that, so Fullbay, Inc. teamed up with Truck Genius to help get their brand of AI-powered genius out to more owners. Here's what you should know about them. Building A platform with shop owners, not just for them. Josh Ross was the owner of an emerging AI company in Michigan when a mutual acquaintance introduced him to Bill Kerry of Kerry Brothers Truck Repair. His shop was running on Fullbay, but he was having issues with the data visualization. When he heard Josh was a software guy, he asked for his help. "We built a bare bones version that pulls all the reporting out of Fullbay, and then visualizes it, and all the facets he wanted to see," Josh explained. It worked. It worked so well that Bill asked them to build out more integrations and automations, and began introducing them to his friends and colleagues. Josh began to wonder if this product he'd created could actually evolve into a business. "I took my team to market with a few shops initially," he said, working with those shops to build a platform that could scale to multiple users. Those shops, along with Kerry Brothers, acted as primary advisors for the budding company: "[They helped us] make this thing what the repair shops actually want to see," Josh said, "and optimize Fullbay in the areas that they cared about." How does Truck Genius work, anyway? So, how does Truck Genius do its thing? Josh walked Fullbay, Inc. through it. When a Fullbay-powered shop partners with Truck Genius, they gain access to Truck Genius's AI agent. That agent wakes up ultra, ultra early each morning, logs into Fullbay, and goes into whatever area the shop owner wants a better look at (for example, the service or reporting page). It downloads the data and sends it to Truck Genius, where it is uploaded to their system. Who didn't get involved with that? The owner, or CFO, or whoever usually gets tasked with pulling reports. They get to sleep in while the agent does the work (or maybe they're drinking their second cup of coffee - Fullbay, Inc. don't ask questions. The point is they don't have to do it themselves.). From there, Truck Genius provides several visualizations. It essentially puts a magnifying glass on the data that already exists, enhancing it and allowing shop owners to learn even more from it. The system is now entirely autonomous. "We give our agent instructions of what to do, and it figures out how to do that step by step through the process," Josh said. "AI is great, but that doesn't mean anything until there's a real problem that we're solving." What Truck Genius can show you. So, what does using Truck Genius look like? It takes the data shops are already generating and turns it into something easier to read. Hey, some folks love looking through the reports Fullbay generates on its own. Others want different sorts of visualizations. An owner using Truck Genius can view performance from multiple angles: by shop, customer, tech, service advisor, component, revenue, and more. Multi-location operations can zoom out to see how the whole business is performing, then drill down into a single location to see what's working and where the money is being made (along with what, if anything, might be dragging). It's a new kind of flexibility. Shop owners using Truck Genius can also: * Look at gross profit per hour over time; * Compare month-over-month trends; * Search past service orders by job description; * Review parts sold by number or description; * See what margins looked like on previous sales; * Surface upcoming PMs on a calendar; * Break down employee stats like utilization and efficiency by shift, group, or individual. "We take [the data], we format it, and we visualize it, and slice and dice a bunch of different ways," Josh said. All these new ways of looking at information helps shop owners ask better questions, like which customers are most profitable, and which services are performing best. It's a whole new way to look at the data, and Josh's team is just getting started. He envisions additional automations and features based on what individual shops are asking for. At the moment, the Truck Genius team has a "laundry list" of features they're developing based on requests from shop owners. The future of technology in heavy-duty. On this blog, Fullbay, Inc. has talked occasionally about how the industry needs to modernize. The trucks and equipment have become more sophisticated, but historically, many repair shops (er, Fullbay customers excluded, obviously) have lagged behind in how they actually run things. But it's 2026. AI isn't just a big scary robot overlord from the Terminator movies anymore. Josh's goal for Truck Genius is to give the industry a hand with that modernization. "AI allows you to automate things, hand things off, and so that's our goal," he said, citing a desire to allow heavy-duty repair folks to capitalize on new technology without wildly changing everything else - like how they do the work. In the meantime, the Truck Genius team will continue developing new ways for Fullbay folks to view and understand the data their shops create. If you'd like to know more about Truck Genius, head over to their website. Suz Baldwin Suz Baldwin got her start in the automotive industry, writing and editing for several motorcycle and classic car magazines straight out of college. In the years that followed, she's written all sorts of copy for brands big and small while consuming enough coffee to paralyze a dinosaur.

What 500+ commercial vehicle customers want from your shop. Fullbay, Inc. asked 500+ commercial vehicle owners and operators about their payment habits, what they want from repair shops, and how it all influences where they take their business. Here's what they said. Key takeaways: Cash flow constraints are delaying both preventive maintenance and necessary repairs across heavy-duty shops. Demand for pay-over-time options is already high and increases among customers who delay work. Flexible payment options influence where customers choose to bring their business and how much they spend. Offering Buy Now Pay Later can help reduce delays and increase approved work. Your customers have never been under more financial pressure. The cost of operating a commercial truck has climbed to record levels, and repair and maintenance expenses continue to rise. What you might not know is how all of that is changing the way your customers think about paying for repairs. Fullbay, Inc. partnered with Stripe and went straight to the source: surveying commercial vehicle owners and operators to find out what they want when it comes to payment options, and how those preferences are shaping their behavior. Let's dive into what customers are saying, what it means for your repair shop, and how you can use these insights to create a competitive advantage. Cash flow is holding up critical repairs. Here's the number that should get your attention: 47% of all customers surveyed have delayed preventive or emergency maintenance at least occasionally. For many of them, it's not that they don't want the work done - it's that the timing doesn't line up with their cash flow. In the survey, 31% said they delay repairs specifically because of cash flow constraints. Think about what that means for your shop. Work gets put on hold - or never comes in at all - because a customer can't cover the cost that day. Maintenance gets pushed. Repairs stack up. Vehicles stay on the road longer than they should, or sit in a lot longer than planned, and uptime starts to take a hit. None of that is good for their business. And it's definitely not good for yours. Demand for Buy Now Pay Later is high. So what do customers want? Flexibility. More than half (58%) of surveyed customers said they're interested in paying over time. And 61% said they would likely use a pay-over-time option if it were offered. Among the 47% who have had to delay maintenance? The demand gets even louder: 77% said they're interested in pay-over-time, and 79% said they'd likely use it. These aren't tire-kickers. These are customers who want the work done and are telling you exactly what would help them say yes. Most customers said they'd consider financing repairs in the $2,500 to $9,999 range - which, if you've been in heavy-duty repair for more than about five minutes, you know is squarely in the sweet spot for major work. The types of repairs customers are most likely to use pay-over-time for? Major engine repairs (61%), emergency breakdowns (43%), and transmission work (40%). In other words, the big, urgent, can't-wait jobs where cost is most likely to become a barrier. Flexible payments are A competitive advantage for shop owners. Now here's where it gets really interesting for shop owners. 65% of customers said they would choose a repair shop based on whether it offers flexible payment options. Read that again. Nearly two-thirds of your potential customers are factoring how they can pay into where they bring their truck. It doesn't stop at winning customers, either. Offering flexible payment options also increases how much customers are willing to spend: 60% said they'd spend more if those options were available, and 30% said they'd spend significantly more. That's your average ticket going up - and you don't even have to upsell harder, you just have to remove the barrier holding customers back. For the 47% who've delayed maintenance in the past, the numbers are even more dramatic: 82% said flexible payments would influence which shop they choose, and 80% said they'd increase their spending. This tracks with what Fullbay, Inc. see across the industry. When customers don't have to come up with the full cost of a brake job upfront, they're more open to getting the brake job and everything else that needs doing. Suddenly you're handling brakes, headlights, and some bodywork PMs, too. Most shops leave that opportunity on the table. Despite the enormous demand, most repair shops haven't caught on yet. Only 30% of customers report that their repair shop lets them use a payment plan. And just 13% say they can pay with third-party financing. That's a massive gap between what customers want and what shops are offering. And gaps like that? They're opportunities for the shops that move first. So what does all of this mean for your shop? Pay-over-time helps customers say yes to critical repairs and PMs without delaying the work. When customers have a way to manage larger costs, fewer jobs stall at the approval stage. Work moves forward more consistently. Fewer vehicles sit waiting on a decision. That changes two things: where customers choose to bring their business, and how much work they approve when they get there. Both of those matter to your bottom line and to keeping your own shop's cash flow healthy and predictable. With Buy Now Pay Later, your customers can pay over time while you get paid upfront - without taking on any financial risk. No chasing invoices. No wondering if the check is in the mail. No awkward "just circling back on that balance" calls. If you want a deeper dive into how Buy Now Pay Later works in heavy-duty repair - Fullbay, Inc. has got a full guide for that. How Fullbay Payments can help. Fullbay Payments, powered by Stripe, helps your shop get paid faster and turn payments into a revenue driver - all built directly into Fullbay's repair and invoicing workflow. Give your customers the flexibility to pay however works best for them - credit card, eCheck, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, and Buy Now Pay Later. Ready to make payments work for your shop? Fullbay The Fullbay Team produces editorial content covering shop management, industry trends, and best practices for heavy-duty repair professionals. Fullbay is the leading shop management software provider, purpose-built for the heavy-duty repair industry.