Buzznerd Trucks

It’s back… The dreaded invalid characters in Truck Paper CSV data

For those of you out there that have dealt with importing the CSV file that Truck Paper provides you might’ve seen this before – non UTF-8 characters :   First time we encountered it was some 5 or so years ago and it was common. In fact, they appeared in almost every Truck Paper CSV you’d download when you’re needing your own inventory (that you manually uploaded in the first place). It was…

Have to say… Capacity Trucks did it right with their website. Granted they don’t host actual inventory on the site (they’re a manufacturer of yard spotters, not a dealer) but I love:   How easy it is to navigate desktop:   2. How easy it is on mobile (especially from an interaction perspective):   3. Clear concise content and imagery: 4. Simple interactive media:   Here’s a link to their article…

Would Advanced Search/Filters Help Your Customer Find Their Right Truck On Your Website?

When do people need advanced search and filter features to get the truck they’re looking for? What makes this complicated feature unique to the trucking industry? To help answer this question, I’m going to focus on desktop Search/Filters that Truck Paper provides in their Detailed Search (note that I couldn’t fit the entire page in my screenshot) :   First impression is that it’s pretty…

Why hosting your inventory matters

A lot of times dealers don’t know that their inventory is hosted elsewhere (SOARR, Truck Paper and others). Most of the time it appears on the dealer website as if it was a part of it. But it’s not. Usually the inventory is pulled into the dealers website through what’s called an iframe: The tag specifies an inline frame. An inline frame is used to embed another document within the current HTML…

When your customers are in need of service or parts, most of the time they’re down. Down as in NOT RUNNING. Why not give them an easy way to find your service locations? You can… It’s called Geo-Locating and you’ve probably seen it on other sites (not other dealer sites unfortunately). You’ve probably seen this dialogue box asking for your location. You’ve seen it before on sites where they want…