Blog · Appliance Repair · July 2, 2026 · 7 min read
Appliance Parts That Walk Off Trucks (and How to Stop It)
Not every missing part is theft. Most of it is an unused extra that never came back to the bin. The fix is the same either way: a count that updates in the kitchen, not next week.
The usual suspects
Water inlet valves, ignitors, thermostats, door switches, and small drain pumps. Cheap enough to grab two. Expensive enough to matter at the end of the month. They fit in a pocket. They do not fit in a memory.
Run a 90-day “where did it go” report if you have scans. If you do not, start scanning those five families only. You will learn more in two weeks than in a year of yelling.
Two left the bin, one hit the ticket
That is the pattern. Require a return scan for the extra. Make it faster than stuffing the extra in a door. If return is buried in a menu, techs will not do it.
FleetStock’s scanner keeps use, restock, and return on the same phone flow. The extra step is a quantity and a tap, not a novel.
Personal stash is still company stock
A tote in the garage “for emergencies” is a second warehouse with no count. Offer a legitimate overflow location in software if you must, then count it. Hidden totes destroy min stock.
Owners who ignore stashes train techs to keep them. Count vans and known lockers. Do not play detective in glove boxes unless the numbers stay wrong after a fair process.
Invoices catch what pride misses
Match scans to invoices weekly for the suspect SKUs. Unbilled use is either a freebie, a missed charge, or a part that should have been returned. All three are coachable.
Publish the list without names the first month. You want the process, not a public hanging. Names come later if one van is a black hole.
Lights and cameras do not replace a scan
Shop cameras are fine. They do not tell you the water valve left at 2:14 p.m. on job 4412. Inventory software does. Use cameras for safety. Use scans for parts.
If you only tighten security and never add a van count, you will still buy the same valve twice.
FAQ
How do we raise this without accusing techs?
Talk about unbilled and unreturned parts, not stealing. Most leaks are process. Treat theft as the exception you prove with data.
Should we search vans?
Do scheduled counts, not surprise shakedowns. Counts feel like operations. Shakedowns feel like distrust and kill scanning.
What shrink rate is normal?
After 60 days of scanning, a tight shop should see small, explainable misses — not silent cases of valves.
See what is on every truck this week
14-day free trial. Then one yearly invoice — $129, $197, or $249.