Preventing Technician Parts Hoarding Without Starting a War

Hoarding is usually a restock failure

If nightly restock is a rumor, a senior tech will hide two extra capacitors. They are protecting the customer and their own reputation. Calling that theft on week one is how you lose the senior tech and keep the empty vans.

Make restock real for 30 days. Many totes empty themselves.

Give the stash a legal home

If someone wants a small overflow, create it in software — a locker location with a count. Hidden is the problem, not extra. Visible extra is just inventory.

Personal garages are not locations unless you name them and count them. Name them or end them.

Never surprise-search a van as your opener

Scheduled counts. Shared scoreboards. Private conversations. Public shakedowns create better hiding places, not better counts.

If after a fair process a van still leaks expensive boards, then you have a people problem. Data first. Drama last.

Reward the empty-but-honest van

Praise the tech who scans a zero and asks for a transfer. That is the behavior that keeps dispatch honest. Do not only praise the van that looks “full” — full is often a stash with a nice lid.

Publish supply-house-run counts. The hoarder sometimes has fewer runs for themselves and more for everyone else. The shop should see the whole picture.

Put the app on their side

When they can see other vans and request a transfer, they do not need a secret box. FleetStock’s phone view is meant to replace the stash with a tap.

If the app is slower than the stash, the stash wins. Speed is culture.

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