Leyhan Hansen

Government & Fleet Account Manager at Pritchard Commercial | Founder of The Upfit Insider | Sourcewell contract 081325-PNI

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

500+ exhibitors. 3 days.

Every decision-maker in work trucks under one roof.

This is @WorkTruckWeek 2026.

The deals that take 6 months over email? They close in a handshake here.

Sneak peek of The Upfit Insider full recap. Dropping soon.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

entity needs a quote with every option priced out for a board meeting tomorrow morning. happens more than you'd think. i get anxious waiting on vendor pricing but i love the pressure of getting it done on time.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

i came from the upfit side. now i sell chassis.

caught myself questioning an upfitter about a hoist size last week because the spec said one thing and the dump body said another. no mistake on their end. just my upfit brain kicking in.

honestly love having both lenses. spec, order, purchase. the full picture.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

https://t.co/3AVLvU4LU7

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

walked the floor at GFX and it hit me again. fleets spending millions on trucks with zero clue about the easiest purchasing process available to them.

no idea sourcewell exists. no idea their spec is costing them money. no idea someone can walk them through it.

that's the gap i fill every day.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

co-op contracts make fleet purchasing easier. but the real job isn't pointing someone to a contract number.

had a customer who needed a bucket truck under CDL with more GVW than the contract covers. i told them i'd handle spec through delivery.

contracts are tools. finding the right truck is the actual work.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

customer wanted a 9' service body with a liftgate on a single rear wheel chassis. uncommon setup. i sent the quote but attached the chassis specs separately and told them to review carefully.

they came back a week later. "we actually need a DRW."

already had the quote ready on their sourcewell contract. attaching the specs separately lets the customer catch what you can't always catch for them.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

customer wanted a 9' service body with a liftgate on a single rear wheel chassis. uncommon setup. i sent the quote but attached the chassis specs separately and told them to review carefully.

they came back a week later. "we actually need a DRW."

already had the quote ready on their sourcewell contract. attaching the specs separately lets the customer catch what you can't always catch for them.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

customer wanted a 9' service body with a liftgate on a single rear wheel chassis. uncommon setup. i sent the quote but attached the chassis specs separately and told them to review carefully.

they came back a week later. "we actually need a DRW."

already had the quote ready on their sourcewell contract. attaching the specs separately lets the customer catch what you can't always catch for them.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

customer wanted a 9' service body with a liftgate on a single rear wheel chassis. uncommon setup. i sent the quote but attached the chassis specs separately and told them to review carefully.

they came back a week later. "we actually need a DRW."

already had the quote ready on their sourcewell contract. attaching the specs separately lets the customer catch what you can't always catch for them.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

class 5 does class 5 work. stop putting class 7 money into a truck that hauls mulch and a mower twice a week.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

I've seen agencies require a specific axle ratio, seat fabric, and mirror brand. in the same RFP.

one bid. one price. zero leverage.

performance specs fix this. tell the vendor what the truck needs to do. payload, duty cycle, terrain. let them compete on how to get there.

better pricing, more options, and a truck that actually matches the job.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

custom paint codes mean custom touch-up inventory. body shop quotes jump 30% matching a non-stock color. at resale, that municipal teal nobody asked for knocks $1,500 to $2,000 off auction value.

pick a base. white or black. one accent per department grouping. all stock, all easy to match and sell.

color is a tool. not a line item that got out of control because nobody said no.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

his 2016 International gave up at 211,000 miles. no replacement on order. no spec on file. no cooperative contract in place.

open market. $14,000 over cooperative pricing. 9 weeks for a truck that should have taken 4. a spec that "worked" but wasn't right for his routes.

$14,000 bought him panic. not a truck.

the fleets that never make that call have one thing in common: they order the next truck before the current one needs replacing.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

the maintenance lead sees the trend: $3,200… $5,800… $9,400.
he flags it, writes a memo, sends it up the chain.

by the time approval comes through, the truck needs another $4,000 just to stay operational.

that’s the municipal trade-in timing trap: the people closest to the equipment can’t buy, and the people who can buy aren’t seeing the deterioration in real time.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

GVWR gets all the attention. Payload gets ignored.

A truck is only as capable as its final as-built weight - not the number on the spec sheet.

Once the body, crane, liftgate, tanks, tool storage, and accessories are installed, usable payload can drop fast.

If you haven’t weighed the completed truck, you don’t actually know what it can carry.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

most upfitters will build whatever you ask them to. that's the problem.

the good ones push back. they ask what the truck is actually doing. they flag when your crane pick eats your payload budget. they tell you your compartment layout wastes space before it's welded in.

a quiet upfitter isn't a cooperative upfitter. a quiet upfitter will deliver exactly what you asked for, even when what you asked for is wrong.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

you pick the body you want. you pick the chassis you want. then the upfitter tells you the cab to axle is 6 inches short, the frame rails don't match, or the electrical can't handle the hydraulic pump without a secondary alternator.

now you're ordering a new body, swapping the chassis, or adding components nobody budgeted for.

spec them together from day one. one unit, one quote, one build timeline. that's how you avoid the 4 week delay and the $10,000 in engineering changes.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

→ body mounted before confirming final GVWR. over at the scale.
→ 12V accessories wired direct to battery instead of factory upfitter switches. fire risk.
→ compartment layout designed by someone who's never used the truck.
→ hydraulic lines routed too close to exhaust.
→ no step or grab handle on the body. OSHA recordable waiting to happen.

every one of these adds cost after delivery. get the spec right before the build.

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

https://t.co/3AVLvU4LU7

[Leyhan Hansen @leyhanhansen]

the small agencies benefit most. no procurement department. no staff to run a formal RFP. co-op contracts give them the same process and pricing the big counties get.

if you're a small municipality and you've never looked at co-op purchasing, you're doing twice the work for the same truck.