Given proper attention, your fleet’s maintenance program can help you maximize asset life. However, before you even get to the maintenance stage you need to understand the equipment selection process. If you spec a vehicle that is not ideal for your needs, you might end up inadvertently hurting your capability to reach your cost per mile goals. No amount of maintenance is going to mitigate problem if, for example, your axle ratio is misaligned with your mpg requirement.
You should be reviewing vehicle specs each and every time you place an order for a new asset. Review specs with your dealer, the OEM and any manufacturers of add-on equipment. For example, if you are having a lift gate installed on a new trailer, see that it has the right capacity and the split is in the best place to accommodate your loading/delivery process.
The maintenance data you have collected on existing assets can help you when it comes to spec’ing a new asset. Comb maintenance data to see which types of vehicles, which models and which specs run best in your fleet. Look at the kind of maintenance you are doing as well as the warranty you are recouping to see which trucks give you the best return on investment.
Turning to maintenance itself, improving safety, maximizing uptime and reducing your overall life cycle costs should be your goals. Safety and efficiency must be at the forefront of all your maintenance and repair efforts.
Maintenance is a term that is used broadly, but actually is made up of several different elements. The first is preventive maintenance, which is your standard scheduled maintenance that takes place at predetermined intervals. It includes oil changes and both A and B services. Compliance with preventive maintenance schedules needs to be tracked. If you are not in near 100% compliance with scheduled maintenance, you don’t really have a maintenance program.
In order to have an effective preventive maintenance program, you need to understand when your assets are on the road, when they are being loaded and when they are available for maintenance, and make sure you have technicians available and bay space to accommodate the vehicles. If most of your vehicles are not in use on Wednesdays, you should have the bulk of your technicians available to work on Wednesdays.
Predictive maintenance, which basically is your condition-based repairs, is the next type of maintenance. Here is where the operational data you have been tracking comes in handy as you can spot wear trends and bring trucks in proactively before there is an on-road breakdown.
