One of the hidden costs of running a fleet of vehicles is sudden repairs. While your budget can accurately account for the costs of outfitting your vehicles for electrical work or the fuel needed to drive to the job, vehicle downtime is a variable expense that extends beyond the cost of repairs. Not only do you have to devote resources to get the vehicle back to the job site, but you also have to account for any missed work during the time it is out of service — with some estimates putting the cost of downtime at up to $760 per vehicle, per day.
Repairs are an inevitability of managing a fleet, but you can reduce the risk of unplanned downtime through a proactive maintenance checklist. And by leveraging a few of your existing data sources, you can ensure vehicles are up to date on their maintenance schedules and identify any problems early to keep your fleet on the road.
Anticipate the maintenance needs of your fleet
Maintenance checklists are a key tool in ensuring any technicians working on your fleet’s assets are thorough and consistent, whether the work is performed in-house or through a third-party vendor. To create a maintenance checklist for your fleet, you first need to have a complete picture of all the assets in your fleet.
- Identify the year, make, and model of each vehicle. As automotive technologies continue to evolve, preventive maintenance (PM) becomes more in-depth. By identifying each asset in your fleet, you can create a maintenance checklist tailored to that vehicle to ensure it gets the service it needs for optimal performance. For fleets that perform maintenance in-house, you can streamline the repair process and decrease your on-hand inventory by standardizing the vehicles you purchase — for example, keeping ten of the same oil filter in stock is cheaper and easier to maintain than varying oil filters for each fleet vehicle.
- Refer to the owner’s manual for maintenance needs and intervals. Manufacturers test their vehicles through variable conditions and create maintenance guidelines to meet a standard level of operation. By using the products and timelines they recommend, you are more likely to extend the lifespan of any vehicle.
- Consider any seasonal challenges or needs for your region. In colder regions, batteries should be checked and serviced in advance of the winter months. During spring, certain regions are prone to swarms of insects and require washer solvent to be topped off frequently. By identifying the challenges for your specific region, you can plan actions in advance to protect your workers and keep your vehicles in top shape.
- Define a list of maintenance tasks to build a maintenance schedule. Once you’ve identified the maintenance needs and intervals for each of your fleet assets, it’s time to define your maintenance plan. Create a list of PM tasks for each vehicle, along with a recent service history log, including odometer readings and date of service, for each task. Use recent service history and mileage statistics to forecast the timing of future maintenance needs. Track odometer readings to ensure your assets receive the service they need on time.
- Create a checklist of maintenance inspection items to identify future issues. While vehicles are in the shop for scheduled service, go through a checklist of inspection items to ensure the health of components that might not yet be due for service.
Creating a maintenance checklist to prevent future issues
Defining the service needs and recommended intervals for your fleet assets will significantly improve your vehicle uptime. However, manufacturer-recommended service intervals are not a guaranteed solution. A proactive maintenance checklist will allow you to catch any components that might be failing ahead of their recommended service interval.
Whenever a vehicle is in the shop for scheduled maintenance, have your technicians go through a checklist of inspection items to ensure the health of components that might not yet be due for service. Common PM inspection items include checking fluid and oil levels, air filters, brake system, exhaust system, belts and hoses, lighting systems, safety systems, and coupling devices if your vehicles have attached trailers, along with rotating tires/checking PSI and lubricating grease fittings.
A thorough inspection of a vehicle’s operational components takes just a few extra minutes during a standard service appointment but could prevent issues that would leave an electrician on the side of the road and a vehicle needing sudden repair.
Tracking fleet data to improve your maintenance compliance
While many fleets may have a defined maintenance process, it can be easy for maintenance needs to fall behind schedule or be missed entirely. Most of the time, this can be attributed to an inefficient or outdated fleet maintenance process. Operators might be logging their odometer readings in pre-trip inspections, but if the paper form gets added to a stack of backlogged inspections, it could be days or weeks before the odometer reading is properly documented.
Not only does fleet technology allow you to reduce paper trails, but it also gives you instant access to the status of your vehicles. GPS systems can calculate odometer readings based on how many miles your vehicle travels. Telematic devices can notify you when a vehicle surfaces a new diagnostic trouble code (DTC). Fuel cards can reveal discrepancies in your fuel purchases to identify underperforming vehicles. And a fleet management software system can import the data from all your fleet technologies to give you real-time and total access to the status of your entire fleet and send automatic reminders when a vehicle is due for service. Many of these systems also allow field workers to perform vehicle inspection reports from a mobile device, which can reduce vehicle downtime.
Zach Searcy is a lead content marketing manager for Fleetio, a fleet management software that helps organizations track, analyze and improve their fleet operations. For more info, visit fleetio.com.
