Creating a truck fleet maintenance plan may be a daunting task with so many different sizes, functions, and models of trucks. Whether you have a fleet of light-duty service pickups or a Class 8 large rig, an efficient maintenance schedule may help you eliminate inefficiencies and decrease asset downtime.
1. Maintenance Workflow Automation
To improve operations and get your trucks in and out of the shop faster, fleet maintenance may be automated. Fleet maintenance software helps you decrease downtime by developing routines that fit your fleet, from getting service notifications for an approaching PM to seeing work order progress in real-time.
Whether you handle maintenance in-house or outsource it to a third party, using software to manage work orders will help you prevent unexpected costs and remain on budget. You can see concerns, check staff productivity, and keep track of repair costs using digital work orders, which provide detailed line-item breakdowns.
2. Standardize truck inspections
If your team doesn't do frequent truck inspections, keeping track of asset health might be difficult. Minor abnormalities beneath the hood might lie undiscovered for a long time, leading to more severe problems and breakdowns. Drivers who submit daily truck inspection reports (DVIRs) better ensure that any faults are documented and repair is expedited.
Using a mobile inspection app for electronic DVIRs is the most suitable method for drivers to perform inspections. Your drivers may conduct checks anywhere in the field and quickly submit the findings to your fleet management software using a mobile inspection app (FMS). Any problems are instantly sent to you, enabling you to decide on the best maintenance strategy.
3. Maintaining contact with PM
The best maintenance strategies for truck fleets are proactive rather than reactive, which signifies that your team follows the manufacturer's guidelines for preventative maintenance regularly. For fleets that still use paper calendars and spreadsheets to handle maintenance, sticking to a PM schedule may be complicated; however, scheduling maintenance reminders using software guarantees your fleet never misses planned servicing.
FMS assists you in sticking to PM schedules by sending service reminders to your mailbox based on odometer readings or engine hour intervals, allowing you to bring your trucks in for regular maintenance on time. The mobile inspection app will enable drivers to update odometer readings, or you may interface your telemetry system with FMS to get odometer changes automatically.
Final words
The top two aims of your truck fleet maintenance management strategy should be to avoid downtime and increase asset lifetime. This guarantees that you provide the most excellent service possible to your consumers, while also ensuring that you get the most out of your pricey assets.
Many fleet managers are turning to a cloud-based software solution to monitor every element of their fleet, including maintenance activities, team efficiency, and costs. Cloud-based software centralizes your fleet's maintenance data on a single platform for simple administration, giving you complete insight into asset health and rapidly communicating maintenance requirements throughout your team.