Fleet Maintenance Management

Forget all the times you’ve heard someone say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. You shouldn’t be waiting for your vehicles to deteriorate before performing maintenance on them, as this can have all sorts of ill effects – from a higher risk of unexpected breakdowns to pricier repair costs.

Effective fleet maintenance management replaces expensive reactive repairs with regular proactive maintenance. It keeps your vehicles in optimum condition, protects your drivers’ safety, and helps you to save cash. But how do you do it well? Read on as we explore all things fleet maintenance, from tips for saving on maintenance costs, to our actionable template of a solid fleet maintenance program…

What is Fleet Maintenance?

So, what does fleet maintenance mean? Essentially, it means proactively working to keep your vehicles in optimum condition, by performing routine inspections and mechanical maintenance services on them at regular intervals.

The best form of fleet maintenance is preventative maintenance (you might have seen this snappily referred to as PM, or otherwise called routine maintenance). Preventative maintenance aims to nip small issues in the bud before they become large faults that cause breakdowns.

What is Fleet Maintenance Management?

Fleet maintenance management is simply the practice of ensuring that effective, preventative fleet maintenance takes place on an ongoing basis. This involves implementing a fleet maintenance program, ensuring that your drivers, technicians, and mechanics (if you hire them) stick to it, and adjusting and improving the maintenance schedule as needed. It also involves keeping track of maintenance costs, and devising ways to lower them (we explore some of those ways below!).

But why is fleet maintenance management important? Well, first off, it prevents breakdowns – which in turn prevents unexpected vehicle downtime and expensive repair costs – and helps you to extend the lifespan of your assets, boosting your ROI. We cover the biggest benefits of fleet maintenance management in more detail later in this article.

How to Implement a Preventative Maintenance Program

So, where to start? Follow these four steps to set up your preventative maintenance program:

1. Decide on the intervals at which maintenance inspections and services are needed.

You should always start by following the service schedule that your vehicles’ manufacturer provides – this should detail the services that each vehicle will need, and how frequently it’ll need them. However, if you feel you’d like to get your motors looked at more frequently than the schedule suggests, you can always plan services at regular intervals based on mileage, engine hours, fuel usage, or simply time. Check out our example maintenance program below for examples of the services and timeframes you could look at.

2. Train your drivers to conduct thorough DVIRs (driver vehicle inspection reports) at the start and end of every day.

These ensure that drivers formally surface any faults they spot, and thanks to regulation from the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration), your drivers are legally required to complete them anyway! Importantly, you’ll need to make sure that there’s a seamless process in place for fixing reported issues right away. There’s no point in having drivers flag problems if you’re not going to act on them quickly

3. Install fleet maintenance software, or better still, a fleet management system that incorporates fleet maintenance scheduling and trackin.

Such programs can prove invaluable in helping you to keep on top of your preventative maintenance, with automated schedules, service records, and real-time alerts to remind you when a certain service is due.

4. Finally, upskill your technicians and mechanics to ensure that they can perform the preventative maintenance and repairs that your fleet will need.

Set up ongoing training for them – you’ll often be able to obtain training courses through your vehicle and equipment suppliers – and make sure that their workshop is kept tidy and in good condition, and that an inventory of parts is carefully kept. Jobs will get done more quickly if all the necessary tools and parts are already stocked, and can be found quickly!

The Benefits of Fleet Maintenance

Why do all of this? The benefits of routine fleet maintenance speak for themselves…

1. Avoid Vehicle Downtime

The key intention behind regular preventative maintenance is this: fix new issues quickly, and they don’t get a chance to become big, breakdown-causing faults. And, of course, we all know that breakdowns are best avoided – they put vehicles out of action (sometimes permanently), causing lost productivity by reducing the fleet’s capacity to get jobs done, keep clients happy, and earn revenue. There’s also the unplanned costs of having the vehicle towed and repaired (or even replaced), which leads us to…

2. Prevent More Costly Repairs

We know what you’re thinking – won’t it be expensive to have my vehicles serviced so regularly?

While routine maintenance does cost money, it’s a necessary cost that will help you to avoid much heftier expenses down the line – indeed according to KPMG a single breakdown can cost as much as $3,000. Getting a vehicle’s oil changed frequently, for example, will cost less in the long run than having to replace its neglected engine. Cheaper proactive maintenance, or expensive reactive repairs: when it comes to fleets, you’ll either pay for one or the other.

3. Cut Back on Fuel Costs

Vehicle maintenance can actually have a big bearing on your fleet’s fuel consumption. Vehicles that are in sparkling condition run at their most efficient, which means they burn a smaller volume of gas than those that have, say, blocked air filters, degraded fuel caps, clogged fuel injectors, or even just tires that are a little deflated.

You’re probably painfully aware of how expensive fuel is – in fact, it accounts for 24% of a typical trucking fleet’s yearly costs – so cutting back on those gas costs is a big benefit here.

4. Reduce the Risk of Road Accidents

Routine maintenance can also play a part in your fleet risk management strategy. While data tells us that human error causes 94% of US road accidents, the condition of your vehicles can play a part – with the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) citing faults with tires and wheels, brakes, and steering and suspension as key contributors to collisions.

Potentially causing deaths, injuries, liability costs, and serious vehicle downtime, accidents can only mean trouble for your fleet – and so working to prevent them by keeping vehicles in good working order is a must.

5. Boost Your ROI

It’s simple, really: keeping your vehicles in stellar condition prolongs their lifespan, ensuring that your business gets as much use out of them as possible. Vehicles are expensive assets, and so the more sporadically you need to replace your fleet, the better.

That said, if you do decide to sell a vehicle, you’ll fetch a higher resale price if it’s been kept in great condition with routine maintenance. Asset value depreciation is, after all, one of the biggest money-wasters in the fleet industry.

Do I Need Fleet Maintenance Management?

Well, let’s break it down by some core industries…

Does my Industry Need Fleet Maintenance Management?

Spoiler alert: no matter what industry you’re in, we’re going to say yes – you do need fleet maintenance management. But how can it address the needs of your specific business? Let’s take a look at some key benefits for a few different fleet sectors:

• Manufacturing. The manufacturing industry is regulated by exacting standards, requiring finely tuned equipment and vehicles to carry out the careful work. Routine maintenance ensures that your vehicles are performing as they should.

• Construction. Construction equipment and vehicles consist of many moving parts, and avoiding breakdowns is key to keeping operations running smoothly. Lots of construction equipment relies on belt-driven mechanisms, so reducing wear and tear on belts (which can easily fray or grow slack) is particularly important.

• Utilities. Utility vehicles are often called on to traverse rough terrain; in such cases, keeping steering and suspension systems in good condition is crucial, while the vehicle underbody should be inspected and cleaned more often. Routine maintenance management can help with this.

• Distribution. The distribution industry is ruled over by deadlines, and so keeping your vehicles on the move when they should be is paramount. Maintenance management will help to prevent unexpected downtime, so you can stick to your planned timeframes and keep on keeping your clients and their customers happy.

• Transport. Accidental though it may be, breaking down with paying passengers on board can be something of a reputation killer. Plus, with vehicles taken out of action for avoidable repairs, you’re left with fewer drivers available to pick up passengers and earn revenue.

• Field Services. As with taxi cab fleets, field service vehicles can be called out at a moment’s notice to attend to emergency jobs. Keeping your vehicles in optimum condition for as long as possible ensures that you won’t miss out on any lucrative work.

Does Fleet Size Matter for Maintenance Management?

Whether you manage three vehicles or 30, effective fleet maintenance management is a must. Small businesses can lose a significant chunk of their custom when just one vehicle is down for an extended period – it goes without saying that that’s best avoided.

Meanwhile, due to the laws of probability, fleets with larger vehicle numbers simply face the prospect of mechanical faults presenting themselves more often, so having a strategy in place to prevent them where possible is invaluable.

In large vs. small fleet maintenance management, the key difference will be whether you choose to outsource your maintenance or keep it in-house. Usually, outsourcing is a more cost-effective option for smaller businesses, while larger businesses can supercharge their efficiency by carrying out maintenance in-house. We cover these two options in more detail later.

The Best Fleet Maintenance Companies

Be it dedicated fleet maintenance software or fleet management systems with maintenance management functionality thrown in, our favourite solutions for streamlined, paperless fleet maintenance management are:

• Whip Around: best for small businesses
• Samsara: best for medium businesses
• Verizon Connect: best for large businesses

Whip Around: Best for Small Businesses (One to Four Vehicles)

Whip Around is a specialist system designed specifically for fleet inspections and maintenance. It provides a fully customisable DVIR builder, enabling you to tailor your drivers’ inspections to specific vehicle types and uses. You can also use Whip Around to quickly build service schedules, generate work orders, receive reminders when a service is upcoming, and view a record of mileage, maintenance history, and service costs for each of your vehicles.

Really, Whip Around is suitable for businesses of all sizes – its ability to group drivers and faults together for ease makes it a solid option for large businesses, too. But with prices starting at $6 per vehicle, per month, and a free (but limited) plan available, its budget-friendly credentials make it our top pick for small businesses. We’d also recommend that bigger businesses opt for a full fleet management system – which Whip Around isn’t – to meet those more complex needs.

Samsara: Best for Medium Fleets (5 – 25 Vehicles)

If you’re looking to benefit from a full fleet management system with excellent maintenance tracking features bundled in, you won’t go far wrong with Samsara. This system can collate and report on a range of data directly from your vehicles, including fuel levels, battery voltages, odometer readings, check engine light status, and any DTC fault codes being pulled from each vehicle. The ‘Maintenance’ section of Samsara’s dashboard displays all of this info, as well as pending scheduled maintenance for each vehicle, and records of maintenance that’s been carried out in the past.

With an average cost of $27 to $33 per vehicle, per month, Samsara isn’t the cheapest option out there – but you’ll get a fantastic set of fleet management capabilities in exchange for those dollars. In particular, we recommend Samsara to businesses that are growing fast, because it’s such an easy system to scale.

Verizon Connect: Best for Large Fleets (26+ Vehicles)

If we’re talking sophisticated fleet management systems, it’d be remiss of us not to discuss Verizon Connect and its comprehensive fleet maintenance reporting. Via the maintenance dashboard, you’ll be able to schedule upcoming services (and list their expected costs), view service histories for each vehicle, and take a look at any DTC fault codes that have been gathered from your vehicles. The system can help with your scheduling by using this data to automatically stipulate the ideal mileage each vehicle should go before its next maintenance service.

We recommend Verizon Connect to large fleets because of the sheer sophistication of the system. It’s more expensive than Samsara, but if you’re looking for swathes of actionable data and detailed insight into the inner workings of your fleet, the money’s well worth it. Be wary, though: Verizon’s maintenance scheduling features do cost a little extra, only on offer as part of its more expensive packages.

An Example Fleet Maintenance Program

So, what exactly should your fleet maintenance program look like? What should it include? The specifics will depend on the types of vehicle you operate, your business’ usual mileage, and more – but we can provide a general template for you to follow as a starting point.

As an overview, you should address your fleet maintenance from three angles:

1. Routine mandatory services
2. Daily DVIRs
3. Preventative parts replacement

Let’s take a look at these components in more depth…

1. Routine Mandatory Services

These are the maintenance services that have to happen at regular intervals, even if a vehicle seems to be running perfectly. Use your vehicle manufacturer’s service schedule to plot this out – but don’t be afraid to be even more cautious than the schedule suggests.

As an idea – and if appropriate for your vehicles – you could use this example schedule as a starting block:

• Check fluids (transmission fluid, brake fluid, and power steering fluid), the condition of belts, the battery, and hoses, and the windshield and wiper blades once a month.
• Change the oil, check the brake system, clutch system (in manual vehicles), and chassis lubrication, and inspect and rotate tires every six months (or 5,000 miles).
• Check the radiator, radiator cap, water pump, thermostats, and antifreeze, service the accelerator control system and engine cooling system, flush the underbody, and lubricate the doors, locks, and parking brakes once a year (or 10,000 miles).
• Replace the transmission fluid and filter, and inspect the automatic transmission, fuel filter, spark plugs, and engine timing every 18 months to three years (or 15,000 to 30,000 miles).

2. Daily DVIRs

We’ve touched on DVIRs already, but it’s crucial for both your preventative maintenance efforts and your regulatory compliance that drivers carry out these inspections thoroughly, and at the start and end of every day.

According to regulation, your drivers need to inspect their vehicles’…

• Brakes
• Lights and reflectors
• Steering mechanism
• Wheels – including the tires and rims, and any spare wheels kept
• Mirrors – both rear and side view
• Windshield wiper blades
• Horn
• Coupling equipment
• On-board safety and emergency equipment
• Power unit (if applicable)
• Trailer (if applicable)

As such, make sure that your DVIRs include these elements. Remember, a fleet management system with eDVIR functionality will enable your drivers to conduct these inspections easily, via a smartphone app that they can carry around in their pockets.

3. Preventative Parts Replacement

Both your drivers and your mechanics should understand their responsibility to report signs of wear and tear on specific parts. This, coupled with your mechanics’ knowledge of when certain parts are nearing the end of their life cycles (make sure your mechanics have the expertise to recognize or otherwise determine this), should empower you to ensure that aged parts are replaced with shiny new versions before they break.

Waiting for failing parts to cause breakdowns before replacing them will only lead to extended vehicle downtime and a pricier repair job.

Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Fleet Maintenance Management

1. Find the Right Maintenance Method

In-house or outsource: that is the question. In other words, should you fund your own workshop and contract your own mechanics, or pay to send your vehicles to an external shop?

While setting up in-house maintenance comes with greater quality control and much faster repairs, it also requires you to invest in a skilled workforce, training, parts, and workshop overheads. Meanwhile, outsourcing maintenance means you’ll benefit from pre-set maintenance costs and a warranty on the works that are carried out, but you’ll also need to pay marked-up prices for parts and services, as well as suffer longer downtime.

As a rule of thumb, it tends to make sense for smaller fleets to outsource maintenance, while larger fleets will save more by having their own workshop. Of course, it is possible to introduce a blend of both – it all depends on the unique needs of your fleet, so make sure you carefully consider that.

2. Keep an Inventory of Parts

If you opt to set up in-house maintenance, this next point is for you. Effectively keeping track of your stock of parts gives you visibility over the servicings and maintenance your team can perform at any one time, and empowers you to order, in advance, any parts that are running low so that you don’t get caught out.

Having the right parts to hand immediately means services can be done quickly, reducing the amount of revenue you lose to downtime. You’ll also cut back on labor costs if a mechanic doesn’t have to source parts for you.

3. Set Quality Standards

Whether you get your work done in-house or at an external workshop, you should put quality control standards in place to ensure that the maintenance being done is up to scratch. Here are a few tips for defining and acting on your company standards:

• Always inspect the vehicle after the work has been done to ensure everything is looking and working as expected.
• Specifically, inspect the parts used for signs of wear and tear, like rust. Mechanics sometimes order in used parts to save a bit of money, but that won’t help you in the long run. Make sure your mechanic adheres to the standards you expect.
• Set time limits on how long each particular service should take (be ambitious, but reasonable!). If a vehicle is down for several days for something as routine as an oil change, you’ll know it’s unacceptable.

Importantly, if maintenance tends to fall short of your standards, you can work to put the necessary improvements in place (or, if you outsource your maintenance, look for another mechanic!).

4. Use Fleet Maintenance Software

Using the right software system for your business will only make your life easier. Fleet maintenance software – or fleet management systems with maintenance features – can help you to:

• Automate a fleet maintenance schedule based on the requirements of your vehicles
• Keep track of your service schedule, with automated alerts to remind you when a service is due
• Keep an accurate record of past services
• Anticipate future maintenance costs by keeping track of how much past and present services have cost
• Manage eDVIRs

Which leads us on to…

5. Use an eDVIR system

Paper DVIRs are awkward to fill out, prone to damage, and unlikely to reach you quickly, depending on how far away your driver is. By contrast, eDVIRs (electronic driver vehicle inspection reports) can be easily filled out via an app on the driver’s smartphone or tablet, and can appear on your computer screen instantly. This means that, if you need to arrange a repair, you can do so immediately.

Moreover, eDVIR apps enable drivers to add photographs of any visible faults to lend greater clarity to the problem. Plus, they’re customizable, so you can decide what you want your drivers to inspect, and the level of detail they need to go into when reporting their findings.

It is possible to get standalone eDVIR apps, but our advice is to look for a fleet management system that includes eDVIR functionality, in order to benefit from the myriad advantages a fleet management system can offer, too.

Top 4 Ways to Reduce Fleet Maintenance Costs

According to ATRI (the American Transportation Research Institute), maintenance and repair costs amount to 10% of a typical trucking fleet’s cost per mile – so trimming back some of your spend here could potentially have a big impact on your bottom line.

But what can you do to cut the amount you need to spend on maintenance costs? Here are four tips:

1. Train Drivers to Look After Their Vehicles

The more wear and tear a vehicle suffers, the more regularly you’ll need to pay for maintenance and repairs. While some wear and tear is out of your control, coming naturally with age, lots is caused by drivers and a handful of careless habits. As part of your driver training program, make sure you teach a few key preventative practices, including:

• Avoiding tailgating so that braking is needed less often, to avoid wearing down the brake pads
• Taking it slowly when travelling over speed bumps or rough terrain to avoid suspension damage
• In cold temperatures, allowing time for the vehicle (or more precisely, its oil) to warm up before using the throttle
• Closing doors softly – in other words, not slamming them – to avoid damage to the mechanisms in the doors and windows
• Avoiding turning the engine off and on again frequently (though of course, for some businesses like last-mile delivery services, short stops and starts can’t be prevented)
• Avoiding hard acceleration and hard cornering

2. Keep Track of All Maintenance

Keeping a careful record of all the maintenance and repairs each of your vehicles has undertaken gives you the visibility you need to anticipate future costs, set the right budget, and understand when your next maintenance services are due.

More than that, though, keeping track enables you to identify trends. For example, in your records, you might spot that one of your vehicles has needed a particular repair more often than your other vehicles have.

Armed with this information, you can investigate the vehicle and its driver – is there an underlying mechanical problem that’s causing the issue to reoccur, or does the driver have a bad habit that keeps causing it? Understanding what’s going on will help you to put a stop to the cause of the issue, thereby stopping yourself from having to pay for that issue to be fixed again and again.

3. Be Cost Savvy

You might think that this goes without saying, but it’s worth making a proactive effort to look for the best maintenance prices you can find. When you’ve got a fleet to run, it’s tempting to accept the first quote you receive from a mechanic – but shopping around before committing is always a good idea.

You’ll find that lots of mechanics are eager to attract the loyal custom of fleet businesses, and so will offer discounts to those who use them regularly (this, of course, only applies to businesses that outsource maintenance). When the work has been done, carefully check your invoices so that all charges are itemized. Ask your mechanic about any costs that you don’t understand.

Similarly, if you run your own maintenance workshop, make sure that parts are bought in bulk from wholesalers, rather than one by one as needed; this will save you money in the long run.