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Types of Fleet Maintenance
There are three types of maintenance that happen within fleets: corrective, predictive and preventive maintenance.
- Corrective maintenance is often unscheduled and done as a reaction to a failed item on a vehicle.
- Preventive maintenance (PM) is a proactive approach to fleet maintenance – where regular maintenance is scheduled and performed.
- Predictive maintenance (PdM) is even more proactive than preventive maintenance, where fleets look to historical service records to make a prediction about a fleet asset and perform repairs before items fail.
Example of Predictive Maintenance
A fleet manager realizes that the alternator in most vehicles of a certain make and model dies between 100-115k miles. Rather than waiting to see if the trend holds true, they decide to replace the alternator on similar vehicles once they get close to 100k miles in order to avoid the costs of a vehicle breakdown away from the shop.
Fleet Preventive Maintenance Program Components
A preventive maintenance program allows fleet managers to improve their overall uptime and reduce the costs associated with unplanned repairs, as well as extend the lifetime of the assets in their fleet. Here are a few components of a fleet preventive maintenance program.
1. Start by inventorying each asset in your fleet. Create a list, documenting each asset in your fleet that requires preventive maintenance. Include asset details such as year, make and model.
2. Record the existing service history for each asset. By seeing what service has been performed historically, you can better prioritize upcoming maintenance needs, rather than constantly performing avoidable fleet repairs. Create a system for documenting fleet-wide maintenance.
3. Create a list of OEM-recommended maintenance tasks and intervals for each asset. When determining what maintenance to perform, and how often, it's best to refer to the guidelines set in place by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
4. Develop a PM calendar for each asset. Once you know what maintenance has been performed and what maintenance needs to be performed, create a maintenance calendar to anticipate vehicle downtime for each asset.
5. Log odometer readings and other usage data. Track meter readings for all of the assets in your fleet in order to ensure that your assets are receiving the service they need, when they need it.
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5 Best Practices for Implementing Preventive Maintenance
Implementing a fleet maintenance schedule is one thing; sticking to it is another. Many fleets still use paper work orders and spreadsheets to manage their PM, which can be inefficient and cause vehicles to miss routine maintenance, leading to downtime and costly repairs.
While you may have a planned preventative maintenance (PPM) schedule in place, check out these best practices to see how a fleet management system can help you increase efficiency.
1. Set Service Reminders Based on Odometer Updates
Most fleet preventive maintenance schedules are based around mileage and hour intervals, so fleet managers rely heavily on odometer readings to manage maintenance.
Because many fleets still use paper processes, most drivers can only provide odometer readings when they return to the office. This means managers are receiving infrequent, and sometimes inaccurate, odometer updates.
With an integrated fleet management system, you receive recurring, accurate odometer updates to help automate service reminders. Instead of hunting down drivers and manually tracking when service is due, you can avoid the information bottleneck and start service on time.
Drivers update odometer readings through a driver inspection app, or you can integrate your telematics fleet management system into fleet management software to receive automatic meter updates in real-time.
With accurate odometer readings, your fleet can adhere to routine preventive maintenance, set service schedules in your maintenance software and receive reminders based on odometer updates.
For Fleetio Users
Connect your telematics devices to Fleetio to automatically capture odometer readings and receive notifications when a vehicle is due soon for service.
2. Take Advantage of Inspection Results
While setting service reminders guarantees your assets receive regular service, sometimes issues arise ahead of schedule. Routine inspections are critical, and leveraging Electronic DVIR (eDVIR) provides even more efficiency in your maintenance program.
Small issues in your inspections that go unrepaired can lead to greater issues in the long run. Leveraging inspections in your fleet preventive maintenance process allows your drivers to communicate vehicle issues efficiently and expedite the maintenance process.
As a fleet manager, talk to your drivers; if they’re seeing lights coming on, if they’re smelling things, if they’re hearing things, if they’re feeling things, that’s going to be your best source of information. Don’t wait until a driver calls you, ‘Yeah, I’m on the side of the road. I’m in the middle of nowhere. The wheel came off.’ James Shelton, Jiffy Lube International
Conducting digital inspections within your fleet maintenance platform provides a quick, paperless way for drivers to perform inspections. Work orders can be created based on failed inspection items, ensuring issues don’t go unnoticed.
Tracking inspection results can also provide you with crucial insight into your fleet’s health. When you have inspection data in a central location, you can easily track common issues across vehicles to make data-driven decisions regarding future maintenance.
For Fleetio Users
Set up custom alerts and automations for failed inspection items in order to ensure your technicians are notified and you can get the issue resolved ASAP.
3. Expedite Maintenance with Mobile Work Orders
As we mentioned, leveraging inspection results can have a positive impact on your fleet preventive maintenance process. That said, paper systems often create communication gaps that cause a backlog of work orders.
In fleet preventive maintenance software, fleet managers can generate mobile work orders to plan, schedule and carry out maintenance tasks. Fleet managers can receive email notifications on failed inspection items and create work orders based on any issues to jumpstart the maintenance process.
Creating work orders based on inspection items as well as engine and hour intervals enables you to take a proactive stance on maintenance. Having a way to view inspection results, work orders and maintenance progress in one place ensures the effectiveness and sustainability of your preventive maintenance PM schedule.
For Fleetio Users
Prioritize work orders based on urgency and set anticipated labor hours so your technicians know what to work on and how much time to allocate.
4. Streamline Third-Party Repairs
Many organizations outsource their fleet preventive maintenance to third-party shops. While this is a cost-effective solution for most fleets, communication issues can arise when outsourcing maintenance to external vendors without an efficient process.
Managing third-party maintenance through software streamlines approvals, work orders and billing. A Maintenance Shop Integration reduces downtime by sending fleet managers notifications to approve or reject maintenance as soon as vehicles get to the shop.
From there, you can automate approvals at your usual shops up to a certain dollar amount, so your drivers can bring vehicles into the shop for fleet preventive maintenance and get back on the road quickly.
For Fleetio Users
Take advantage of our Maintenance Provider Network to automatically capture all service information, view the status of third-party maintenance tasks, view service history, and get a better understanding of your fleet’s operating costs.
5. Use Fleet Reports to Forecast Future Preventive Maintenance
Taking a proactive stance on fleet preventive maintenance doesn’t end with creating and sticking to service reminders. To have the most effective preventive maintenance program, it’s important to keep an ongoing record of your assets’ service histories.
Fleet management software tracks asset utilization and daily average usage to forecast future service needs. Fleet managers can opt in to receive notifications based on when a vehicle is predicted to need service. Notifications can be customized by vehicle type to keep your assets organized.
Just implementing my PM schedule [has] cut us down at least 20-30 percent of downed vehicles. Prior to me getting here, most of them were probably dropping dead at that 25-30,000 mile range, and now some of my UTVs are pushing onto 45-50,000 miles. So now, I’m looking at a completely different fleet replacement cycle, because I’m getting an extra 15-20,000 miles out of some of these UTVs. That’s, you know, that’s awesome. Kade Haney, Kualoa Ranch
Measuring fleet preventive maintenance is easy when all of your fleet’s data is in one central location. By measuring your preventive maintenance performance through fleet reports, you can be sure your fleet avoids downtime and unnecessary expenses.
For Fleetio Users
Go to Reports > Service > Maintenance Categorization Summary to identify any common issues impacting individual Systems within your fleet. For example, if you're spending more on brakes than anything else, it might be time for driving training or to invest in better quality brake pads.
Vehicle Preventive Maintenance Checklist
By going through a checklist every time a vehicle comes in for schedule preventive maintenance, you can often surface any other issues before it leads to a costly breakdown.
Looking for more? View our full PM checklist
Yes, this checklist could end up creating more work for your technicians, but it's more efficient to complete that work while the vehicle is already in the shop than having to schedule another time in the near future to bring it back in.
I’ve talked to the shops, like: ‘Hey, every time one of our vehicles comes in, please do a full inspection on it.’ And it’s helped a lot. It’s really helped with, say we didn’t do brakes and then it ate through the rotors, destroyed the hub, and that downtime ended up being a week [or two] because we have to order parts. [That’s] a lot more labor [versus], ‘Hey, this needs brakes, tires,’ and it’s done immediately, and we can get the vehicle back on the road the same day usually. Umair Tahir, DeliverOL
Fleet preventive maintenance made easy with Fleetio
With Fleetio’s maintenance automation, you can ensure that your fleet never misses a service need again. The meter readings for your assets are updated automatically through data from pre-trip inspections and telematics devices, guaranteeing that you always know when a vehicle is due for service. Simply set a Service Reminder for things like oil changes, tire rotations and more and Fleetio will notify you when a vehicle is predicted to need service.
Most fleet software have similar functionalities regarding what the end result is, but it’s how you get to the end result and how user-friendly the interface is that’s important. Tom Rowlings, City of Cambridge
Each asset’s entire service history is just a few clicks away, allowing you to accurately determine the costs of operating a vehicle and determine the optimal time to replace an asset before it starts costing your fleet unnecessarily.
A maintenance workflow that works
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