When it comes to understanding the fundamentals of fleet maintenance and vehicle repair it’s important to note that the two are not synonymous. A thorough fleet maintenance plan includes preventative, predictive and prescriptive maintenance, while vehicle repairs focus on corrective maintenance. Together, these fundamentals promote success.
Preventative, Predictive and Prescriptive Maintenance
A comprehensive fleet maintenance and vehicle repair plan includes preventative, predictive and prescriptive maintenance. It should be routine, thorough and prescriptive.
Routine: No matter the size of the asset, every fleet vehicle should be regularly maintained and examined. Regular examinations of your assets can help keep your vehicles safely on the road. Routine examinations also reduce the need for expensive and unexpected repairs. For more information, read our Part 1 and Part 2 series on Deferred Maintenance: What is the True Cost for Fleets?
Thorough: A thorough examination of your asset can save time and money, as well as alleviate stress. How? By making sure everything is functioning and operating exactly as it should, before something goes wrong. Amerit’s PM has over 55-line items that inspect and maintain every working system on a vehicle, making it an invaluable check point for keeping the vehicle operating safely and reducing costly break downs. For a deeper dive into this subject please read our article: Preventative maintenance is more than just an oil change.
Prescriptive: Among Fleet professionals, the concept of prescribing PM plans based on the usage and conditions of your fleet by region is gaining great momentum. It goes without saying that not all fleet vehicles and assets are created equal. Every asset and vehicle serve a different purpose for your operation. The weather in differing regions can completely change the type of maintenance your fleet needs. Because your assets face different weather conditions, your fleet maintenance and vehicle repair plan should reflect that. Though it may take a bit more time and data analysis to build a truly prescriptive plan, this type of planning will net greater operational efficiency and ultimately bottom-line savings.
Vehicle Repairs and Corrective Maintenance
In addition to preventative and predictive maintenance, vehicle repairs and corrective maintenance are also fundamental to successful fleet operations.
Corrective maintenance focuses on correcting existing issues, rather than preventing more issues from occurring. The goal of corrective maintenance is to bring problem vehicles back online as quickly and cost efficiently as possible.
One common issue for many fleets when dealing with corrective maintenance is the inability to surge forces to bring downed vehicles back online, while still maintaining your PM schedule and other routine services.
For example, Vehicle 1 has been down for weeks at your shop and is eating away at customer service and profitability. In order to complete the repairs, a technician delays the PM of Vehicle 2. While Vehicle 1 is still being repaired, Vehicle 2 breaks down. Vehicle 2 may have not broken down if the routine PMs were performed and a problem was discovered. However, now both Vehicle 1 and Vehicle 2 are offline.
Amerit has the ability to surge workforces into our client’s locations to support the efforts to bring downed vehicles back online or to handle new projects or initiatives. One potential area for surge of forces is to work with your local or national maintenance suppliers, hiring them for a short period to focus on PMs and using your own maintenance crew for the difficult repairs. The thought here is that PMs are routine and can easily be handled by local providers but for the really tough jobs you may want to keep that inhouse with your trained and expert techs that know you fleet inside and out.
Without a plan to enforce corrective maintenance while executing scheduled, routine maintenance, the situation can quickly spiral out of control and fleet can quickly become overwhelmed by downed vehicles.
Amerit Experience
At Amerit, we know your fleet maintenance and vehicle repair programs are fundamental to the success of your operation. Which is why we focus on implementing customized maintenance solutions to bring your vehicles back online as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Our nationwide infrastructure allows us to surge forces to get downed vehicles back online, while still prioritizing preventative and predictive maintenance.
We are dedicated to the relentless pursuit of uptime.
We never lose sight of the fact that you have everything riding on your fleet – public safety, customer satisfaction, profitability. That’s why we are unwavering in our commitment to excellence – in services, in workmanship and in value.
To speak with a member of our team about our service solutions call (855) 832-9922 or visit our website at www.ameritfleetsolutions.com
