Improving the efficiency of your truck fleet

Every 3,000 miles, it’s required that you take your vehicle for an oil change. But not only is it recommended you change your oil, but sometimes it’s necessary to change an oil filter, replace wiper blades or other preventative measures to maintain your vehicle’s efficiency and its safety. But when you’re managing many vehicles at once, that task can be a bit daunting if done by hand.

 

“You need some tool to help you manage those activities and anticipate any labor that you might need to do,” says Greg Lafferty, senior account manager at Practical Software Solutions in Concord, N.C.

 

Enterprise Asset Management by Practical Software Solutions is one program that will create an auto-generated service order ready to be transacted. In the program, all the orders are organized by date so that the employee responsible for handling maintenance can quickly refer to what needs to be completed, which creates an efficient way to pass along that information to the technicians.

 

“If there are some unique parts or equipment that have to be brought in to do those maintenance activities, we can anticipate that and get those on board and make sure they’re on time for that activity,” Lafferty says.

Enterprise Asset Management can also help with unexpected breakdowns.

 

“If something does go wrong and you get a flat tire, or something happens and it’s an unanticipated activity, then we can log labor and material against that activity to get a better picture of the overall cost of operating that particular vehicle,” Lafferty says.

 

Another important task other than routine maintenance, Lafferty says, is capturing mileage on all the vehicles. During the service, the technician will record the mileage, which can then be input into the program and used to gauge mileage trends, which will help for forecasting other factors.

 

“If I can tell that I need to do a particular maintenance at certain mileage milestones, then I can project, ‘Well, the last three months it looks like it’s been running at X number of miles a month, so then I need to project that that major service will be done in X particular time frame,” he says.