MANAGING 10-50 COMPANY VEHICLES
Discover how GPS tracking can give you deep insights into vehicle health and utilization to improve uptime, productivity, and profitability for your plumbing business.
Fleets are being impacted by a variety of inflationary pressures ranging from higher acquisition prices due to the proliferation of onboard safety equipment, to increased material costs pushing up pricing on parts, upfits, and replacement tires.
There are three key reasons why the transition to synthetic oils is occurring. They are the proliferation of smaller displacement turbocharged engines, escalating CAFE fuel economy requirements, and government regulations to lower tailpipe emissions.
Vocational vehicles are in the business of delivering goods and providing services. They are earning assets and to maximize their productivity, you need to minimize unscheduled downtime or offset downtime for routine PMs by doing the work during non-revenue-producing hours.
Unscheduled vehicle downtime is not only a maintenance issue, it is also an accident-avoidance issue since, on average, 20% of a fleet’s vehicles annually incur downtime due to accidents.
Time in the shop, instead of on the road, means lost sales and less face time with customers, putting downward pressure on the bottom line. Downtime mitigation is key to controlling costs and helping to maximize fleet uptime.
Pre- and in-season inspections, tire and fluid winterization, and safety equipment retrofits keep fleets on the road in icy and snowy conditions.
On average, PM costs have increased due to higher labor rates, expansion of models requiring synthetic motor oil, and more expensive cartridge oil filters. One offset is that longer lasting synthetics have extended oil-drain intervals.
Excessive engine idling doesn’t just consume fuel, it also creates engine hours, which depending on the OEM, are used to determine when the powertrain warranty expires.
Citing the higher cost of crude oil, many major manufacturers of finished lubricant products increased prices from 5% to 8% in CY-2018. Plus, each model-year, more OEMs require the use of more expensive synthetic motor oils.