Fleet Maintenance - 12

» "The [Southeastern
Freight Lines] Fleet Services
Department is always searching
for methods and products to
minimize the maintenance cost
that is incurred during the life of
our equipment," says Lee Long.
Photo courtesy of Southeastern Freight Lines

Understanding the TCO of a vehicle or trailer
can provide an objective view of the full expense
to purchase and operate that asset. To state the
obvious, a lower TCO is better for the fleet.
In order to calculate an asset's TCO, a fleet must
first collect the necessary data and set up parameters with which to measure useful life of that
asset. To do this, fleets must establish different
categories under which their organization will
benchmark expenses - known as key performance indicators (KPIs) - and observe trends in
data collected.

What data to review and assess

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12 Fleet Maintenance | August 2019

There is no silver bullet to determine the best time
to cycle out old vehicles. There are, however, best
practices to consider when working toward understanding the total cost of vehicle ownership, and
the optimal time for vehicle replacement. There are
numerous factors to consider based on fleet size,
fleet type, vehicle type, geographic location, etc.
Jim Nachtman, heavy duty marketing director
for Navistar - original equipment manufacturer for
International brand trucks - advises that fleets can
evaluate TCO calculations on the following criteria:
purchase cost of the asset; fueling expenses (which
include diesel exhaust fluid); planned maintenance;
and uptime. Maintenance refers to any planned
or scheduled events for the asset. Uptime would
include any unexpected expenses such as breakdowns, accidents, towing, etc. He says some fleets
may include driver expenses in their TCO calculations as well.
These criteria - and many more - are measured
through established KPIs, which allow fleets to set
benchmarks and review the data to implement
changes and improvements to their operation.
Fleets can set KPIs based on employees - both
technicians and drivers - as well as the assets
themselves.
For instance, a fleet may measure the performance of miles per gallon average on a weekly or
monthly basis achieved by each driver, or the actu-

al time versus standard repair time established for
specific repairs completed by technicians.
When it comes to asset KPIs and data counts,
there are numerous options to monitor and track,
including (but not limited to):
Ü Cost per mile for fuel
Ü Cost per mile for maintenance
Ü Overall miles per gallon
Ü Total fuel costs
Ü Emissions information and idle times
Ü Hours vehicle is operated
Ü Tire costs
Ü Maintenance and repair costs by VMRS
Ü Maintenance and repair costs by vehicle model year
Ü Maintenance and repair costs by specified
components

It is critical that fleets
work to have a clear,
standard process that
all employees adhere
to in order to collect
accurate information.
As the saying goes, bad data is worse than no
data. It is critical that fleets work to have a clear,
standard process that all employees adhere to in
order to collect accurate information.
One way to validate standardized information is
to categorize information through VMRS codes, or
other established coding structures. VMRS stands
for Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standards.
"All of this information is collected from
repair orders, trip reports, and fuel transaction

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Fleet Maintenance

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