october2022 - 8

HI TCHED UP FROM THE EDITOR
Equipping your fleet
for future battles
Good things are happening in the world of commercial
vehicle maintenance, but fleet management must
brace for some tough challenges in the coming years.
By John Hitch
Editor-in-chief
@Hitched2Trucks
Much has changed in the last few years in
the trucking industry. Fuel prices and inflation
are out of control one month and seem to stabilize
the next. Labor and parts scarcity appear
to spell certain doom for awhile, and then fleets
find a way to adjust. Government emissions
and electrification plans will certainly transform
trucking over the next decade, but the
question remains if that will be for the better
or worse.
What's all this mean? Well, to me, it means
that the future is often volatile and uncertain.
And to succeed in this competitive and critical
industry that impacts billions of people, you
need to prepare for anything and everything.
To hedge against rising fuel costs, perhaps
investigate which low-rolling resistant tires
offer the best total cost of ownership for your
routes and if a tire pressure monitoring system
will help even further (Pg. 12).
On the parts and labor front, evaluate how
often issues, such as with aftertreatment
systems, are being misdiagnosed and how
many hours and repair items are being wasted
because of them (Pg. 22). Would a significant
investment in better diagnostic tools and technician
training today prevent years of hassles
down the road?
I won't pretend to have any answers for
the electrification stuff, other than to keep
apprised of what is going on in your state in
terms of incentives, subsidies, and energy
infrastructure, and talk to as many early adopters
as possible on the pros and cons of various
technologies. Try not to fall victim to either
hype or pessimism.
Most importantly, allow at least a little
room for optimism. This is an industry full
of hard-working, intelligent, and motivated
people. That's what I saw at the most recent
American Trucking Associations Technology
& Maintenance Council's Fall Meeting, where
there was a lot to get excited about (Pg. 46).
For one, TMCSuperTech was back in full
force after a scaled-down event last year (with
fewer than 40 participants), and no event in
2020. About 140 current and prospective technicians
descended on Cleveland's Huntington
Convention Center this year for TMC SuperTech
and TMCFutureTech, and the two-day competition
required the full breadth of the convention
center's 225,000 sq.-ft. exhibit floor space.
8 Fleet Maintenance | October 2022
FedEx Freight's Bonnie Greenwood, one of
a handful of female technicians at the event,
came in second place overall, which should
help persuade other women that the commercial
vehicle repair sector is a place they can
flourish-if they like the job and put in the
work. Greenwood was also the first woman
to win TMCFutureTech, and this was her first
attempt at the professional-level skills challenge,
so it's conceivable she could become
Grand Champion at some point. That would
be a boon for female tech recruitment, which
the industry sorely lacks in (Pg. 48).
Now, I must remind you that leaving a little
room for optimism means saving the rest for
pragmatism. Managing the maintenance and
repair of a fleets' commercial vehicles is still
one of the more challenging jobs out there in a
post-pandemic world. At the Fall Meeting Fleet
Talk, only one hand out of hundreds raised
when asked if they had no trouble finding labor.
Fleets and shops are also having a tough
time finding equipment. According to an
independent representative for an alignment
manufacturer I spoke with at the HD Repair
Forum (co-located with the TMC Fall Meeting),
equipment made with steel can take up to six
months to deliver.
According to Mohawk Lifts President Steve
Perlstein, competitors' customers are coming to
the manufacturer because they have been waiting
several months for lifts. He said, in August,
a distributor from California told him he had
been waiting on another company to deliver a
lift since April. That distributor had a deposit
and an increasingly frustrated customer, but
still no lift.
Perlstein said he could likely deliver by
mid-September. He was confident in that estimate
because Mohawk sources U.S.-made steel
and also solved a similar issue in June. That
previous customer, based in Idaho, needed a
25,000-lb. four-post drive-on lift and had been
waiting six months on another lift manufacturer.
Perlstein quoted him six weeks and delivered
in just over five.
Mohawk is not immune to those aforementioned
labor challenges, though.
" Everybody wants to say that things are
groovy, but my supply chain crisis is more staffing
shortages, like everybody in the world is
having, " Perlstein relayed. He said everything
" But [the supply
issue is] still people
more than anything.
And this represents
the biggest problem
in the industry. "
Steve Perlstein,
President, Mohawk Lifts
from retirement to people unwilling to work
has caused this crisis.
" That's why we have attendance bonuses,
retention bonuses, signing bonuses-those
kinds of things that we're doing these days, "
he said. " But [the supply issue is] still people
more than anything. And this represents the
biggest problem in the industry. "
When spec'ing new shop equipment,
Perlstein advised to go with what lasts and
provides the best total cost of ownership, even
if it costs more upfront.
" Yes, I'm going to charge somebody more
on the day that they buy it, but I'm also going
to provide them the cheapest lift they're ever
going to own, " he asserted. " And there is always
a cost of ownership on everything you buy. I
don't care what it is. "
He noted Mohawk lifts have a 25-year factory
warranty and their leaf chains have a 10-year
warranty. Lifting cable, by contrast, may be
backed by a one-year warranty.
" A new set of cables is $200-$300 depending
upon which lift you have. And it's a couple
hundred dollars in downtime, and a couple
hundred more in the service work performed
by the local repair technician, " he explained.
" And guess what happens a year or two after
that? That happens all over again. "
The cost of steel, meanwhile,
is rising.
" Pre-COVID, steel used to be only about $0.60/
lb., and it's about $1.00/lb. now, " Perlstein said.
" Everything has gone up, up, up like there's
no tomorrow. "
There, of course, will still be a tomorrow, and
countless days after that. And if you want to stay
in business, you have to plan for all of them.
http://www.twitter.com/Hitched2Trucks
october2022

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