april2022 - 18

Cover Story
The most effective way to perform GSE
maintenance - and determine whether
it should be done by an operation's own
mechanics or outsourced to a third-party
maintenance provider - can differ
depending on a number of variables.
The costs and analytics to consider
when examining GSE maintenance rely
primarily on labor costs, overhead for
the maintenance shop and management
of the process and employees, explains
Jason Gendron, president and CEO of
Mercury GSE.
" Direct costs relate to rising labor
rates, employment taxes, insurance and
supply chain for parts related to GSE, "
he says. " Mercury is seeing an increase
in requests for outsourcing of maintenance
requested from new and existing
Mercury customers, from airlines, cargo
operations and ground handlers looking
to reduce the maintenance capEx on
their fleet. "
Wayne Ingle, senior vice president
of operations for PrimeFlight Aviation
Services, suggests beginning by looking
at the overall cost comparison between
insourcing and outsourcing GSE maintenance.
That often starts with the real
estate footprint that would be required to
effectively maintain a fleet, as the availability
of real estate in certain airports is
extremely limited, he says.
" Once you have reviewed the real
estate investment and availability,
you'll want to consider if you will need
maintenance hours or operational coverage
hours, and if you need dedicated
or fractional labor, " Ingle adds. " What is
the workload to effectively manage your
fleet? With the current labor market conditions,
hiring skilled mechanics can be
both difficult and costly, so ensuring you
are taking this into account, if this isn't
a position your team typically hires for,
is important. "
When it comes to indirect costs, Greg
Manny, SVP of operations at Xced, says it
is important to factor in the cost of maintaining
a piece of equipment compared to
the GSE unit's value.
" At Xced, we track monthly maintenance
costs versus the depreciated value,
fair market value, etc., of a specific piece
of equipment, ensuring we do not spend
18 || Ground Support Worldwide || April 2022
Depending on the type of GSE an operation
needs, OEM direct training and specialty
training on equipment may be required.
more than what the market value of the
equipment is at the time, " he says. " We
also look for trends in parts and maintenance
on units to proactively dig deeper
into issues before they become major,
more costly problems. "
In addition to the maintenance itself,
investing in maintenance systems can
produce an indirect cost for a GSE maintenance
provider.
" Everything is starting to get more
complex. You need systems for everything.
You need to digitalize everything, "
says Bruno Vanpoucke, group head of
commercial at TCR, " So, you need to
invest in a maintenance management
system, which is typically costly, in order
to do those. "
Other difficult-to-quantify costs
include insurance, variable fleet sizes,
contract management and branding.
Additionally, Vanpoucke notes advanced
training can add to indirect maintenance
expenses. Training is becoming
even more imperative as the GSE
industry adopts the latest electric vehicle
technology.
" It's a complete shift in terms of the
type of people. Typically, you need less
people but higher skilled people who
cost much more on a per-hour basis, "
Vanpoucke says.
While GSE maintenance costs don't
vary much for airlines, ground handlers
and FBOs, each group, company and
operation may have varied, allowable
out-of-service levels and fleet ages,
which can drive differences in cost of
maintenance, explains Ingle.
Union labor can have an impact on
GSE maintenance costs. For example,
airlines can sometimes bear the brunt
of labor costs associated with GSE
maintenance, Gendron says, noting the
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