How to Start a Maintenance Calendar for Your Company’s Fleet
When speaking of safety, Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We agree. One easy way to ensure that your company’s used cargo vans are safe and working properly is to start an ongoing maintenance calendar and stick to it.
Setting up a maintenance calendar and checklist of everything that you need maintained is the smart way to reduce vehicle breakdowns and the cost of repairing and replacing your fleet.
1. Fleet Audit
Before implementing a maintenance calendar for your company’s fleet, you’ll want to create a checklist. Are the tires rotated? Oil changes up to date? Air filtration systems replaced? Also, establishing a baseline for what is acceptable performance for your fleet is the most important part when performing an audit. After that, take inventory of what needs to be fixed and what can be repaired easily. This will bring awareness of what needs to be maintained in your cargo van fleet and what has already been done. Once your fleet’s health is in check, you can get started on maintaining a strong fleet of vans.
2. Set a Schedule
Consider how many cargo vans you need to have up and running in your fleet, so you can allow for intervals of maintenance. If you have six vans, allow for four to be on the road, while two are getting service checks. To determine which vans you should pull from the road, Metalphoto of Cincinnati suggests that you base interval maintenance on mileage.
If you decide that preventative maintenance should be done every 3,000 miles, then chart approximately how much time it takes for a vehicle to reach that mark. Maintenance can either be triggered by when the mileage hits that mark or the date when you would reach that mileage.
3. Manual or Automated
Scheduling software is fairly new for most companies who manage vehicle fleets, but it can make things easier and allow you to focus on generating revenue, instead of manually checking maintenance records. There are many maintenance scheduling software solutions to choose from, some that will help with generating maintenance reports, track performance and notify a supervisor when a van needs maintenance.
Should you choose to use a scheduling software to maintain a calendar, get one that will also manage tracking of assets, vehicles and repair costs. Most programs will have a portal for clients and operators to log into, so that they can view information that is useful to them on their dashboard.
4. Stick to It
As with everything in life, the more you stick to a system, the stronger it can become. Of course life happens and your maintenance schedule might get thrown off for a week or maybe even a month, but try to be consistent. Setting reminders for maintenance, either in your tracking software or in your own digital or physical calendar, will help.
Keeping a consistent maintenance calendar will help you to reduce the costs and wear and tear on your current fleet, but if you do need to replace any of your fleet be sure to check out our latest inventory of cargo vans for sale. Our vans are always in great shape and run like new.