An estimated two million vehicles are operating under private fleets, accounting for about 53% of all registered trucks in the U.S. As every fleet owner knows, keeping these vehicles running safely and smoothly can be challenging. Fleet maintenance is crucial to ensure safety and efficiency but staying on top of routine maintenance tasks can be a challenge.
Contract maintenance can help keep fleets running optimally. But what exactly is contract maintenance? What can you expect, and what are the benefits?
Truck Maintenance: Keeping Your Fleet Running Smoothly
Managing a fleet is no easy task. Maintenance can easily fall to the wayside when fleet owners have so many other things to attend to. However, failing to maintain your fleet can have costly consequences.
Regular maintenance is the key to keeping your fleet running smoothly. When your vehicles are not well-maintained, they can quickly become:
- Unsafe to drive
- A liability on the road
- A drain on your resources
Fleet owners who do not want to take on the expense of hiring technicians and managing their own internal shops can take advantage of contract maintenance.
What to Expect with Trucking Contract Maintenance
Contract maintenance is an agreement between fleet owners and a service provider to perform routine maintenance on the fleet.
Contract maintenance allows fleet owners to ensure their vehicles are well-maintained without the hassle and expense of hiring a team in-house. At TCI Transportation, we treat each vehicle as if it were in our own fleet. By offering a high standard of professionalism and diligent maintenance, we provide fleet owners peace of mind that their vehicles will get shipments and employees to their destinations safely.
But what exactly does contract maintenance entail? That, of course, depends on the service provider. At TCI, for example, you can expect our contract maintenance service to include:
- Complete preventative maintenance
- Oil, filter, and lubricants changes
- Tire servicing
- Opacity testing
- DOT compliance
- CA BIT inspections
- In-frame repairs, transmission work and rebuilds
- Warranty repairs and processing
- On-site maintenance
With contract maintenance, you have a dedicated team of professionals available to ensure your fleet is maintained and to perform repairs when necessary.
Benefits of Contract Maintenance in Trucking
1. Keep Trucks on the Road Longer
One of the main advantages of contract maintenance is that it keeps your trucks on the road for longer. Things like tire services and routine oil, filter and lubricants changes can help keep trucks running efficiently and optimally. Failure to perform these simple maintenance tasks can lead to breakdowns and premature failure of parts that can be expensive to repair or replace.
Investing in contract maintenance is an investment in the future of your fleet.
2. Reduce Downtime
Fleets need their wheels rolling to keep making money. If a vehicle is stuck on the side of the road because it needs to be repaired, it leads to late loads, drivers losing money, as well as additional fleet costs.
Maintaining rigs reduces the risk that they’ll experience a failure on the road and the driver will be sitting, waiting for a mechanic or replacement rig to arrive.
3. Prevent a Small Problem from Turning into a Major Repair
Maintenance issues often start out small. For example, every vehicle that uses gas and has a combustion engine will require an oil change. Changing the oil is a small task, but if left unchanged, it can lead to engine damage.
Routine maintenance helps your fleet avoid major, costly repairs.
4. Better Fuel Efficiency
Fuel is expensive, and a rig that is not maintained properly will be fuel inefficient. Properly maintained vehicles will improve miles per gallon and save your fleet money. A few of the maintenance items that impact fuel efficiency are tire maintenance, clogged filters, and fuel injectors.
5. Higher Safety
In 2020, there were 4,998 large truck and bus accidents that led to fatalities. While many of these accidents were unpreventable, some may have been if the right maintenance was done on vehicles.
It’s estimated that 27% of accidents are due to brake failure when one truck and passenger vehicle is involved.
Contract maintenance plans can help prevent this type of failure from occurring. Trucking safety is one of the most important things your fleet can focus on to win contracts and keep costs low.
6. Stay Up to Date
Staying up to date with federal and state regulations can be a tiresome task when you have so many things to stay on top of. This can be especially difficult as each state has different regulations for vehicles. For example, California has the Biennial Inspection of Terminals (BIT) program that is specific to the state, and it varies across the nation.
Enrolling in a contract maintenance program can ensure that your vehicle stays up to date with all regulations and that you avoid any possible fines. You can relax knowing that your vehicle is operating under best practices!
What to Look for in a Truck Maintenance Contract
Contract maintenance may vary dramatically from one provider to another. You should read through each contract carefully to look for:
- Inclusions
- Exclusions
First, inclusions may include numerous items:
- Complete preventative maintenance
- On-site maintenance
- Fluid and filter changes
- Warranty repairs
- Warranty processing
- Tire servicing
- Mobile repair trucks
Which inclusions are a must-have?
That’s up to your fleet to decide. You want to include, at the bare minimum preventative maintenance, fluid and filter changes, lubricants, and on-site maintenance. Mobile repairs, warranty repairs and processing and tire services are also great for keeping your truck on the road.
However, the rest are nice additions to a contract and should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- Live customer service
- Wash bays
- Fuel programs
- Discount rental vehicles
- Transmission and in-frame repairs
Additionally, you’ll want to look through the fleet maintenance contract to look for:
- Limits on the number of services you can have performed
- Maintenance or repair exclusions
Be Mindful of Exclusions
Most contracts will have exclusions on larger repairs and maintenance, such as rebuilding an engine. It’s important to know what items are not covered and if you can pay more for these crucial repairs if they do need to be made.
Finding contract maintenance that helps your fleet keep hauling and reduces the burden on your managers to handle maintenance will be worth the time and effort.
Stay Up-To Date with the Trucking Industry
At TCI Transportation, we know trucking because we’ve been in the trucking industry for over 40 years and counting. And we’ve spent the past 4 decades expanding our services as well as our locations from coast to coast. Sign up for our newsletter to stay on top of industry insight, latest news, and more tips on how to help keep your business running smoothly.
