Brent Nussbaum and his employee-owned carrier get fewer new Class 8 trucks than they want, but a strong maintenance program is helping keep its older trucks on the road longer.
Electric trucks, with fewer moving parts and fluids, as well as the elimination of exhaust aftertreatment systems, are widely expected to reduce equipment service needs. Likewise, routine maintenance for things likes brakes are anticipated to drop as well. Still, with electric commercial vehicles increasingly being operated across North America, fleets are on an EV learning curve that includes the need to address maintenance needs and challenges.
Crum Trucking’s focus on a quality approach to all aspects of its maintenance operation is paying off in efficiency dividends.
It’s time to give maintenance the resources and respect that innovation gets.
Ask any fleet manager focused on service: Indulge in preventative maintenance, and it’s going to save you time and money. Managers who run a well-maintained fleet will have trucks that break down less often and save more fuel.
American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council and Decisiv Inc., reported that maintenance costs rose 3.7% in the fourth quarter, and are up more than 10% from the previous year.
One ongoing industry trend is more stringent enforcement of manufacturer-recommended preventive maintenance (PM) services required for warranty coverage eligibility. Increasingly stringent warranty enforcement underscores the importance of PM compliance and documentation of services performed.
How ready are fleets, dealers, distributors and repair garages to service emerging truck technology? That subject got a lot of attention at the recent Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue and Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week. Experts on two panel discussions offered insights into what fleets need to know about current and future technology
At TranSource Truck & Trailer Centers in North Carolina, service technologies and a focus on paperless processes are helping improve asset utilization for customers.
The better you maintain a vehicle, the longer it will last. But truck maintenance impacts more than just the vehicle.
So, once you know what steps to take to prepare your shop for the arrival of an electric truck (and if you don’t, read our story on how to do so), the next step, and it is a crucial one, is making sure that your technicians have all the information they need to safely and properly work on an electric truck.
One of the most promising pieces of good news to come out of 2020 was the announcement of the availability of multiple medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks. OEMs like Daimler, Kenworth, Mack, Peterbilt and Volvo all announced battery electric trucks that are either available now or will be in the foreseeable future, and several of those same OEMs, in addition to Navistar and Cummins, are working on hydrogen fuel cell trucks as well.
You’ve probably never lost any sleep over a steering maintenance issue. The systems are proven and reliable and don’t require a lot of hands-on contact. Sticking to scheduled fluid and filter changes, lubrication, and visual inspections during regular preventive maintenance inspections is probably all the attention they need — at least when they’re new.
Since 2012, American Transportation Research Institute reports that maintenance and repair costs represent between 8% to 10% of a fleet’s average marginal cost. Find out what fleets can do to manage those costs.
With a mix of new technology and old-fashioned communication with suppliers, fleets can ensure they don’t succumb to supply chain and maintenance pressures.