Fleet car and truck maintenance costs have been trending upward during the first half of the 2021-calendar year as total fleet miles driven have increased in response to a recovering economy compared to 2020-CY.
With the total cost of electric-vehicle ownership for some commercial applications already beating out internal-combustion engines, ACT Research predicts that electrification of the Class 4-8 commercial vehicle market in the U.S. and Canada will top 40% by 2040 – with a third of the market migrating to battery-electric solutions in the next 10 years.
Having an effective maintenance program means having a systematic and preventive approach to maintenance. And it saves you money in the long run.
Considerations for spec’ing, servicing, and maintaining today’s more complicated vehicles.
Data comes from just about every aspect of truck fleet management, from vehicle acquisition and resale to usage, maintenance, driver management, fuel, and so much more.
It’s spring, and talk of electric vehicle infrastructure is sprouting all over. Congress, for example, is considering plans to deploy national infrastructure for electric vehicle charging (included in President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan) as it tries to decide what qualifies as infrastructure and how much money to make available.
Part of a fleet manager’s job is to ensure the trucks they are providing drivers with are safe, sturdy, and ready to work. That means doing everything in their power to keep vehicles in the best condition possible so they don’t experience inconvenient breakdowns that delay employees from getting to the next customer. Here are some precautions to take into consideration when trying to maximize uptime.
As part of a commitment to accelerate the use of hydrogen-based fuel cells for long-haul trucks, Daimler Truck AG and Volvo Group have outlined their roadmap for a new fuel-cell joint venture called cellcentric.
Key players in commercial trucking have been working to break down the almost overwhelming amount of data coming off today’s vehicles. Their overall goal is to increase equipment uptime through predictive maintenance practices.
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have the potential to offer several benefits to operators: lower fuel costs, reduced maintenance costs, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). However, there are still several barriers that must be overcome before the industry sees full adoption of BEVs and their benefits.
A vehicle maintenance coding system used by repair shops across the trucking industry is receiving an update that has been years in the making, and is also evolving to include the burgeoning electric vehicle segment.
Because most fleets conduct robust brake maintenance, brake issues are more likely to be discovered by a roadside inspector than at any other time, resulting in totally inconvenient, largely unnecessary, expensive service delays. But if brake maintenance processes are solid, why are so many trucks being sidelined by inspectors?
While mistakes may not often happen when maintaining upfits, they can occur. Having the right “tools” for the job is essential.
Here’s an exercise in future think: You know what can happen now at a roadside inspection of one of your trucks. But what might happen in the perhaps-not-so-distant future at one of those routine occurrences when your truck is highly or fully automated? And how might a truly “driverless” truck be inspected at an accident scene?
In both leasing and ownership, if everyone takes pride in the asset, it is going to operate far better than if you just defer maintenance and fool yourself into thinking you are saving money by doing so.