5 Tips for Implementing Your Plan
Organization is key when putting together a preventative maintenance plan for your fleet. Here are five best practices to keep in mind as you work on creating and implementing a preventative maintenance plan:
1. Understand your business needs
Clearly defining your business needs is the first step in building a preventative maintenance plan that makes sense in the long run. Start by answering these questions:
- How many and what type of vehicles are in your fleet? For example: cars vs. trucks, electric and hybrid vs. gas engines.
- What are your business hours? Are there obvious “off-hours” to schedule mobile maintenance, or will repairs need to be integrated into work hours?
- What types of roads do your vehicles typically travel on? For example, strictly city driving vs. highway or country road routes. This can impact recommended service intervals.
- Do drivers stay local with vehicles parked in a single lot, or do you have a national business that will take drivers out of town and across state lines?
Every business is unique, so designing an effective preventative maintenance plan depends on you having a clear picture of your needs and any challenges that may require a more creative solution.
2. Consider your reporting system
Many fleet maintenance schedules are based on mileage and odometer readings. For example, it’s recommended for some vehicles to get an oil change after 3000 miles or 3 months. If you have multiple vehicles on different routes and schedules, it becomes necessary to check each vehicle individually. Instead of relying on drivers to regularly report back with odometer readings, this is where integrating telematics into fleet management software like Azuga can come in handy to automate the process. If you don’t have it already, Firestone Direct can do telematics installations across your fleet and work with you to get your system up and running.
With Firestone Direct, you can also count on our regular Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVI) to keep you up to date on the latest diagnostics for each vehicle so you’re prepared for upcoming service needs.
For growing businesses of all sizes, taking advantage of innovative tech solutions like telematics systems from Azuga is an important way to help optimize business operations, reduce costs, and improve customer service.
3. Create a schedule
All vehicles have routine maintenance requirements. Pre-scheduling appointments can be a great way to streamline the process and have your entire lot of vehicles checked at the same time. That way, you or your fleet manager won’t have to remember to book appointments every 3 to 6 months.
Consider a mobile fleet service to make scheduling even easier. Firestone Direct offers early morning, late night, and Saturday appointments to minimize the effects of required maintenance potentially keeping your vehicles off the road. With flexible appointment times, you can get expected repairs and maintenance done when it’s convenient for your business and get vehicles back on the road as soon as possible.
4. Streamline third-party service
Choosing one service provider to count on for everything from inspections to regular maintenance to unexpected repairs is the backbone of an effective maintenance program. Not only does it keep maintenance history in one place, but you can feel confident that you’re getting consistent service across your entire fleet. With an approach that prioritizes preventative over reactive maintenance, you’ll avoid wasting time and money on unexpected repairs.
With a mobile mechanic like Firestone Direct, you’ll also get the convenience of service that comes to you. That means no more driving to the auto shop and unpredictable wait times. We help you keep it simple by staying on top of maintenance and making you aware of upcoming repairs.
5. Measure the success and adjust
After you have implemented a robust preventative maintenance plan, it’s important to keep track of its efficiency. How much has it increased vehicle uptime? Have breakdowns and unexpected repairs decreased? Do maintenance intervals need to be adjusted or further optimized? It’s normal to see areas that could use improvement, but over time, a good preventative maintenance plan will adjust to your needs and keep your fleet moving as it should.
