Streamlining maintenance with fleet management and telematics

Avoiding wear and tear on vehicles that are on the road day after day is something that is inescapable. Repairs and maintenance on your fleet are part of doing business in the transport and trucking industry. How efficient of your fleet maintenance is something you do have control of and this can determine how much money you spend on your vehicles, and how long they spend off the road, undertaking costly repairs in the workshop.

Telematics and fleet management technology can give you a deeper insight into your fleet health and recognize trends so you can streamline your maintenance operation. Lets take a closer look at some of the ways that this works.

 

Preventative maintenance - Forget the guesswork

Preventative maintenance involves routinely scheduling the maintenance of your assets to keep them running smoothly and avoid downtime. By being proactive with your maintenance avoids roadside breakdowns, significantly improving productivity. Not only do you avoid sidelining your vehicles and drivers, but also a potentially hazardous situation.

Fleet management tools can be used to build an overview of where your assets stand in terms of their maintenance needs. These needs can be tracked using time, usage or odometer-based methods.

• Time based – Scheduling by the calendar. Useful for things like busy seasonal work, but is limited as it does not take into account how much individual assets are actually being used.
• Usage based – By using a combination of fault codes and driver checklists, granular data can be collected for each asset giving you an in-depth view into what needs to be done.
• Odometer based – Scheduling by mileage is another useful way to keep track of when your vehicles are being maintained. When used in conjunction with other methods it helps to ensure that you are maintaining your assets according to an optimal timeline.

 

Fault codes

When a malfunction occurs in a truck a fault code will be displayed, usually on the instrument panel to warn the driver. Different codes represent different issues, and these can be by your telematics system via a fleet management interface so your maintenance team can see them immediately and action any necessary repairs. These alerts are customizable and can send additional information such as description, the duration of the fault, RPM, speed and more. The reports are sent with different priorities, allowing you to schedule maintenance depending on the urgency of the repairs needed. These codes act as helpful data helping to give you an overall picture of your fleets health and assisting in creating your maintenance schedule.

 

DVIR integration

Custom digital checklists, known as DVIR, make it easy to manage fleets of all sizes and their maintenance needs, keeping trucks safe and on the road. Drivers can perform pre- and post-trip vehicle checks, and any issues that arise can be flagged and sent immediately to your maintenance team. Mechanics can then log onto the system, see what repairs are required and complete them. The next time a driver logs in to the system, they can see the issue has been repaired, who repaired it, and validate that the repair took place correctly, completing the circle of responsibility and ensuring that your vehicles are kept to the highest safety standards.

 

The Coretex Service Manager

The Coretex Service Manager is fully customizable and designed to keep your vehicles on the road for longer. It has the ability to log every service, set notifications and has full DVIR integration. To find out more about how the Coretex Service Manager can help you with your fleet maintenance needs take a look here.