When the pressure is on to lower vehicle and equipment maintenance costs while you’re also being asked to accomplish that by doing more with less, maintenance excellence is now more important than ever.
That scenario was front and center recently when Decisiv, Inc., the provider of Service Relationship Management (SRM) technology, hosted a webinar on Meeting the Uptime Challenge. The highly informative event, attended by more than 150 participants, featured a series of presentations by industry experts.
“Uptime remains an industry wide challenge,” says Michael Riemer, VP product & channel marketing, Decisiv. “Whether maintenance is performed in-house or by outside service providers, wrench time continues to account for a relatively small percentage of downtime for fleets. Finding ways for everyone in the service supply chain to communicate and exchange information more effectively during service events—and to share responsibility for limiting downtime—is essential.”
Riemer also detailed how SRM technology can help reduce downtime by automating electronic inspection processes, integrating telematics and remote diagnostics systems into a closed loop system, and by ensuring frictionless access to estimate, invoice, and repair data by eliminating separate silos of information, manual data entry, and multiple portals.
Featured Image: One way in which SRM technology can help reduce downtime is by automating electronic inspection processes.
Above: Implementation of Decisiv’s SRM platform is driving maintenance excellence in Pete Nativo’s Oakley Transport fleet.
MAINTENANCE VIOLATIONS
Steven Bryan, CEO, Vigillo LLC, the provider of big data and data mining software products—including a widely used suite of CSA Scorecards—covered Regulatory Impacts on Fleet Efficiency. “Maintenance violations are the 800-lb gorilla in CSA,” he states. “Data on more than seven million CSA inspections over the past 24 months shows that of the 12.6 million violations cited, an overwhelming number—more than 80 percent—are in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC category, with the top items being brakes, lights, and tires.”
At the same time, Bryan notes, the overall number of CSA Maintenance BASIC violations is dramatically lower than in the past. “The trucking industry has done a good job focusing on better inspections and on improving preventive maintenance,” he says. “However, in the five years since CSA went into effect, inspections have cost the industry 2,373 years of detention time and 452 of those years have been for maintenance violations.”
INTEGRATING REAL-TIME DATA
Telematics Benefits For Driving Uptime was the subject of a presentation by Kelly Frey, VP product marketing, Telogis, the provider of a cloud-based connected intelligence software platform designed to deliver actionable information to companies with mobile workforces.
Noting that there is an explosion of telematics usage taking place, Frey says that over the next few years, the stakes are high for adoption of systems that integrate real-time engine data and inspection defect notifications and alerts for critical faults from a range of sensors.
“We have the opportunity today to connect vehicles, equipment, mobile workers, and fleets and create a truly connected ecosystem,” Frey states. “Including the management of service events, this technology revolution will turn data into actionable information, big data into deep data that will lead to more efficiency and productivity, reduced downtime, and maximized uptime.”
DRIVING MAINTENANCE EXCELLENCE
Pete Nativo, director of maintenance, Oakley Transport, a liquid and dry bulk food grade transportation services provider with more than 500 tractors and more than 750 tank trailers, detailed how the implementation of Decisiv’s SRM platform is driving maintenance excellence in his company’s fleet. Oakley uses the SRM technology with dealers, the Volvo Trucks Uptime Center, Ryder, and other outside service providers to manage about 200 external repair orders per month.
Detailing benefits Oakley is realizing by using the Decisiv platform, Nativo notes the company is saving $60,000 per year by not having to add an additional breakdown specialist and $40,000 annually by transferring a breakdown specialist to the company’s operations department. An additional $50,000 in savings—a nine percent improvement in five months—comes from ensuring all warranty claims on covered items are filed and recovered. Eliminating estimate-invoice mismatches is saving $20,000 per year.
“The Decisiv SRM platform drives uptime in our operation,” Nativo says. “In a single system, it provides a complete audit trail and reduces paper forms and manual documentation and keeps phone lines open for drivers, because it enables us to spend as much as 50 percent less time on the phone to get status updates on trucks that are in service provider shops. It improves PM accuracy and currency and reduces regulatory fines. Overall, the Decisiv platform is helping us realize a 10 percent improvement in asset utilization by reducing downtime for service and repair events.”
BOOSTING PROFITABILITY
SRM can have a positive effect on uptime in all types of vehicle and equipment operations. It can boost profitability by lowering costs in a number of areas, including overhead, data entry, vendor management, warranty recovery, breakdown services, and shop and technician productivity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Seth Skydel has more than 30 years of truck related publication experience. He has held editorial roles at numerous national business-to-business publications focusing on fleet and transportation management, vehicle and information technology, and industry trends and issues.
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MODERN WORKTRUCK SOLUTIONS: APRIL 2016 ISSUE
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