30 Maintenance Items That Must Be on Your Fleet Vehicle Inspection Checklist

Fleet maintenance should be one of your fleet’s top priorities, but it often falls by the wayside. It is critical for keeping your fleet safe and helps your fleet save money, improve efficiency, and maintain a positive reputation. Creating a fleet vehicle inspection checklist is the first step in creating a fleet maintenance plan, and if you have not done so already, this article will help you get started. Many items should be on this checklist, but some are an absolute necessity that you should regularly check to ensure your vehicle is in its best shape. 

Steps in Creating a Fleet Maintenance Plan

Creating a fleet maintenance plan is essential when your fleet wants to partake in preventative maintenance. And preventative maintenance is necessary to avoid mechanical failures, breakdowns, and other incidents that otherwise hinder your fleet. There are three steps in creating a fleet maintenance plan that we will discuss in this section. For more details, check out our article, “Fleet Maintenance Plan and Checklist.” 

1. Build your maintenance checklist. To examine your fleet’s needs, you will first need to examine your vehicles thoroughly. Read your manual to determine your vehicle’s specific needs, but we will go over what every vehicle checklist should include in the next section. 
2. Assess a baseline. To assess a baseline, you must determine where you are. During this step, ensure your vehicle’s data is in a database and send your vehicle to the shop for full diagnostics. You want to find every possible issue with every vehicle in your fleet and then fix these issues. 
3. Establish Policy and Maintenance Scheduling. This step is where you build the maintenance plan. Here, you establish parameters for your vehicles and drivers by creating policies and determining ways to implement them. The article mentioned earlier goes into greater detail on this step.  

Items to Include on Your Checklist

1. Body 
2. Frame and undercarriage
3. Suspension
4. Mirrors
5. All exterior lights
6. Glass integrity
7. Doors
8. Windows
9. Oil change
10. Any leaks
11. Fluid levels (brake, steering, antifreeze, etc.)
12. Basic engine check
13. Windshield wipers
14. Brakes and rotors
15. Filters
16. Tire pressure and tread
17. Cooling and fuel systems 
18. Rust
19. Transmission (especially the mount)
20. All belts and hoses 
21. Driveshaft
22. CV joints
23. Rotate tires as needed
24. Seasonal tire change
25. Seat and seatbelt integrity
26. Heating, A/C, and defrost systems
27. Electrical system components
28. Spark plugs
29. Exhaust system
30. Horn

How Fleet Maintenance Can Benefit Your Fleet

When you start to prioritize fleet maintenance, you will see benefits across the board. 

1. Safety: Of course, safety is your fleet’s top concern. Well-maintained vehicles are easier for your drivers to handle and far less likely to experience issues on the road. This means that your drivers are less likely to be involved in an accident. Maintenance issues cause a surprising number of accidents. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 27% of truck accidents are caused by brake failure. It’s extremely dangerous for everyone on the road, and it can be avoided with a fleet maintenance plan. 
2. Reliability: Breakdowns are a nightmare for managers and drivers alike. Your fleet loses money whenever one occurs, wastes time, and customers aren’t happy to experience delays. That’s not even to mention the cost of repairing what is likely significant damage. A good fleet needs reliable vehicles, which means having a preventative maintenance plan. 
3. Savings: Providing more maintenance on your vehicles can save your fleet money. Regular minor repairs work out to lower costs than spending big on major repairs when a vehicle breaks down. Not to mention, these smaller repairs are often less time-consuming and less invasive. For example, regularly changing your oil is far less expensive than cleaning a clogged engine or replacing a worn-out piston. Even better, your vehicles will likely last longer!

Support Your Maintenance Plan with Azuga

Fleet maintenance plans work better with the right technology, and Azuga is here to help. With telematics and maintenance alerts folded into our fleet management software, we have you covered. See everything we have to offer by trying a fleet demo today.hedule an Azuga Fleet demo today to see what we can do for your fleet.