Fleet maintenance is integral to the success of your fleet, but so often, managers let it fall by the wayside. The adage “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” often comes to mind. However, routine maintenance is crucial in ensuring that your vehicles don’t break and cause you stress down the line.
Routine maintenance doesn’t have to be a huge weight hanging over your head. Fleet maintenance software does a lot of the work for you. Track your vehicles’ needs and set up alerts– hand over most of the responsibility to the system and take the load off your plate.
Of course, if you’re handing over that responsibility, you need a trustworthy system. Azuga works with fleets of all shapes and sizes to accomplish various goals. This includes maintenance problems. We are an award-winning business with satisfied clients all over the country. Our solutions are at the forefront of fleet technology, and our scheduled maintenance system is here to help.
What Is Fleet Maintenance?
Of course, we know that fleet maintenance involves keeping vehicles in good shape. But what does this mean in practice? Fleet maintenance breaks down into three major tasks.
- Performing periodic maintenance (preventative maintenance)
- Replacing parts
- Tracking asset history
So, if you think maintenance only involves fixing a vehicle when it breaks down, you will often find yourself in trouble. Regular fleet maintenance keeps your fleet safe and efficient on the road. It helps your business maintain its success. But we will dive further into the many benefits of fleet maintenance later.
What is Fleet Maintenance Software?
Now that we know what fleet maintenance involves, how can technology help? Azuga’s fleet maintenance software monitors your vehicles and alerts you when they require maintenance. Many fleet maintenance solutions stop here, but Azuga’s technology goes even further. These are three key features that make Azuga stand out.
- Maintenance Dashboard: This dashboard gives you a quick snapshot showing which vehicles need immediate attention and which have passed their maintenance due date. You can act quickly to attend to these vehicles before significant problems occur.
- Service Entries & History: Keeping track of your vehicle maintenance is just as crucial as performing it. With service entries and history, you can track problems to see if they are recurring and view lists of all issues that have come up on certain vehicles. It can even help you determine when it may be time to replace a vehicle.
- Alerts & Reminders: Azuga’s software uses telematics to track your vehicle’s needs and sends warnings for routine maintenance and when your vehicle has specific issues that need attention.
What are the Benefits of Fleet Maintenance Software?
You may already be beginning to see how Azuga’s fleet maintenance software can be an asset to your business. In this section, we will outline some specific benefits of the software that our clients have enjoyed.
- Safety: Issues like brake failure or tire blowouts are dangerous to drivers. Keep them safe by keeping vehicles maintained.
- Reliability: Azuga’s fleet maintenance alerts can help significantly reduce breakdowns and keep your vehicles operating efficiently.
- Costs: More frequent, minor repairs are cheaper than waiting for parts to break entirely, then repairing them.
- Compliance: You must maintain your vehicles and keep maintenance records to avoid compliance issues.
- Driver Satisfaction: Drivers want to be behind the wheel of a well-maintained vehicle. When drivers are safe and happy, their job performance improves, and their job satisfaction is higher.
Learn more about the benefits of fleet maintenance software in our blog article: What Does Fleet Maintenance Mean?
Fleet Maintenance Software Features
We’ve already briefly discussed the features of Azuga’s Scheduled Maintenance Software. In this section, we will break down three of the key features in a bit more detail.
- Maintenance Alerts: Azuga’s scheduled maintenance software has two different kinds of alerts. First, it uses telematics to determine what issues your vehicle is experiencing. It alerts you to these issues immediately so you can act right away. The second type of alert is for routine maintenance. You can schedule how often you’d like to perform maintenance and get an alert when it’s time for your vehicles to go in.
- Maintenance Logs: You should have a digital maintenance log as part of your fleet maintenance plan. Azuga’s digital maintenance logs include five data points for each entry:
- Date and mileage
- Service provider
- Service description
- Condition of the vehicle
- Service cost
This information allows you to make decisions using historical data regarding your vehicles.
- Accessible Inspection Logs: As part of your maintenance plan, your drivers should perform routine inspections. Azuga allows them to house their notes within your maintenance software. This feature helps you access the records at any time. Furthermore, when the DOT performs inspections, your drivers can easily pull the data they need up on their devices.
To learn more about Azuga’s Scheduled Maintenance software features, check out our blog article: What to Look for in Enterprise Fleet Maintenance Providers.
How to Create a Fleet Maintenance Program Using Azuga’s Fleet Maintenance Software
There is no question: every fleet needs a fleet maintenance plan. Azuga’s fleet maintenance software can help. Let’s explore the specifics.
What You Will Need
You should create appropriate policies and outlines before laying out the specific plan. Here is what you will need to assemble:
- A checklist that outlines all preventative maintenance actions needed for scheduled maintenance
- How frequently will you perform preventative maintenance (set up alerts through Azuga’s software)
- A process drivers/operators will use to submit written inspections (they can do so through Azuga’s software)
- A process drivers/operators will use to submit written complaints when a vehicle has a problem (they can do so through Azuga’s software)
- The facility where repairs will take place
- The staff that will perform maintenance
- The method for keeping records (maintain records through Azuga’s software)
- A process for maintaining spare parts inventory and ordering parts
Create Your Plan
Creating a Fleet Maintenance Plan is challenging, but it is crucial to get one in place. We will link to a blog article that details the specifics, but these are the basics.
- Step 1: Establish a Baseline. You must know the current status of your vehicles before you can move forward. Inspect all of your assets and obtain any history you have.
- Step 2: Determine Maintenance Intervals. Decide how often your vehicles should receive maintenance. Some machines may need maintenance more often than others.
- Step 3: Develop Your Maintenance Checklist. You’ll need to review this checklist every time your vehicle goes in for maintenance. In the linked blog post below is a more complete list of what you should include, but here are some examples.
- Changing engine oil and filters
- Replace tires
- Check for fluid leaks
- Inspect tires, wheels, and rims
- Replace windshield wipers and fill windshield fluid
- Step 4: Develop Driver Inspection and Reporting Systems. Set up a system for drivers to inspect vehicles and report issues. Make sure you communicate this system clearly to your drivers.
- Step 5: Track Metrics and Monitor Success. Consider which KPIs to track to gauge your results. You want to reduce unscheduled maintenance events and increase the lifespan of your vehicles.
For more information on creating a Fleet Maintenance Program, review our blog article: Best Practices and Procedures for Equipment Maintenance.
Hear from Azuga’s Satisfied Customers
Many of Azuga’s customers use Azuga’s Scheduled Maintenance software and have had excellent results. Let’s hear from some of them below.
Mayesh Wholesale Florist
Mayesh Wholesale Florist is a family-owned business founded in 1938 with 16 branches in eight states.
"I like the Azuga service reminders because our vehicles do so much delivery that we tend to forget about services. With the email reminders, it’s been fantastic. It’s a no-brainer." – Juan Martinez, Branch and Fleet Manager
Martinez uses the scheduled maintenance alerts to employ preventative maintenance and keep vehicles in their best working order.
Northwest Tank
Northwest Tank is a small business that provides petroleum systems testing and environmental compliance solutions for gasoline companies. They use the data obtained through Azuga’s fleet tracking software in their scheduled maintenance policies.
"Azuga GPS device is next-gen GPS. It’s easy to install, portable between vehicles and provides valuable business insight into asset tracking, fuel wasting behavior, vehicle maintenance schedules and driver performance. We recently switched to Azuga from a hard-install GPS provider and are delighted at the results." – Remy Cano, President
Joseph T. Berrena Mechanicals, Inc.
Joseph T. Berrena Mechanicals, Inc. works from the central PA region and has been around since 1991. They are a family business that operates in emergency repair.
They use Azuga scheduled maintenance to reduce vehicle downtime and cut costs. In fact, they have cut their maintenance costs by 50% since switching to Azuga.
Invest in Azuga’s Scheduled Maintenance Software Today
Preventative maintenance is crucial to ensuring the success of your fleet business. Azuga can help you achieve your maintenance goals with our state-of-the-art software. Try a demo of our software today to see what we can accomplish together.
Related Articles
Glossary Entry: Fleet Maintenance
Best Practices and Procedures for Equipment Maintenance
What Is Fleet Maintenance Management Software?
