Fleet maintenance is one the most instrumental parts of a fleet manager’s job.Of course, it involves keeping all of your vehicles in good enough condition that they are safe and reliable enough to stay on the road. But There are many steps involved in keeping vehicles maintained, and even some federal regulations, so it’s very important to pay attention to your vehicles’ status, as vehicles that fall behind are more likely to be involved in accidents that put your drivers and others in danger. In this article, we will discuss how to build a fleet maintenance checklist, the benefits of fleet maintenance, and what you can do to improve your business’s maintenance practices.
How to Build a Fleet Maintenance Checklist
A fleet maintenance checklist is just what it sounds like. It is a checklist of parts on a vehicle that you should check every time that maintenance is performed on a vehicle. Of course, every vehicle has different requirements, but in general, a fleet maintenance checklist should include:
- Body check
- Check frame and undercarriage condition
- Suspension
- Mirror check
- All exterior lights working
- Glass integrity
- Doors and windows operable
- Oil change
- Any leaks
- Fluids topped up (brake, steering, antifreeze, etc.)
- Basic engine check
- Replace windshield wipers if needed
- Brakes and rotors
- Oil filter change
- Tire pressure and tread
- Cooling and fuel systems check
- Rust check
- Transmission check (especially the mount)
- All belts and hoses in proper condition
- Driveshaft
- CV joints
- Rotate tires as needed
- Seasonal tire change
- Check seat and seatbelt integrity
- Heating, A/C, and defrost working
- Electrical system components
- Spark plugs
- Exhaust system
- Horn
The fleet maintenance checklist is only the first step in your fleet maintenance plan. We will break down the steps of this plan in the next section.
How to Create a Fleet Maintenance Plan
There are three steps to building a fleet maintenance plan. Building this plan equips you to engage in preventative maintenance, ensuring that you catch and repair problems before they cause significant damage or even accidents. These are the steps involved in creating a fleet maintenance plan:
- Create a fleet maintenance checklist: As mentioned before, this is the most important step. You will need be sure to thoroughly review your vehicle and include all of the parts that may need maintenance.
- Assess baseline: This step involves putting your vehicle’s information into a database and hopefully integrating this data with fleet software. If your documents aren’t digital, you will want to update them at this point to make them digital.
- Establish Policy and Maintenance Scheduling: At this point, you will want to establish parameters for your fleet vehicles and drivers.
For more details on how to create a fleet maintenance plan, particularly on how to establish policies and procedures, check out our blog article, “Fleet Maintenance Plan & Checklist.”
Benefits of Fleet Maintenance
Safety: Fleet safety should be a top priority for any fleet business. As mentioned, vehicles that aren’t well-maintained are more likely to be involved in accidents. Keep your fleet safe by keeping its vehicles in top shape.
Reliability: When your vehicles are in the shop for repairs, that’s lost time, and most importantly, lost revenue. Even worse when your drivers are standing on the side of the road with your vehicles waiting for a tow. If your vehicles are maintained better, they spend less time broken down.
Compliance: Remember those federal regulations we mentioned earlier? There are plenty of federal, state, and local laws your fleet needs to abide by. Keeping your vehicles maintained (and keeping records of that maintenance) leads to fewer compliance issues.
Lower Costs: You’ll spend a lot less on maintenance and fuel when your vehicles are in their best condition. Less significant repairs lead to lower maintenance costs. And something as simple as keeping tire pressure up ensures that your vehicles waste less fuel. You’ll be saving money left and right!
Driver Satisfaction: Drivers are much happier when they’re driving better vehicles. When they don’t have to wonder if they’re safe behind the wheel, their job performance improves, and their job satisfaction is much higher.
Azuga’s Fleet Maintenance Alerts Help You Stay On Top of Vehicle Repairs
Keeping track of all of your vehicles may seem impossible, but with Azuga, it’s a breeze. You’ll get alerts whenever your vehicles have an issue that needs addressing. Furthermore, it’s easy to keep track of your routine maintenance needs and records of past maintenance jobs! You can even generate reports that show you what parts or vehicles are needing frequent repairs so you can make decisions to improve your maintenance process. See what our maintenance alerts can do for you with a free demo!
