Fleet maintenance and Reefer Repair services can help your company in several ways. It extends the lifespan of your vehicles by minimizing the risk of breakdowns and emergencies. Also, it lowers operational and business costs and ensures your cars spend more time on the road running business errands instead of you pulling them out often for repairs. Furthermore, maintenance ensures road safety for drivers. Your transportation fleet graphics should also be maintained so you can deliver your brand effectively.
For these reasons, it’s good to know how to achieve that. With that in mind, here are the top five fleet maintenance tips you should know:
1. Monitor Your Diesel Oxidation Catalyst
A diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) is an after-treatment component in all diesel engines intended to convert hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide into water and carbon dioxide, respectively. In essence, it decomposes pollutants in the exhaust system and helps lower particles.
However, sometimes the DOC can fail due to multiple reasons. One of them is that it may be coated with metals, which deteriorate with time. Also, it may be contaminated with oil. You may want to read more online content for further info about DOC dynamics.
The good thing is that you can clean your DOC. You can remove it, inspect it, and clean it to ensure it isn’t face-plugged.
2. Take Care Of Your Tires
The condition of your tires is very important because they’re responsible for holding your truck’s weight. Any mistake can pose a significant risk to your drivers and goods. That’s why maintaining tire health should be one of your top priorities. You must ensure they have the appropriate air pressure, balance, and tread depth for optimal performance. To ensure your tires are always in good condition:
- Rotate tires regularly: Usually, tires can have uneven wear and tear. Thus, it’s essential to rotate your fleet’s tires to minimize wear patterns and enable them to last longer.
- Check them after every journey: Vehicle tires face various hurdles while on the road, including potholes and sharp objects. This means that their condition can change instantly without any warning. It’s, therefore, reasonable to do your inspection regularly after every road trip. Also, encourage your drivers to monitor the tire’s condition while on the road to reduce the risk of accidents.
- Monitor tire treads: Worn-out treads can be very dangerous because they don’t have sufficient grip on the road and may slide. This is especially true during bad weather. Therefore, when you monitor treads, you can easily detect a worn-out tire and replace it as soon as possible.
- Check tire inflations: Under and over-inflated tires have detrimental effects. The former causes tires to have extra contact with the road, augmenting friction and resulting in premature wear or blowout. On the other hand, over inflation may lead to irregular wear, which may result in bursting. Therefore, you must check tire inflations to maintain proper pressure on every tire.
3. Train Your Drivers Appropriately
Negligent driving behavior can lead to premature or excessive wear and tear. For instance, hard braking ruins your fleet’s brakes and tires, while idling damages the engine more rapidly. If this happens, you may consider replacing your engine with Cummins 5.9 performance engine.
For this reason, your drivers must know how such habits can affect your fleet and business. This way, they can be careful while driving and monitor their driving behavior. Remember to train and remind them of good driving habits.
You can also track them using GPS and come up with reports on the places or situations that make them engage in destructive driving behaviors. Finally, communicate your company’s policies and expectations so that they know what’s expected of them whenever they drive.
4. Ensure You Are Using Your Vehicles For The Right Purpose
Every vehicle in your fleet has a unique purpose, task, and maximum luggage it can carry. You can reduce the lifespan of a fleet drastically when you misuse it. If a truck takes more load than intended, it can experience more wear and tear. Alternatively, underloading it can cost you as you may need unnecessary upgrades. As a result, ensure you equip your trucks with correct luggage, driving conditions, and frequency of use.
5. Develop A Fleet Maintenance Strategy
Another crucial tip for proper fleet maintenance is to create a preventive fleet maintenance plan which includes a truck brake system service. This can help you correct significant problems and disastrous failures. This can also help lessen the chances of accidents arising from vehicle failure. To implement a maintenance strategy:
- Set up a maintenance checklist: This is important as you need to list down all the vehicle parts you must regularly check and maintain.
- Create policies and maintenance scheduling: These parameters can enable your drivers to be responsible.
Conclusion
Proper fleet maintenance significantly influences your company’s financial performance and ability to meet or even exceed customer expectations. As a result, you should always aim to offer complete care to your vehicles. Look into aspects like the DOC, tires, and driver awareness. Ultimately, your vehicles will always be in sound condition and ready to transport goods and personnel to the required places.