Tag Archives: fleet maintenance
How to Survive – or Better Yet Avoid – a DOT Audit
DecisivConnect is pleased to publish this guest post from Andy Blair. Andy spent 26 years as a police officer in Pennsylvania, and for over 12 years was certified to perform Department of Transportation enforcement inspections. Andy now works as an associate of CVSAS Incorporated, a consulting firm specializing in managing issues of safety, compliance, loss control and loss prevention in the commercial trucking industry. Nothing can destroy a fleet owner’s bottom line faster than fines, downtime, missed deliveries and angry customers. I know, because many times I made these happen due to trucking companies that failed my DOT inspections. It… Read More »
When Bad Things Happen to Good Trucks
Preventive maintenance is the cornerstone of any fleet management best practices program. In its rawest form, such an effort simply means developing strategies that will help avoid an unscheduled event for your equipment. No good can come of an unscheduled event which may occur on the road or within a fleet’s own facility. With routes and trips designed to meet customer demand, a fleet’s operations group faces a number of challenges associated with such an occurrence. The impact of a late arriving load, increased costs associated with repairing equipment under emergency conditions and ensuring an alternate means of delivering the… Read More »
Truck Service Ecosystem Delivers Gigantic Results
The trucking ecosystem bears many similarities to Jurassic Park. The fictional island resort off the coast of Costa Rica showcases live dinosaurs created through preserved DNA. With the improper elements the tropical paradise becomes a disastrous experience. But when carefully engineered, then you have an amazing and profitable new venture. For an ecosystem to be sustainable, each of its components has to coexist and interact in a delicate balance. Until the individual components are tied together, you have no ecosystem. Consider the components required for truck service management – the driver, the truck (and its components), the truck owner, the fleet manager… Read More »
Shop Estimating in the Current Era
As a member of TMC, and as a Service Provider and past Dealer Principle, I find the interaction between Fleet Maintenance Managers and Service Providers fascinating and encouraging. Overall, this group of folks has one mission, to make life in the Service Lane more efficient. During the recent TMC Session in Raleigh, there was a panel discussion from the Service Provider Committee about Repair Order Approval. While the panel had positive interaction, open dialogue, and some agreed upon best practices, there were some comments and discussion that hit one of my “pet peeves” right between the eyes. The subject of… Read More »
