Increase uptime and productivity. Improve CSA scores. Spend less time and money coordinating major repairs. As a fleet owner or manager, these goals are often top of mind, but how do you achieve them? Adopting a thorough preventive maintenance and inspection program allows you to focus on your fleet’s operations while trusted service technicians maintain your trailers, so when your next load is ready, your equipment is too.
Tires are typically the number one reason trailers end up out-of-service or require emergency roadside service. Tire condition and inflation levels often go unchecked for long periods of time as trailers sit idle on yards awaiting their next load, which means as soon as the trailer leaves the yard it’s already at a higher risk of experiencing an over-the-road tire failure.
Not only can the cost of a roadside tire replacement run upwards of $600, it can cost your driver several hours of unplanned downtime. Plus, driving on a defective tire could put you out-of-service during a roadside DOT inspection, costing you more time, money and negatively impacting your CSA scores.
The cost of a scheduled inspection depends on the level of inspection you’re getting. Whether you opt for a mid-trip inspection or a full DOT annual trailer inspection, it could cost you as little as $9.99 or as much as $58.99. If tire damage is detected during an inspection and can be repaired, this could cost as little as $42.99, and if a full tire replacement is required that would still cost less than $600.
So in the time it would take for a roadside service technician to reach your driver, it has already cost you more than $400, almost double what it would cost to get an inspection and tire repaired or even replaced during a scheduled preventive maintenance check. If those are the cost savings of a planned inspection and maintenance program for just one unit, imagine if your fleet has over 50 vehicles, how much time and money you could be saving. Scheduled inspections can also help uncover minor issues before they become larger, more expensive repairs down the road.
Proactively inspecting and maintaining your fleet’s trailers while they’re not under load is the best way to increase productivity and improve CSA scores while reducing over-the-road repair and maintenance expenses. Whether your fleet has one truck or 100, TA Truck Service’s TechOn-SITE mobile maintenance team can create a scheduled preventive maintenance program tailored to your specific business needs.
This article was sponsored by TA Truck Service. For more information, please visit: https://www.ta-petro.com/amenities/truck-repair-maintenance.
