Most fleets have two overarching directives for their maintenance departments: keep vehicles safe on the road and maintenance costs under control. How shop and maintenance managers tackle those tasks can be variable, depending on their location, assets, equipment, and more.
And yet, maintenance directors still need to be able to measure their direct report's success, regardless of where and how they're operating. To that end, there are a handful of important KPIs fleet maintenance directors can keep an eye on to help gauge how their shop-level managers are doing. As well as this, there's more flexible evaluations companies can use for their managers to make sure they're succeeding at their intangible, but critical leadership duties as well.
First, here are several concrete metrics for managerial performance.
Scheduled vs. unscheduled maintenance
“Trucks just showing up can be very disruptive to production flow and technician productivity,” said John Whittet, chief customer officer at Fullbay, a provider of fleet maintenance and shop management software. “Sometimes it’s a matter of the shop manager making sure PMs are getting done right and on time.”
RP 545 dictates that no more than 30% of total maintenance costs are derived from unscheduled PMs.
Maintenance resulting from DVIRs
RP 545 also advises that no more than 17% of a fleet’s total maintenance costs should result from things drivers report on their DVIR. If it’s more than 17%, the quality of the fleet’s PM inspections should be reviewed.
PM completion rate
As an extension of the above KPI, the percentage of PMs completed on time is key.
“Our goal is 98%,” said Wayne Skinner, senior vice president of fleet, maintenance, and procurement at Summit School Services, a provider of student transportation. “I don’t think 100% is realistic because there could always be a bus that was in an accident and is in a body shop when the PM comes due. Shop managers can’t do much about that.”
Aged work orders
Skinner also likes to keep an eye on work orders involving non-PM work, such as recalls. Any work order over 90 days is flagged because it should have been addressed during that vehicle’s 90-day PM cycle.
Real-time out of service
Summit School Services had a software program custom-built for this KPI. Drivers and technicians can flag vehicles as out of service for various reasons. Techs are also able to place vehicles back into service if they discover that a reported issue isn’t safety-critical. A dashboard is automatically updated every 15 minutes, allowing shop managers to take a quick view of what’s out of service and why. This near-instant visibility helps ensure that issues are resolved as quickly as possible.
RP 545 recommends that vehicle uptime should be at least 97%, essentially for 29 days in a 30-day month.
Safety
Summit School Services has made accidents and injuries its own KPI for shop managers. Obviously, the goal is zero. Skinner said making this a KPI makes it clear that leadership is focused on safety, which keeps maintenance managers focused on it, too.
Technician training
Another part of a maintenance manager’s job is to ensure that technicians are receiving the right training at the proper pace. Skinner said video-based training is now built into the company’s LMS (learning management system). “If technicians are behind on their training, that shop loses points on its KPI,” Skinner said.
Congratulatory badges
Summit's LMS also has functionality that allows managers to issue “congratulatory badges” when technicians and other employees deserve recognition. Skinner said each maintenance manager is required to issue a certain number each month. When someone falls behind, it’s highlighted on a dashboard within the fleet management software.
Feedback from technicians
For the abovementioned KPIs, Skinner said they must be visible to everyone at all times in order to have their intended effect. “Nobody can be scrambling in the dark,” Skinner advised. “Our managers and teams are able to see how they’re performing, which enables them to fix their own destiny.”
Quantifying managerial intangibles
Now that we've covered some of the concrete KPIs shop managers should meet to succeed at their job, what are some of the “nonquantifiable” traits a good maintenance manager needs to possess? How can fleets gain visibility into that? A good place to start is by asking the technicians being managed, as long as their feedback is honest and accurate.
“Technicians are a unique bunch of people in that they hate to badmouth their bosses,” said Ernest Acevedo, fleet maintenance director at DPV Transportation, a specialty passenger transportation company. “At the same time, fleet maintenance directors need their technicians to respect their shop leaders. Maintenance directors have to find a way to encourage honest feedback from those technicians.”
Amanda Schuier, strategic maintenance director at Jetco Delivery, has found a way to do that. “We’ve begun doing what we call 360-degree reviews for our managers,” she said.
What is a 360-degree review? Each manager is reviewed by their shop team. To help ensure open and honest feedback, Jetco uses a platform that anonymizes responses. And Schuier and the president of the company attend one of the shop’s huddle meetings prior to a 360-degree review process getting started. They stress how vital technician feedback is when trying to accurately assess manager performance.
“We did our first 360-degree of a manager earlier this year and got 100% participation from the technicians,” Schuier said. “We look for themes in the feedback. For example, if three technicians said the shop manager has a bad attitude every other morning, that’s something we can address privately with the shop manager to fix what might need fixing.”
That’s the entire purpose of KPIs in general—to measure performance and identify what needs fixing. That goes for the hard data a software platform can provide as well as observational data that helps provide deeper insights into an employee’s behaviors and characteristics. When it all comes together, that’s when fleets can truly understand how their maintenance teams are performing.
About the Author
Gregg Wartgow
Gregg Wartgow is a freelancer who Fleet Maintenance has relied upon for many years, writing about virtually any trucking topic. He lives in Brodhead, Wisconsin.