Why you should center your PM schedule around component intervals

The limitations of mileage-based maintenance schedules

Mileage-based maintenance is straightforward. Say a truck comes in at 75,000 miles for an oil change. The technicians know the ball joints and wheel bearings are typically worn out at this point, so they will replace the parts rather than waiting for the inevitable breakdown. Original equipment manufacturers’ schedules normally follow these intervals.

Mileage-based scheduling can be beneficial since it is proactive. It allows enough time to mitigate scheduling issues related to missing tools, labor shortages, or mismatched replacement parts. Many fleets follow the same schedule, changing the fuel, engine air filter, and oil at 250 hours, and the hydraulic tank, radiator, and bushing at 5,000 hours.

This maintenance schedule is common because high procurement costs lead many operators to extend their vehicles’ service lives. After all, KPMG’s “Lease or Buy? Evaluating the Rising Cost of Truck Fleet Ownership” report shows fleet costs increased by 38% on average from 2016 to 2024. However, a time-based maintenance model doesn’t account for the additional wear and tear aging trucks experience, potentially hurting an older truck’s ROI in the meantime.

Moving past servicing fleets on a fixed schedule

While a mileage- or hour-based approach is relatively common, it has shortcomings. For one, not all miles are equal. Generally, a semitruck traveling 100 miles through a city with frequent stops will experience more wear and tear than one driving 100 miles on the interstate. The distance between breakdowns also varies considerably depending on sector, vehicle age, and operating weight.

It also neglects key metrics like tire pressure, engine temperature, and diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs). By disregarding the truck’s real-time condition, technicians may overlook signs of impending equipment failure. This means that although mileage-based maintenance is supposed to be proactive, it often results in overservicing or underservicing, which both contribute to higher maintenance expenses overall.

Expanding on usage-based maintenance schedules

According to data from the Federal Highway Administration, World Resources Institute, and American Public Transit Association, semitrucks travel an average of 62,169 miles annually. A traditional mileage-based approach would base maintenance intervals on this data alone. However, a lot of vehicle-specific wear and tear can happen in this time.

Operational context considers how terrain, climate, load weights and road type impact degradation, contributing to a usage-based maintenance approach. This method assesses operating hours, fuel usage, driving behavior, trip duration, and odometer readings in addition to distance driven. After all, just because mileage data is insufficient alone doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.

Data-driven monitoring is the core element of a component-specific preventive maintenance schedule, as it allows technicians to gain a granular understanding of repair needs by focusing on individual parts. This individualized monitoring means that while professionals still consider adjacent wear and tear, their focus is more granular.

Technology can automate much of the process, as diagnostics, sensors, and analytics can help techs determine when repairs are actually necessary for each part. Using this technology, component-specific maintenance leverages real-time information to provide an accurate overview of a vehicle’s health, so that technicians schedule repairs on demand based on telematics data, diagnostic trouble codes, and sensor readings. All of this means that if technicians want to replace the brake pads or the engine air filter, they must track the part’s status and performance.

The case for component-specific maintenance intervals

Vehicles are lasting longer, mainly due to an uptick in preventive maintenance schedules. In 2025, the American Transportation Research Institute released their Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking. It found the number of miles traveled between unplanned repairs or breakdowns reached 38,249 in the fourth quarter of 2024 — up 549 miles year over year.

While the decline in unscheduled breakdowns is good news, it highlights a fundamental problem with mileage-based plans. They may become increasingly unreliable as vehicles and historical data changes, even when accounting for variability among sectors and commercial vehicle types. As vehicles continue to improve and maintenance best practices are updated, following the same mileage-based guidance for updated vehicles could result in overmaintenance. 

Instead, data-driven component failure prediction can reduce costs by preventing overservicing, decreasing spare parts expenditures and optimizing labor spending. This also frees up technicians to focus on more important matters, improving resource allocation. Owners will see fewer equipment failures and maximize uptime, even while spending less on repairs.

Data-driven maintenance extends the useful life of fleet assets, improving vehicle availability and mitigating adjacent wear and tear. However, telematics and real-time diagnostics systems are necessary for accurate, comprehensive condition and usage overviews.

Transitioning to condition-based maintenance intervals

Fleet owners considering transitioning from a fixed-schedule plan to component-specific preventive maintenance service intervals should consider data integration, technician training, and management software adoption. 

Dave Walters — a sales support engineer at Trimble Transportation — says incorporating this data into preventive maintenance programs can prevent issues from snowballing. However, fleet managers may see hundreds of fault code alerts daily, resulting in information overload. A management system with automation capabilities can help them manage the volume.

Fleet management software lets users schedule maintenance automatically based on mileage, time or engine hours, mitigating costly unplanned repairs and extending vehicle lifespans. The level of customization and availability of dashboard metrics varies depending on the platform. No one-size-fits-all solution exists, so finding a good fit may take time. Operators can successfully implement a data-driven maintenance strategy without this software, but it can simplify administrative tasks.

There is no room for “guesstimates” in modern fleet management. Implementing a preventive maintenance schedule has never been easier. Thanks to sophisticated onboard systems, technicians have a wealth of historical and real-time vehicle data at their fingertips.