What really happens when a truck is out of service? You probably think about quickly diagnosing the problem, determining which parts are needed and fixing the issue as fast as possible.
What you might find surprising is that more than 80 percent of the time associated with service and repair events is spent on coordination, communication and other "non-wrench turning" activities.
AN ICEBERG
"Fleet maintenance is like an iceberg," says Michael Riemer, vice president, products and channel marketing, at Decisiv www.decisiv.com, the leading provider of Service Relationship Management (SRM) and business intelligence solutions for commercial assets.
"Mostly unseen, 80 percent of an iceberg's mass is below the surface. Similarly, our research shows that over 80 percent of the time spent on maintenance and repairs is unproductive time spent looking for service histories, recalls and service bulletins, filling out forms and then re-keying data into your system, exchanging voice mails and waiting for faxes and return phone calls."
DOS
The Days Out of Service (DOS) impact on a fleet's revenue and profitability due to repair events cannot be understated, Reimer emphasizes. In a recent survey by Decisiv, fleets reported an average of 1.51 service events that resulted in 3.19 days out-of-service per tractor per month.
"If the Days Out of Service in that survey group was reduced by only 25 percent, the average fleet would realize, at $2.17 per mile, an additional $1,123 in revenue per tractor per month. That improvement also represents a boost in asset utilization from 85.5 percent to 89.1 percent, and based on the average size fleet in the survey of 277 units would produce an additional $1.35 million in revenue and $500,000 in profit annually per tractor."
HELP WITH DECISION MAKING
Minimizing the time associated with coordination and communication activities also drives productivity and profitability at service provider locations. For fleet internal shops and at their external service provider locations, bays and technicians don't sit idle waiting on decisions or information.
However, a Service Relationship Management (SRM) platform ensures the right information is available to the right person at the point of service, says Reimer
SRM is a collection of applications and services for facilitating decision making, managing events and providing communications and information access across the service and repair supply chain, he explains. SRM also provides reporting and analytics so key performance indicators can be monitored and measured.
"North American trucking companies and their service providers continue to face significant challenges out of their direct control, such as rate pressures and volatile fuel prices," Riemer states. "But Days Out of Service associated with service and repair events are something they can control, and the benefits of which go directly to their bottom line.
"SRM technology eliminates the inherent inefficiencies in the commercial vehicle service process and provides a competitive and financial advantage for forward thinking fleets and service providers."
