Proactive & Preventative Fleet Maintenance Importance | ASCEND

Your fleet vehicles represent a major investment for your business. Of course, that seems obvious. But so should taking care of your vehicles through proactive maintenance. Surprisingly, however, there are still many companies that simply don’t give their fleets the regular care they require. They create more risks than they may realize by failing to do so.

The irony is that the wealth of data provided through telematics has made it easier than ever to track vehicle wear and performance and to know exactly when each vehicle in your fleet needs attention. Those companies that haven’t made the investment in a telematics-enabled data platform are missing out on one of the most important features of the technology: the ability to manage their fleet lifecycles effectively.

So, what are the risks of not proactively servicing your fleets? There are several:

Putting driver safety at risk. It’s a fact: when preventive maintenance is ignored or not managed properly, vehicles can become less safe to drive. Your drivers, after all, are your company’s most important asset. By neglecting vehicle maintenance and failing to catch and repair preventable mechanical or equipment issues, you can place them – and other drivers on the road – in harm’s way.

Losing uptime and efficiency. A flat tire on a service vehicle can sideline it for hours – hours that could and should be spent serving your customers. The sensors and reporting tools in a telematics and data system catch preventable, easily repaired issues like these before they become costly, efficiency-killing incidents that take your drivers and vehicles out of commission.

Speaking of efficiency, with a data-driven preventive maintenance plan in place, you can schedule when your vehicles will need to be out of service for maintenance and make your service department aware of the schedule so they can plan their work – streamlining the process of maintaining your fleet.

Shortening vehicle lifespans. Just as proactive maintenance can keep vehicles on the road and in service, it also can keep them on the road longer. When you take care of your vehicles, they have to be replaced much less frequently (at an exorbitant cost).

Telematics can gather data and trigger alerts, including diagnostic trouble codes, so you can take care of issues before they become serious. You can even upload the recommended OEM service schedule into your data system to stay on top of the preventive maintenance for each vehicle.

And, of course, while proactive maintenance does have a cost associated with it, it is much less than the major repair or replacement costs that arise when proactive maintenance schedules are ignored.

Hurting equipment resale values. Taking care of your vehicles and having the service records to confirm your efforts can mean a better return when you go to sell equipment you no longer need. Providing a complete history of the service, costs, and receipts for the vehicle's lifetime can make for easier and more lucrative transactions when you sell assets – and your data system can make tracking vehicle histories much easier.

It's About Clarity and Ease.
While preventive fleet maintenance is advantageous, managing it can be challenging if you don’t have access to the right information about your fleet vehicles’ usage, maintenance schedules, and service records – or the right tools to gather, process, and share that information with those who need it.

The right telematics and data platform brings clarity and relative ease to taking care of your vehicles so you can keep them – and your business – on the road, where they belong.