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The role of fleet maintenance has traditionally been to oversee internal shop activities with the added responsibilities of managing outsourced repair work. For an increasing number of companies, maintenance has been elevated to stand on equal footing with operations and finance to maximize revenue and cost-saving opportunities.

accounting systems

All transactions of a business will end up in the general ledger, eventually. What matters most is how quickly the data gets there and what remains to be completed upon its arrival.  Integrating asset maintenance and accounting systems is one area of opportunity for fleets to improve back-office efficiency. Imagine, if you will, a two-step strategy for connecting asset maintenance with accounting.

The organizational structures and IT systems of transportation companies traditionally have been geared for operations and the order-to-cash cycle of loads. Investments in fleet maintenance management systems and related integrations tend to lag behind, causing transactions and information to become lost on an island of its own, apart from the full business enterprise.

Is your business still going through the fleet maintenance process manually?  Entering a work order, scheduling the job, getting the truck in the shop, searching for parts in the warehouse, writing the bill out by hand and entering the information into a database? Or, is your current maintenance solution just not getting the job done?

Keeping your fleet in tip-top shape is what keeps your business moving forward. Taking trucks off the road affects your bottom line, so it is important to conduct regular maintenance checks to prevent out of service violations.

Imagine that one of the trucks in your fleet has surpassed 100,000 miles. It undergoes the regular 100,000-mile maintenance test and a few parts were replaced due to normal wear and tear, but otherwise, everything seems fine. Then, a few weeks later, you get a call that the truck is broken down on the side of the highway, far away from the nearest town.

Imagine being put in charge of finding ways to boost your company’s bottom line. You automatically think of two ways: a huge influx of profitable new business or a significant reduction in operating costs. 

However, you know that option number one isn’t likely. So, you begin rummaging through the books looking for any and every way to save a penny. Knowing that your top three costs are equipment, driver wages and fuel, which is easiest to control?

No matter your fleet size, if you have a fleet, you need to maintain that fleet. The results of not doing so can be catastrophic – units taken out of service, safety violations, and drivers and customers angered by loads that can’t be delivered. On the flip side, maintaining a fleet, regardless if you have an in house shop or you use a vendor for your work, promises a fleet that is ready to serve your company and your customers when you need it.

Maintaining your fleet has never been more important than now. Not solely because most Class 8 commercial trucks are teenagers; but overall safety and the ability to keep assets moving are critical for business success.

Faced with increasing margin pressure and ever-tighter cost controls, anyone managing a fleet looks to technology for relief.