How Investing In Preventive Maintenance Has Long Term ROI For Fleets

Understanding The Value Of Preventative Maintenance

Businesses with fleets are being overwhelmed with their workload on a consistent basis and it’s easy to forget to have a proper maintenance schedule in place. This is because ensuring proper maintenance only really has long term benefits, which means it’s easy for it to be neglected and procrastinated on. 

Many fleets still use paper work orders and spreadsheets to manage their preventive maintenance, which can be inefficient and cause vehicles to miss routine maintenance. The preventive maintenance schedules of many fleets fall apart due to disorganization, leading to downtime and costly repairs.

Costs Of Reactive Maintenance VS Preventive Maintenance – An Example Study

A company owns a 10-year-old, 7 horsepower air compressor. The replacement costs for this compressor is estimated at $32,900. Based on the procedures developed by the team, it was determined that the air compressor would last 20 years with proper preventive maintenance and 16 years without. The cost of preventive maintenance was estimated at $472 per year for this compressor and repairing the compressor costs $944 on average per incident. 

With proper preventive maintenance, the compressor will need to be repaired every four years at a cost of $944 or $236 per year. Without proper maintenance, however, it will need to be repaired every three years for the same $944 for an annual cost of $315. 

With preventive maintenance, the compressor will need to be replaced in year 10. Without preventive maintenance, it will need to be replaced twice – in years 6 and 20. The preventive maintenance scenario results in a net present value of $6,359. If the life of the equipment extends to 30 years, the compressor will need to be replaced twice in the preventive maintenance scenario resulting in a Net Present Value (NPV) of $4,338. In either scenario, preventive maintenance on the compressor is worth it.

What Is Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) consists of scheduled servicing, inspections and vehicle repairs to prevent potential problems and maximize vehicle availability. It is used in fleet management to proactively avoid or reduce vehicle breakdowns and is based on time, mileage, engine hours or gallons of fuel used. Preventive maintenance actions include vehicle inspection, lubrication, adjustment, cleaning, testing, repair and/or the replacement of worn parts.

Why It’s Important To Consider

Preventive maintenance is as important as driver safety programs. If a vehicle becomes unsafe due to the lack of maintenance or repair, the fleet manager can be held liable for negligent entrustment. Legally, providing an employee with a dangerous tool or instrument, such as a vehicle, while knowing that the use of the vehicle creates unreasonable risk or harm to others. 

The Challenges Fleets Will Face Without Implementing PM

Suppose the brakes fail causing a serious crash or fatality, the vehicle will be impounded by authorities for investigation. Should the investigation determine that bad brakes or other vehicle malfunctions contributed to the accident, the authorities can seek a court order to obtain vehicle maintenance records. If your operation fails to practice preventive maintenance under these circumstances, you could be prosecuted for a negligent act which you failed to prevent.

Benefits Of Preventive Maintenance

According to a report from McKinsey Global Institute on the Internet of Things, predictive maintenance can lead to a savings of anywhere from $200 billion to $600 billion for manufacturers by 2025.

Lower repair costs

When we talk about preventive and corrective maintenance, the big difference is in the costs. By anticipating damage caused by wear and tear, as well as breakdowns, the need for corrective maintenance is minimized which has a direct impact on capital savings. Having most of your vehicles active also increases the number of tasks done, thus creating more revenue for your company. If none of your vehicles suffer unexpected stops, it will not be necessary to hire expensive tow vehicles.

Extending the life of your fleet
 

Timely and effective maintenance of a fleet prevents costly failures, major accidents, and also extends the engine lifetime. As a result, vehicle lifetime increases and total cost of ownership decreases.

Increased safety for drivers and vehicles

Often overlooked, driver safety is of major importance. Complying with a preventive maintenance program considerably reduces the probability of accidents from vehicle malfunction. The benefits of preventive maintenance are not limited to safety, but also raises driver comfort and productivity.

Reduction in vehicle downtime

A well scheduled and executed preventive maintenance plan can reduce vehicle downtime heavily. A growing number of fleet managers are questioning not only how to carry out the preventive maintenance of their fleet vehicles, but also how to measure its effectiveness. Ultimately, the most effective solutions reduce corrective maintenance costs and maximize fleet availability.

ZenduMA – A Preventive Maintenance Solution To Keep In Mind

ZenduMA is a powerful, web-based maintenance management system letting you run your fleet maintenance operations effectively. It automatically generates work orders when a vehicle fault or regularly scheduled maintenance is detected. This saves time, but by performing preventative maintenance, money is saved and downtime is reduced. With tools to help recognize failure codes and track part and vehicle inventory, ZenduMA streamlines the entire maintenance process. It takes time-consuming tasks like work order management, preventative maintenance scheduling and custom reporting to be automatically completed in one place. 

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

The preventive maintenance of a vehicle brings broad benefits to both the fleet and your company in terms of safety, efficiency and costs. Contact us now to learn more about how our maintenance tools allow you to execute your preventive maintenance program without delay and measure its effectiveness across time, ultimately optimizing your vehicle operation.