Preventative Maintenance: Safer vehicles, safer staff

With stringent certification requirements and tight operating margins, the New Zealand transport industry has a lot on its plate. An effective preventative maintenance programme is a key part of managing the pressures and meeting your workplace health, safety and compliance responsibilities. 

Proper maintenance improves vehicle performance and safety, and reduces cost. A poorly-serviced engine runs inefficiently and burns more fuel, while underinflated tyres or binding brakes are other examples of preventable issues that can compromise safety. Better maintenance reduces unnecessary wear and tear and identifies mechanical issues before they cause unexpected downtime and extra cost. A good preventative maintenance programme can also assist transport operators in protecting their Operator Rating System (ORS) ranking. 

Tracking maintenance accurately can suck up a lot of time if done manually, but a good GPS fleet management system should include a maintenance module that optimises service schedules and takes care of key tasks automatically – never miss an inspection, renewal, tyre rotation or oil change again. It should also ensure there is no waste of money by over-maintaining vehicles. 

Key things to look for in a maintenance module are: 

•    Complete overviews as well as detailed summaries of fleet maintenance activities.
•    Alerts for upcoming maintenance needs or milestones, from oil changes to license renewals, tire rotations to inspections.
•    Options to report service requirements by date, number of miles, or even days on the road.
•    The ability to track and report user-defined data such as service dates, times, costs and providers to identify patterns and spot trends to manage service intervals more accurately.
•    The ability to build user configurable schedules based on time or distance

Download our maintenance eBook to learn how you can streamline your maintenance and safety practices using analytics data captured from your vehicles.

Looking after maintenance and looking after staff goes a long way toward driving profitability, reducing cost, and meeting workplace health, safety and compliance requirements. And that counts for a lot whether running a small or large transport business. When operating in an increasingly tight market, GPS fleet management can play an important part in sharpening that competitive edge.