Maintenance For Profit
Breakdown
10 Top Reasons
More than half are tire related. Some road calls could be eliminated by more thorough preventive maintenance.
JIM WINSOR
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
You might be surprised by what the latest statistics reveal about roadside breakdowns. The No. 1 reason for roadside repair — year after year — is tires. In 2001, 53% of road calls for trucks and tractors handled by a major service provider were tire-related. For trailers, 48% were for tires. (See tables below and on page 38 and 39.)
These figures come from the 26,678 road calls handled by FleetnetAmerica, the nation's largest road breakdown service, based in Cherryville, N.C. The information in these tables was provided by FNA President Oren Summer, who boiled down the data for HDT to create these "Top 10" lists.
Do you track breakdowns for your fleet? You should, because the first step in reducing road-call frequency is knowing what caused them in the first place.
Chances are that tire-related problems are also No.1 in your fleet. Depending on your type of operation, it could be that so-called road hazards are causing punctures, sidewall damage and valve stem breakage. But most likely, many failures happened because of underinflated tires. (For more on this topic, see Tire Talk on page 58.)
Peggy Fisher, president of Fleet Tire Consulting and former tire manager for Roadway Express, says survey work done by the Tire Air Pressure Task Force of the Technology & Maintenance Council of ATA, revealed that out of 35,128 tire pressures checked, 56% were more than 5 psi off of targeted pressure; that 7.3% were underinflated by 20 psi or more; and that one out of five trucks checked had at least one tire 20 psi or more under targeted air pressure.
"This should be of major maintenance concern to fleet managers," Fisher says. "Tires should be pressure-checked more frequently than at PM services. And managers should do periodic pressure checks on equipment in their yards to see what the 'real world' is in their fleets. Most will be shocked." Fisher says that underinflation has the same effect as overloading the tires. Cord flexing builds heat in the tire and over time, weakens it and leads to road failures.
FNA's Summer feels about half of the tire-related road calls his vendors handle could be eliminated by better tire maintenance, especially proper tire inflation. He added that breakdown calls caused by low coolant or oil also reflects problems at the fuel island or in the shop.
The starting point, then, is to look at your tire pressure checking and inflation practices, and to regularly spot-check tire pressures between PM services to see if there are "softies" out there. Fisher says any tire that repeatedly is 20 psi under its proper pressure should be treated as a flat and removed and repaired. Don't just keep adding air.
In addition to reducing road breakdowns, keeping tires properly inflated goes a long way in helping to get maximum miles out of your tires. You'll see a number of items further down the frequency list that you might want to study. While the road breakdown frequencies of these categories may be small, they cause downtime, delayed deliveries and unhappy drivers. Hose and belt problems might be headed off by closer attention to details during PM services.
But running out of fuel? That's No. 8 on the list, and unless stranded due to highway accidents or traffic jams, trucks should never run out of fuel.
Towing is No. 2 in frequency, cost and downtime hours. It's probably not something you can do much about. However, "jump and pull start" might be. What's causing discharged batteries? Driver abuse? Maintenance failures?
On trailers, tires are still by far No. 1 at 48%. Then comes "brakes, air system and valves." What are the specific problems? Try to find out. See what could be caught in the shop, before the rig goes out onto the road — and has to be rescued by a service truck.
Maintenance For Profit continued...
