Digital Diagnostics: Another View
Digital diagnostics have changed truck maintenance forever, and certainly for the better, but there may be a downside as well.
"We have gotten so high-tech that we've forgotten how to do the most basic elements of maintaining trucks," says fleet maintenance guru Darry Stuart.
While Stuart regards himself "anti" for the sake of argument, he clearly understands and appreciates technology.
"I absolutely believe in what it will do. I absolutely believe in where we're going," Stuart says. "One of the greatest inventions that ever came along was the electronic engine."
Stuart runs DWS Fleet Management Services, Wrentham, Mass., a unique business service that leverages his 37 years of fleet management experience. Stuart goes to work for a client fleet as an on-the-premises troubleshooter and problem-solver, driving change as if on staff, but for a limited time period.
In this real-world environment, Stuart sees first-hand that diagnostic technologies do have problems – for example, the short life of the components that gather information. "Speed sensors, potentiometers, air flow sensors, all the sensors," he says.
But the larger problem, he says, has less to do with the technology itself than with the way it is used. Stuart cites a client with a fleet based in Tennessee.
"Every time a truck came into the shop, they would hook it up and check for codes. They would check this and they would check that. They would turn the speed up, turn the speed down."
Stuart noticed the fleet had a pile of paper in one corner of the office. There weren't enough filing cabinets for all the paper.
When he asked what the pile was, the manager explained that every time a truck came in, they plugged it in and ran off a report. Over time, the reports stacked up. Nobody did anything with them.
"A technician spent 15 to 20 minutes hooking the truck up, downloading, being curious and blah, blah, blah. They spent more time doing that than they spent fixing trucks."
Curiosity is not limited to the shop floor.
"I know fleets where they bring in the truck. They'll hook up the computer and they'll be checking all these things. I say, 'Why are we doing this? Is there a problem?'"
The manager's response: "No, I'm just curious."
"I view everything at 80 cents a minute," Stuart says. That's what he believes a technician's time costs.
Stuart's conversations with clients about the time spent running routine diagnostics goes something like this:
"You're doing it in your shop, right? Why don't you send it down to the dealer and let the dealer hook it up?"
"Oh, I don't want to pay the dealer to do that," the manager responds.
"Then why are you doing it?" Stuart asks.
There is another, less easily resolved problem with diagnostic technology. Stuart says technicians rely on computer diagnostics to the exclusion of traditional skills – for example, listening to engines for trouble.
"We're using (technology) to diagnose trucks. Today we don't have the mechanical street smarts like we did 20 years ago."
Would Stuart rather do without technology? No.
"Has it helped us with diagnosing the truck? Absolutely, it has. It's been a phenomenal thing."
