Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
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Service Bay maintenance around the working hours set by a service provider. Mobile maintenance providers are help- T ing to recover much of this downtime by bringing services directly to their custom- ers — stressing the "out" in the world of "outsourced" maintenance. Managed Mobile in Orange, Calif., for example, maintains a wide array of voca- tional fl eets from utility companies to food services businesses, and all in their respec- tive fl eet yards. "Eighty percent of our customers don't know anything about trucks," says Paul Ry- galski, president and CEO. "Th ey don't have a fl eet manager or a transportation manager. Th ey're delivering produce. Th ey're deliver- ing industrial gases. Th ey rely on us to man- age their fl eets." In fact, any preventive maintenance ser- vice, safety inspection or light maintenance is an ideal fi t for a mobile maintenance program, says Claris Ramos-Sukkar, CEO of On-site Fleet Services. Th e business case oſt en makes the best sense when a fl eet's drivers make much of their revenue outside the truck itself, whether they are installing phone or internet ime is a valuable commodity. Just ask any fl eet manager who assigns drivers to take its trucks to a third- party shop, or schedules preventive Who says customers need to bring equipment to your shop? Maybe the shop should go to them. connections, or changing gas meters. "Th at' s when we become a compelling value proposition," says Rick Sukkar, the company's president. A mobile maintenance program allows work to be completed during the vehicle's traditional downtime, and without requiring anything to be delivered to a shop. Th e secret is to strike a balance between the volume of work and the cost of the on-site service. On-site Fleet Services, for example, tends to limit its business to yards that have at least a dozen vehicles, since a technician can complete tasks like an oil change on 10 to 15 vehicles a night. "Th at' s not a hard bar for a lot of these fl eets to come up to," he says. Th e ideal time to conduct the mainte- nance will likely diff er depending on the 22 TRUCK PARTS & SERVICE | March 2012 type of business as well. Rygalski notes how food services companies tend to want maintenance work completed on a Wednesday night, so the trucks are available for weekend and early-morning deliveries to restaurants. Of course, service providers face some unique challenges with mobile maintenance programs of any sort. Weather is a prime example. Depend- ing on the fl eet's facilities, much of the work tends to be completed in parking lots that are exposed to the elements. "It can reduce the technician's ability to do a thorough job," says Chris Holman, CEO of Advanced Maintenance, based in North Carolina, South Carolina and Flori- da. Th is requires a little extra planning.