Maintenance

Fleet maintenance has evolved beyond the old-school break-fix mentality. While preventive maintenance is a step up from waiting for breakdowns, predictive maintenance, powered by telematics and AI diagnostics, is the new gold standard. By using real-time data to forecast failures before they happen, fleets can drastically cut repair costs, improve safety, and reduce costly downtime.

Technology-driven platforms like Motive and Fleetio enable fleets to automate diagnostics, optimize maintenance schedules, and track performance metrics in real time. In an industry where compliance, efficiency, and cost control are everything, predictive maintenance is a necessity.

MyMechanic’s newly appointed president, James Lovecamp, recently spoke with FreightWaves on persistent issues in maintenance and repair.

Staying on top of routine vehicle maintenance is crucial for fleets aiming to improve their overall safety profile and reduce their financial risk exposure.

DHL is beefing up its aircraft maintenance capacity in Europe.

Tyler Harden give insights on how to keep up with maintenance in a way that is affordable and keeps roadways safe during this year’s Enterprise Fleet Summit.

GP Transco is installing solar panels on its entire fleet of around 600 trucks after testing the tech on 10 trucks over a six-month period. The company says the technology will save around $1,700 per tractor per year.

The express division of DHL Group plans to build a large maintenance facility at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, part of a huge investment in the company’s U.S. air network.

Predictive maintenance offers reprieve from expensive roadside crises

The easiest way to keep roadside incidents in check — and protect profits — is to invest in predictive maintenance technology upfront.

In today’s market, it is less about whether a carrier can afford to implement predictive maintenance and more about whether they can afford not to.

Reasons why you should care about idling

The cost of truck maintenance is rising as service technicians demand more money to stay on the job while aging equipment is driving more repairs.

How much does it really cost to own a new car?

Airlines put many aircraft into a deep sleep to ride out the pandemic slowdown in business, but storing and reactivating them involves a lot of resources.

Simple actions by large truck and bus drivers can help keep everyone safe

The current rule can get a person qualified in a year; the ATA proposal has no firm time span.

One of the results of the 2017-18 freight market boom was an increase in the cost of operating that held over into a slower 2019 when capacity became abundant. Costs are on the rise once again as carriers struggle to find drivers to capture market share.

This white paper, brought to you by FreightWaves and Uptake, explores ways that data and technology can revolutionize your maintenance processes. Saving you time, money and protecting your drivers from harm.

Hibernation is good for bears, but not so much for aircraft. When planes sit for extended periods, systems can erode and corrode, and bugs can make nests in key components. That’s a big safety concern airlines need to manage.

Etihad will operate a limited international route structure for the time being, but is busy running passenger and cargo charters and getting ahead on maintenance.

KeepTruckin introduces Maintenance Reminders, a tool that helps companies avoid unscheduled vehicle downtimes.

Goodyear is trying to move fleets into active management of their tire assets with a new cloud-based management program.

Decisiv Marketplace combines the company’s Service Relationship Management (SRM) solutions and its SRM Ecosystem into a single, shared platform for customers.

The Technology & Maintenance Council annual meeting has kicked off, and it’s all about connectivity and electrification, plus a CBD warning, oil prices fall, and the coronavirus

Michelin announced a new nationwide trailer maintenance program that will offer a single outsourced solution for fleets.

Several new products and services were announced ahead of the American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting on Sunday in Atlanta. Alcoa Wheels, Mitchell 1, FlowBelow and Snap-on were just a few of the companies.

Phillips Connect Technologies has introduced a series of technologies that use data to reduce downtime and prevent improper trailer use.

Collecting and analyzing the right metrics, including revenue per truck and maintenance expense, is part of making a trucking operation profitable.

Atlas Air and DHL operate at CVG, and it’s the site of Amazon’s Air Hub.

Accurate data and careful analysis enable fleets to reverse the trend of lower miles between unscheduled repairs.

These are the costliest repairs a truck driver can face.

How to avoid breakdowns and repairs with preventive maintenance

Staying on top of repair and maintenance is one of the most important elements in securing your truck’s lifespan.

The importance of technicians and the cost of technicians as part of the total cost of ownership is covered in this article by Gerry Mead.

Spot rates have fallen back to where they were two years ago. The problem for carriers; their costs have not.

Opus9 and FleetUp are offering Opus9 carriers access to a discounted ELD and the chance to become a Premium Carrier Partner with access to more freight.

In partnership with Reliance Partners …Predictive data analytics has helped foster preventive maintenance in the trucking industry. It helps fleets plan their asset usage better, recruit and retain skilled drivers, and more importantly, reduce unplanned equipment downtimes.

The Schulte Group has acquired a majority stake in TecHullClean Ltd. (THC). Schulte said in a  press release that the acquisition will expand the range of its underwater ship inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) solutions.

Covering 14 acres, TEC Equipment’s new Mack/Volvo dealership in Fontana, CA, is designed to improve customer service and features many driver amenities.

Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …Large fleets are benefited for years from fuel and maintenance discounts. Now, smaller fleets and owner-operators are starting to reap some of those same benefits.

Industry experts detail what’s coming and how we need to get on board the “last mile” technology train.

The annual American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council annual meeting is one of those trade shows that industry professionals come away with not just knowledge, but best practices that will guide them throughout the year.

Recently, there were a couple of Facebook posts from owner-operators asking for advice on where to look for new insurance. One poster said their insurance company was dropping them because their “maintenance scores” were too high. What, they asked, did that mean?

Fullbay, a cloud-based management platform for independent truck shops, has joined the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA), formed by seasoned logistics and technology professionals who will work together on the first set of transportation and trucking blockchain standards.

International announced it has created a 24/7 center to manage customer support to help speed the time it takes to get vehicles back on the road.

Many fleets are devoting 10% of their operating budgets to maintenance, but it doesn’t have to be that high, suggests Jim Buell, EVP of sales & marketing for FleetNet America. “If you talk to most people, they think maintenance costs are like death and taxes, you can’t do anything about it,”

Blockchain is the perfect way to store maintence records, providing fleets with a complete record on everything that has happened to the vehicle from the time that it rolled off the factory floor to the time it is sold off. 

Someday real soon, vehicles will self-diagnose themselves, order the repair parts, and maybe even replace the part themselves. Vehicle maintenance is already partially of the way there. but the U.S. Marines are going a step further.