Tires are a crucial element in any vehicle fleet. Improper maintenance can lead to dangerous conditions for drivers, along with costly delays to operations. Deferring adequate maintenance and replacement may save money in the short-term, but failures on the road will always be more expensive than a routine maintenance schedule.
If you're in the process of developing or revising your fleet's tire maintenance plan, then these three tips will help to ensure you deal with problems long before they leave a driver stuck on the side of the road.
1. Understand the Difference Between Passive and Active Maintenance Plans
Passive maintenance plans rely on reacting to adverse events rather than taking a proactive approach to maintenance. While all fleets conduct at least some preventative and routine maintenance, not every plan includes sufficient considerations for tires. Active programs focus on finding problems and repairing them before they become an issue on the road.
Although there's no one-size-fits-all approach for every fleet, good active plans should include routine tire inspections along with strict requirements for retreads or replacements. Additionally, consider including daily driver inspection reports. If your drivers inspect their vehicle's tires before beginning work for the day, problems are less likely to go unnoticed between more thorough inspections.
2. Use Detailed Tracking Methods
Can you determine when the last tire rotation, replacement, or retread was for any vehicle in your fleet? If not, then you're likely not maintaining adequate maintenance records for this critical safety component. In addition to a proactive approach to inspections, you should maintain logs that track tire usage by both time and miles driven.
This data serves two critical functions: it allows you to plan for maintenance more effectively, and it helps you understand your long-term expenses. By recognizing how long your fleet's tires typically last between replacements, you'll be able to plan your expenditures accordingly. Good data tracking can also help you spot maintenance issues that will allow you to extend your tires' life.
3. Improve and Adapt
Once you have a maintenance plan and data tracking methods in place, don't be afraid to improve and adapt your maintenance schedule with experience. Routine inspections should provide you with enough information to determine if your current approach needs revision. If you find tires wearing more quickly than expected, for example, then you may need to examine policies such as tire pressure levels.
Although your drivers and repair crews should follow your fleet maintenance plan as strictly as possible, you should always be willing to make adjustments based on their feedback. By using an active approach and adjusting it based on experience in the field, you'll be able to ensure that your fleet's tires remain safe and reliable for as long as possible.
For help with tire maintenance, contact a local auto service.
Share30 December 2020
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