Transforming your service truck fleet into a more efficient operation — both in terms of time and costs — can start with shaking up routines around your work truck specifications.
Incorporating new technology and materials into your equipment might seem like a major production. But making a few changes can go a long way toward keeping your fleet competitive and a magnet for both customers and high-quality employees.
“We’re beginning to see a bigger disparity between the best-operated fleets and those that may
Chris Stranand Photography
George Survant, senior director of fleet relations, National Truck Equipment Association
be considered average,” said George Survant, senior director of fleet relations for the National Truck Equipment Association. “It’s about the ability of the fleet leaders to get the familiarization and training and exposure to a little different way of doing business.”
Survant tackled the topic in a presentation at the NTEA’s annual Work Truck Show in Indianapolis in March. His session, titled “Specification Quality: How to Ensure Fleet Performance Improvements,” explored how fleets can ease in to changes in their specifications and quickly reap the benefits.
Avoid relying on “legacy behavior”
Survant, who spent three decades leading telecom and power company fleets, said fleet operators can inadvertently hamper their success when they rely too much on the materials, products and processes that they’ve used for years.
“One of the things that’s a real anchor on the effectiveness of the fleet industry, in my opinion, is that there’s a strong reliance on legacy behavior,” he said. “And there are a host of penalties that can be directly associated with that.”
Survant said the first step is to broadly evaluate what’s new, whether you’re looking to lighten the load on your trucks, cut fuel costs or just make the job “faster, safer and cleaner for the technician doing the work or the general public.”
Fleet operators who might have considered — and dismissed — the idea of using new materials a decade ago may want to think again, Survant said.
“Tried and true solutions, like taking permanent weight off the truck, is even more important today than it was 15 years ago when people talked about it all the time,” he said. “That’s simply because the materials available are so much better.”
An example: aluminum alloys that were once soft and less durable than more traditional options have gotten tougher, more damage-resistant and easier to repair.
Fiberglass bodies were once mounted on a heavy, marine-grade plywood base that made them heavier than steel — which provided little incentive for fleets searching for an alternative product. Today fiberglass is lighter, making it a viable option, he said.
And no matter what materials are used, vehicles used in the industry are getting safer, both for the driver and for others on the road.
Industry has learned lessons
“We really didn’t as an industry do a very good job of building safe vehicles 35 years ago,” he said. “If you look at a modern vehicle, there’s no protruding knobs, it’s all flat and flush, and that’s the result of the industry learning several difficult lessons about what happens to a human being in a colliding car.”
Meanwhile, outfitting a fleet is becoming less of a one-size-fits-all job. Survant said fleet managers used to have to make broad decisions, like fully running on gasoline or diesel. Now, it’s more of a question of specific needs for specific tasks. Perhaps a few vehicles that have to spend more time idling could use backup electrical power. On the other hand, service trucks headed for rural, remote areas probably need a different fuel source.
Other improvements require less planning and decision making on the fleet operators’ end. Survant said efficiency upgrades like LED bulbs are now becoming standard, which are helping to cut down on how frequently technicians have to make repairs or order replacements.
“At the end of the day, your best and brightest fleet managers are focused on making the fleet more efficient and improving reliability,” Survant said. “There’s no cheaper fleet to operate than one that’s highly reliable.”
Budgeting made easier
Greater reliability can also come from spending a little more time with spreadsheets. In a separate session at the Work Truck Show, Survant focused on fleet budgeting — and all the technology that’s making it an easier task.
Many of the technology updates for service and other fleet vehicles have included equipment that can track performance and safety measures — ranging from speed and braking patterns to fuel efficiency. From a budgeting standpoint, gathering and sorting that information can be a clear way to see what’s working and what’s not.
“If your data collection is sufficiently diligent, you can build really good models that allow for very, very effective forecasts,” Survant said.
Those forecasts can help build future budgets and also give fleet managers a better sense of how quickly their vehicles are wearing out, or which aspects of the business are in need of some extra attention.
“The real ‘a-ha moments’ are the ones when you find something you didn’t expect,” Survant said. “And then you’re 80 percent closer to finding a solution.”
— Erin Golden
Erin Golden is a journalist based in Minnesota.