1. Fleet Management by Tom Borman
Preventive maintenance program (PM)
Equipment chargeback rates
Tracking of equipment operating costs
Repair and diagnosis of equipment
Training of technicians
Measure fleet availability & downtime
Statutory and regulated inspections
Utilization tracking
Technician productivity
Parts inventory management

2. Preventive Maintenance Program (PM)
Mileage or hour limit
Month limit
Follow anufacturer’s recommendations
Technicians trained in detailed procedures
Quality parts and materials
Not all equipment and vehicles follow the same limits. Most vehicles use miles and months but most equipment follow hour limits. Need to know how a vehicle is operated. Street light maintenance trucks travel to the job site and operate for hours at high idle to operate the hydraulics. Therefore they have low miles on the odometer but high hours of operation and should be tracked by an hour meter and PMs performed at hour intervals.
Use SAE rated oils and lubricants. Follow manufactures recommendations

3. Equipment Chargeback Rates
Review annually
Must recover your actual operating cost fully burdened
Includes overhead and fuel cost

4. Tracking of Equipment Operating Costs
Computer software to keep track of the costs
Must manage and audit data entry to insure accurate data
Meter reading most important
There are several programs that do Fleet tracking very well. Fleet Anywhere, Maximus and CCG Faster to name a few.
The meter reading is gathered through the fuel card lock program and also when a work order is written for PMs or repairs. Meter entry is always the hardest to keep accurate. Many drivers don’t think that it is important so they are careless about entering the meter when fueling. I have to audit and edit the fuel transaction import each month. I’ll spend 3 to 4 hours reviewing the data and making changes before processing into the Fleet software.

5. Repair and Diagnosis of Equipment
Qualified technicians
ASE Certification
Strong basic training
Quality diagnostic testing equipment
Updated versions of cartridges
Shop manuals/electronic shop manuals
Qualified technicians are becoming very hard to find. Fewer students see this as a career path.
ASE certification demonstrates technicians knowledge of subject matter. Not a guarantee of quality work.
Shop Key and Mitchell on Demand are the popular electronic shop manuals. More manufactures are providing access to the factory manuals online.

6. Training of Technicians
Technology is moving faster every year
Technicians need to keep up with technology
Manufacturer’s training limited
Specialized training companies
As they say there is more computer power in the new vehicles then there was on the Mercury space craft. The traditional technician learned the basics on non-computerized cars and trucks.
Manufactures are starting to come around again and allowing non-dealer technicians into their training centers.
There are specialized training companies that will come to your facility to provide training.

7. Measure Fleet Availability & Downtime
How long does it take you to get a vehicle in the shop?
How long are you waiting for parts?
Do you need more technicians?
Do you need a bigger shop?
Do you need special equipment?
These are all questions that need to be answered to run a cost effective shop. Accurate downtime also allows you to forecast how much work you can accomplish in a year. You cannot plan to sweep the streets everyday due to the time you’ll need to maintain and repair the street sweepers.

8. Statutory and Regulated Inspections
Smog Inspections (annually)
BIT Inspections (every 90 days)
Diesel Opacity Testing (annually)
Diesel Particulate Filter Maintenance (annually)
Compressed Natural Gas Tank Inspections (45 day and 3 Years)
Government fleets are not exempt from these regulations and inspections. Detailed records must be maintained and kept on site for specific time periods.
These regulations and inspections are spelled out in both Federal and State regulations you must be aware of what is required.

9. Utilization Tracking
How many of your vehicles are used on a regular basis?
Do you have a policy for usage limits?
How do you track usage?
Vehicles can be tracked by miles driven or by hours used.
You should have an established policy stating how many hours/miles a vehicle is driven to make it cost effective. If a vehicle is not used enough it needs to be removed from the fleet or shifted to a new user that will operate the vehicle within the policy guidelines.
Some specialized equipment or vehicles will be required that won’t fit the policy. Such as Search and Rescue units, seasonal equipment (snow plow).

10. Technician Productivity
Are you scheduling correctly?
Needed to evaluate training needs of your staff.
Do you need new testing equipment?
Very difficult in a government fleet due to the diverse equipment in the fleet. Usually you have a variety of manufactures making up the fleet.

11. Parts Inventory Management
Know the value of your inventory
How fast is it turning over?
How much do you need on the shelves
Is there excessive downtime due to parts not stocked?
Are they being posted to the work orders?
Parts inventories are expensive to maintain. Normal dollar values are $125,000 to $200,000. You need to make sure you have the right stock so that you turn over the stock every 3 months on average.

12. Business Plan A resume for your operation
Helps market your operation to the decision makers.
Helps you evaluate how your operation is working.
Facilitates strategic thinking and goal setting
Provides an unbiased perspective on how well your operation is meeting its goals.

13. Business Plan (cont) Vision and mission statement
What services fleet provides
Summarize how you do business
Key performance measures and trends toward meeting targets
Provide a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to assess where fleet is and where it’s headed. (
is a website that defines SWOT analysis.

14. Service Level Agreements
Identifies parties involved
Set forth the purpose of a service agreement
State the agreement between parties
Identify administrator and program activators
Term of the agreement and how to renew

15. Service Level Agreements
Failure to perform conditions
Termination clause
Hours of service
Define fees
List locations of shops
Outline areas of responsibility for provider, customer and safety.

16. Replacement, Specifications and Procurement
Determine what units need replacement
Consult with the customer about the use of the vehicle to establish accurate specifications
Develop bid specifications
Work with purchasing to award bid
We use a number rating system that assigns a point value to age, type, condition, usage and total meter.
This rating system has a set guideline for keeping, reviewing and replace now. Budget conditions have always overridden this system.

17. Replacement, Specifications and Procurement