Many fleet managers are overservicing their trucks, and they don’t even know it. And unfortunately, overservicing goes unnoticed because it doesn’t flag as an immediate issue, but it’s slowly burning profits. Overservicing is when you service or replace parts sooner or more frequently than the truck’s actual use and condition require. Underservicing causes breakdowns and expensive reactive repairs.
According to the Road Freight Association, diesel makes up between 35% and 55% of total operating costs. And with diesel currently sitting between R31.08 and R33.29 per litre, fleets can’t afford to waste money on truck maintenance that’s completely within their control.
Let’s take a look at the 4 reasons your fleet is burning cash by overservicing your trucks.
A service interval that’s set to a fixed date or odometer reading treats every truck exactly the same. This means that a lightly used truck gets serviced earlier than actually needed, while an overworked, idle-heavy truck gets serviced too late. Moving from the calendar to a usage-based timeline is part of preventative maintenance that prevents your fleet from leaking money.
Time-based servicing works off a set date or distance travelled. Condition-based servicing is when you schedule services based on their use and condition.
The US Department of Energy’s Operation and Maintenance Best Practices Guide has estimated that preventative strategies can save 12% to 18% over reactive ones. On top of that, predictive, condition-based programmes can save a further 8% to 12% over a programme that’s using preventative maintenance alone.
Even though these estimates are based on equipment, the logic still applies to trucks. To find out when you should be servicing your trucks, take a look at our guide to vehicle maintenance.
Idling adds engine hours without adding kilometres. Idling therefore speeds up engine wear. Research has shown that an idling heavy-duty truck consumes about 0.8 gallons (roughly 3 litres) per hour, and a typical long-haul truck in the US idles about 1,800 hours a year.
When you cut out unproductive idling, you can save on maintenance and fuel costs. Cartrack automates maintenance schedules by using utilisation hours and the last service time. This guide of ours explains exactly why tracking engine hours is important.
Replacing a part early costs more than it saves because it costs you in multiple ways. You pay for the life that's left in the part you didn’t need to replace, and then you pay again for technician time and labour. On top of that, you’re also paying for time off the road. Using this logic, we see that the longer your intervals between services, the less you ultimately pay.
Cartrack’s telematics system connects to your vehicle’s CANBUS and will send you real-time alerts for engine faults, worn brake pads, oil & water levels, and other vehicle diagnostics. This will then allow you to preempt which vehicles need servicing and avoid unnecessary part changes and unexpected breakdowns.
The invoice you receive from the workshop only shows parts and labour costs. It doesn’t tell you what it cost your business on missed work from the vehicle. To accurately calculate how much it costs you, multiply the days out of service by the daily revenue the truck would have earned, then add any substitute vehicle or subcontractor cost.
If the visit was not needed, then all of that money was a waste.
As an example, let’s say your truck earns R6,000 a day, and the substitute truck costs you R1,200 a day. This equates to a loss of R14,400 over the course of two days, and that doesn’t account for the service invoice.
Driver wages must still be paid while the vehicle sits idle, which is worse because that’s a cost with no revenue against it.
Cartrack’s system allows you to plan and schedule maintenance visits and warns drivers in advance through our app. This way the workflow isn’t disrupted, and there are no unexpected breakdowns. When a fault is detected, you're able to communicate immediately with the driver and tell them where to take the vehicle.
Poor visibility is the biggest and most common problem in fleet management. When you take your truck for an early service, it’ll prevent a breakdown, but a silent leak never gets registered as a problem. Which is why without proper service data you end up wasting money.
Remember, invoices will only record how much was spent, but they won’t tell you why each service happened.
The four maintenance metrics you should follow are:
These metrics should be reviewed monthly, because they’ll show you which trucks are overserviced or underserviced and exactly where your money is being spent. Additionally, tracking these metrics allows you to spot patterns that need to be changed.
Cartrack’s platform brings everything together on one platform to give you complete visibility of your entire fleet. With Cartrack you get:
Concord Cranes is a crane hiring company that implemented Cartrack’s system because they were struggling to accurately record the usage hours of each crane, which made maintaining them a challenge.
According to Concord Cranes operations manager Gareth Langley, Cartrack’s advanced fleet management allowed them to:
It’s time to stop overservicing your trucks so you can make your operations more profitable. Run the service-or-skip check by asking yourself these three questions first:
If you answer no to the first two questions, then you can postpone your trip to the workshop (unless it's required for warranty or legal reasons). And with Cartrack in your back pocket, you can save on maintenance costs, reduce fuel usage, extend your fleet’s lifespan and reduce downtime.
Click here to request a demo or speak to an agent if you're ready to save money and have a more efficient fleet with Cartrack as your fleet partner.
Overservicing trucks quietly drains your workshop budget. Learn 4 ways fleets overspend on maintenance and how telematics helps you service smarter.
