Service intervals

[Truck Shop]

This last Saturday the owner and I had a discussion.
A discussion came up over the service intervals since Penske took over that end of the business. The work
orders I receive have no engine hours noted on refer units and the tractors have been reset to 45,000 mile
full service intervals with only one grease job done at that time, no more short services in between.
Which made it rather tough to turn in a service cry sheet to dispatch. I have nothing to go on.

Penske sold him on oil sampling and services could be streched to 3,000 hours from the 1,000 hour interval
for refers and 45,000 mile from 30,000 mile for tractors.

I never performed oil sampling I set a interval that was reasonable, it worked. His point was Penske does it
and it works for them so it should work for him. I replied you do what you want I won't be here, won't matter.
The whole reason behind this is nothing more than cutting overhead because of fuel costs and freight rates.

But before I ended the conversation-So you now think I over serviced the equipment that's interesting.
You do realize the older the equipment gets you need to keep the intervals tighter don't you? Not the other
way around. Fact your dad set his at 40,000 and look at how many air compressors took a dump and the
crank seals on every engine in his group leak. Sure the manufacture and Penske says it's ok that is nothing
more than Kool Aid.

And to make my point-How many engines has the company lost in the last 25 years? Zero-out of 375 plus
tractors and not a one had oil samples taken. Never lost a load because a refer engine failed. The Grain Growers
who we did their service repair work had 11 trucks that racked up no less than 28,000 hours per truck and that includes
two B model Cats. Original engines never had the heads removed. Our own trucks at roughly 375 ran a total
of 187,000,500 miles and never lost a engine. You do what you want it's your equipment, I have no say so
in the matter anymore. Loose one refer engine loose the load and how many oil changes would that pay for?

This industry cost cutting thought of extending service intervals {and no matter what type of machine} is
great for parts sales, that's where the money is. The proof is in the end result, don't fix what isn't broke.

My take on servicing.

 

[Vetech63]

All cost cutting measures I have seen for 40 years is always on the PM side of the business..........after that it is usually employees. PM service has never been valued and is looked at by the bean counters as a liability and not an asset. That may never change.

 

[Newibiner]

Take care of your equipment, and it will take care of you. Otherwise better hope it’s a nice day for walking.

 

[bam1968]

Years ago a good friend of mine had @ 30 trucks running mostly the midwest states. He was anal about his trucks getting greased once a week. At the time I thought it was a little excessive but his thinking was that by doing that he would catch alot of problems before they actually happened. I realize that grease and oils are better now than they were back then but the idea of only opening the hood every 45,000 miles looks like a recipe for disaster. Just my $.02

 

[Birken Vogt]

With a program like this, a lot will depend on drivers noticing things on their daily checks. You fill in the rest of the comments about that.

 

[Nige]

How many times has it been said on here - good quality oils & filters + picking up the stuff you see while changing them is probably the most cost-effective insurance policy you can ever buy.

 

[Junkyard]

I’ve seen both methods first hand. Run to failure vs planned Maintenace. What a lot of guys don’t consider is the cost of the downtime which can be manpower, rental machines, liquidated damages….the list goes on. Once you convince somebody to get on a Maintenace program and they see what it does for their utilization and repair costs you look like a genius for doing it. Not to mention a lot of what you need for said program is cheaper in bulk anyway. But what do we know? Lol

 

[Truck Shop]

In this case selling a maintenance program on a 160 point inspection--is for people who roll
their sh!t into little balls. This high tech idea of a tech performing a service/inspection wearing
ear buds so that a computer is having a one sided conversation with said tech as he measures
tread depth and records the tread depth while talking back to said computer is nut's and a waste
of time-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------Especially when all the tires are new.

Once you convince somebody to get on a Maintenace program and they see what it does for their utilization and repair costs you look like a genius for doing it. Not to mention a lot of what you need for said program is cheaper in bulk anyway. But what do we know? Lol

 

[Birken Vogt]

I’ve seen both methods first hand. Run to failure vs planned Maintenace. What a lot of guys don’t consider is the cost of the downtime which can be manpower, rental machines, liquidated damages….the list goes on. Once you convince somebody to get on a Maintenace program and they see what it does for their utilization and repair costs you look like a genius for doing it. Not to mention a lot of what you need for said program is cheaper in bulk anyway. But what do we know? Lol

You can't sell them on the numbers between reactive and proactive mx until they have reactive mx numbers in hand. Those are yet to be developed, but it sounds like it is starting now.

TS, in a couple of weeks you won't care about any of this.

 

[Truck Shop]

That's true BV, but spend 20 years managing a shop plus lead-overseeing the repairs of
a fleet this size giving your ok on specifications for new equipment ordered. Then set in
a meeting only to have your work criticized by a puss gutted over paid corporate sack
saying you over serviced the equipment and out of touch with the business. That meeting
didn't end well.

 

[Junkyard]

Honestly it’s like a characteristic of people. Regardless of what you try to show them they do it “like dad did” or whatever. Sometimes it’s a $$ thing, at least temporarily. I’ve seen it firsthand and I wish there was a way to convey how far ahead they are to do it scheduled and don’t go too long on intervals.

TS I would have reacted the same, if I even made it to the end of the meeting.

A little now, or a lot later haha.

 

[Zewnten]

No offense TS sounds like the owner is listening to the wrong people or an idiot. Either way I know it was your baby but sounds like you got out just in time.

 

[John C.]

I can relate. I was hired to rebuild the appraisal system at the Cat dealer. I put the system together on actual numbers and to fit the philosophy of the dealership. Put predictive numbers on the boards for trades and sale prices which worked very well for about twelve years. New manager came in and wanted to triple my work load and leave me living in motels three to five nights a week. I didn't need to work in the first place and had lots of other options anyway if I did.

The real motivation on his part was to not do any trades. We parted ways and the no to all trades was put in place without saying what was going on to the sales force. Now days they decided they needed what I produced so they signed on to doing the Rouse program that they have to pay big money for.

It's hard to see something you built get thrown away just because it has the potential of making someone that doesn't know what they are doing look bad.

 

[DMiller]

I was with Feld Truck Rental as the Maintenance program there was worked to reduce three things, Downtime, Road Repairs and Lost Clients. We had Cummins Detroit and IHC Recommended hours/miles, Carrier and TK Hours guides along with trailer manufacturers and axle manufacturers recommends. We ended up on a Specified Time if low mile or Hours, Miles to use hours and Hours for severe duty machines. Can no longer remember specifics but between seven shop Shift foremen myself included, in the higher volume shops and the ability to control maintenance at sub district shops off printouts, we managed to get to a decent schedule and unless just had catastrophic failures or idiot drivers we reduced call loads and client downtimes to a minimum. All started sliding as we merged into GELCO Corp, we were a Full Service Lease Co, they a Finance Lease Company that just supplied equipment and lease clients provided maintenance. Yet again Bean Counters had to be worshipped as they Knew All, Did ALL, Been down EVERY path uphill Both Ways. Failure rates began to climb, lost several LONG Term clients to RYDER and other smaller companies before our owner thrw the gauntlet to Corporate stating we were going BACK to what KNEW worked. Three years later Mort died, Gelco sold off the Full Service lease company to Penske and no longer mattered in any form.