Study Explores Maintenance and Equipment Buying at Fleets
When it comes to maintenance practices and equipment replacement cycles, there are some fairly significant differences between large fleets and small fleets, according to a recent study undertaken by FTR and CK Commercial Vehicle Research.
The study took survey information gathered from fleets canvassed by CKCVR, and overlaid it with FTR data and analysis. That combination makes this report unique, according to the authors.
“Most of the information you see in this area doesn’t get down to the fleet level, to asking the fleets exactly what they’re doing,” explained Don Ake with FTR.
The 30-page report gives a close look at the activity that drives equipment replacement and parts purchases, such as vehicle age, typical trade cycles, miles driven per year, and preventive maintenance intervals.
One of the significant findings, although not necessarily surprising, was that the average Class 8 vehicle age differs significantly between small, medium and large fleets. For small fleets (fewer than 100 trucks), the average age of Class 8 vehicles was 5 years, while large fleets (1,000 trucks or more) reported an average of 2.7 years.
“The one thing I saw was how long some of the small fleets run their equipment,” Ake said in response to a question about anything in the survey that was a surprise. “They run it for a long time, and that’s consistent with some of the trends we’ve seen lately. In this economic recovery, because it hasn’t been robust, small fleets [aren’t] making a lot of money. They’re profitable but not making the amount of money they want, so they will tend to put off new expenditures, or even replacing their equipment with used equipment. They will run their equipment a very long time and use the money they have to repair it rather than replace it, and over time that leads to more maintenance …Read the rest of this story
