Reality Check: Small Business Fleet Difficulties
Why most small fleets struggle with breakdowns, scheduling stress, surprise costs – and how to break out of that cycle.
If your people are the lifeblood of your company, then your fleet is the backbone of your operations. Those vehicles support everything your people do: they get them to the jobsite, they carry the materials and tools for the job, they show the customer your brand image. And when they break down and your people don’t show up on time…
It’s not your fault. The problem is that the model you were told to follow wasn’t designed for your situation. It’s a good system, just not for a business like yours. Whether you’re doing HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door repair, pest control, construction, or deliveries, your company vehicles get used (and sometimes abused) in different ways.
As a small business, your people care about your company more than if they were driving a rental car or working for a huge corporation. They aren’t hurting your fleet on purpose, it’s normal wear and tear in the work environment your customers need them in. But that working environment is NOT what the vehicle manufacturers call “normal service”. And this is one of the first places that many small fleets get misdirected.
Why are my vans always in the shop when I need them most?
Preventative Maintenance
Mistake #1: Using the Wrong Schedule
Go out to one of your trucks or vans and look in the glove box. Find the maintenance schedule, and look for an asterisk or go to the bottom of the maintenance table and look at the fine print. Look for their definition of “severe duty” and see what it says. Many people put their personal cars into the severe duty category during normal daily use without even realizing it. I guarantee you that your fleet vehicles qualify for severe duty. Here are a few common things manufacturers list as severe duty qualifiers:
- Frequent short trips
- Idling for extended periods
- Towing or carrying heavy loads
Sound familiar? So, here’s the problem. The standard schedule might say to change the oil every 5,000 (or even 10,000) miles. But if your people are idling while loading/unloading materials, getting stuck in traffic, and going from house to house or supplier to supplier, the oil wears out faster than if they were doing purely highway miles on long trips. Oil gets acidic as it wears out. The additives in modern oil start to break down. Its lubrication properties change. In short, its ability to lubricate and protect your engine starts to degrade. All of this happens faster when you are in the “severe duty” category.
And it’s not just oil changes. The same concept should be applied to all fluids, brake pads, suspension components – nearly all wearable parts on a vehicle wear out faster on fleet vehicles.
Mistake #2: Choosing “Quick Lube” Oil Change Centers
These quick-service oil change centers exist for a reason. They’re convenient, and they’re cheap (or at least they used to be). Some of them even perform other basic services beyond oil changes, which adds to the convenience. But there is a hidden risk that is costing you more than you realize.
Think about dentists. Common practice is to get your teeth cleaned every year along with a dental exam and x-rays. If you go to a different dentist every year, they might tell you your teeth look great but there’s a tiny spot we should watch in case it turns into a cavity. They might note that you have a crown that may need to be replaced soon. They may say you’re doing a good (or bad) job brushing and flossing. But what are they basing that on?
But if you go to the same dentist every year, they know that crown hasn’t gotten any worse since last year and doesn’t need to be addressed right now. They know that tiny spot on your x-ray is new and you should get a filling today rather than brushing it off as normal compared to their other patients.
It’s the same with cars and trucks as it is with dentists and doctors. You need to build history with a single shop that sees your vehicle every time the car needs service. Maybe the oil change is $20 more expensive. But having an experienced technician evaluate the condition of the vehicle while changing the oil can be priceless. Especially when that’s the same technician who replaced the brakes last month and the ball joints last year. And if he’s on vacation during your next visit, the shop has all of his notes about your vehicle in their shop management system, including pictures, part numbers, and warranty information.
You may feel like it’s better to just stop into a big brand lube center whenever it’s convenient for your drivers. And it does save your people time and keep them on the road and serving customers…at first. But what happens is that you get entry-level kids doing a “spill and fill” without a full evaluation of your truck. After a few cycles of this, the unnoticed problems turn into vibrations, noises, shudders, warning lights, and eventual failures.
I’m glad those places exist. It’s a good first job, like flipping burgers at McDonald’s. Just understand the level of service you should expect there. We all know that McDonald’s is not good for us. It’s a convenient place to pop in and grab a bite when you’re in a pinch, but going regularly is bad for your health.
Increase Uptime with a Better Schedule
You can shift the lost time from unexpected breakdowns to pre-planned service visits. Maybe that’s a 1 for 1 swap and doesn’t actually save you any time, but it does give you predictability. And it gives your customers a reliable service provider.
Every manufacturer lists recommended intervals for each maintenance and inspection item in both TIME and MILEAGE, and for standard and severe duty. That can get confusing if you have more than one model in your fleet, and even the same make and model can have different intervals for different model years. Here’s a simple way to think about it:
- Every fleet vehicle should be in the shop every 3 months.
- A professional shop’s fleet program will tell you what is needed.
Finding a shop that deserves that level of trust can be a challenge, but it is worth the effort. Once you better understand your maintenance reality, choosing the right shop becomes much easier.
Vehicle Rotation Schedule for Reliability
The concept is that you want to rotate your vehicles through their proper maintenance cycles in a predictable way – so you know when they will be out of service rather than being surprised by breakdowns. The size of your fleet is going to dictate much of this, so the final answer will vary from business to business, but here are a couple of examples.
12-15 Vehicles: A Comfortable Schedule for Small Fleets
A fleet of 12 vehicles should plan to have a unit in the shop every 1-2 weeks for the most reliable avoidance of preventable breakdowns. 3 months is roughly 12 weeks, so rotating your vehicles into the shop weekly provides a comfortable buffer to ease pressure on your drivers’ schedules as well as give the shop time to complete maintenance and service on even the most robust preventative maintenance plans. It also provides time for parts delivery should any problems be found that require special order parts. Many fleets of this size have an unassigned vehicle that drivers use while their assigned vehicle is in the shop. This keeps customers served on time, employees fully engaged, and your revenue remains steady during repairs.
If weekly visits are not feasible for your business model, a 12-vehicle fleet can stretch this to a biweekly rotation if needed. Rotating 12 vehicles through every other week in each 3-month period leaves less wiggle room for pickup and drop off or major repair work, but it can still be effective to prevent most foreseeable breakdowns.
Micro-Fleets: 6-7 Vehicles
With only 6 vehicles, your fleet can rotate through the shop every 2 weeks very comfortably. You’ll follow the 12-vehicle model in the prior section, but you’ll always be able to skip a week between visits to the shop.
Plan for Bad, Enjoy the Good
You’ll want to plan for each truck to be out of service for the full week for maximum stability in your schedule. Plan to drop off on a Sunday night or Monday morning and pick up on Friday. Important note! You should have the vehicle back much sooner in most cases, but planning for the full week is how you ensure minimal disruption to your customers. For vehicles that are on a dedicated and consistent preventative maintenance plan and have scheduled appointments, most visits can be completed in a single day. (Some heavy duty and specialty vehicles can take up to 2 days at certain intervals.) Scheduling the full week ensures that all required maintenance can be performed along with any unexpected services or repairs. For example, maybe one of your drivers hit a pothole and damaged some suspension components. Depending on the model and which components are damaged, this could easily add half a day (plus parts delivery).
Do you have to take the vehicle out of service for the whole week? No. With consistent preventative maintenance, unexpected repairs will be uncommon and visits to the shop can be brief. But once you get used to the predictability that these weekly rotations bring, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
Why it Works
Creating a predictable rotation like this allows small and micro-sized fleets to mimic the better margins that medium sized fleets of 50 vehicles enjoy. Better planning and a maintenance schedule focused on preventing breakdowns rather than just completing a checklist keeps your drivers on the road and serving customers rather than stranded and waiting for tow trucks. It ensures that the small problems are caught while still small instead of growing quietly until they cause a major failure.
Summary
If this raised questions, that’s normal. There are many ways to handle fleet vehicle servicing, and you probably didn’t take a class on the subject. Some owners find a brief call can be helpful to clarify their priorities.
If you manage a small fleet and this raises questions, feel free to message me on LinkedIn. Or if you prefer, you can also reach out through the Elite Automotive Repair page.
CAR CARE TIPS BLOG
Why most small fleets struggle with breakdowns, scheduling stress, surprise costs – and how to break out of that cycle.
If your people are the lifeblood of your company, then your fleet is the backbone of your operations. Those vehicles support everything your people do: they get them to the jobsite, they carry the materials and tools for the job, they show the customer your brand image. And when they break down and your people don’t show up on time…
It’s not your fault. The problem is that the model you were told to follow wasn’t designed for your situation. It’s a good system, just not for a business like yours. Whether you’re doing HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door repair, pest control, construction, or deliveries, your company vehicles get used (and sometimes abused) in different ways.
As a small business, your people care about your company more than if they were driving a rental car or working for a huge corporation. They aren’t hurting your fleet on purpose, it’s normal wear and tear in the work environment your customers need them in. But that working environment is NOT what the vehicle manufacturers call “normal service”. And this is one of the first places that many small fleets get misdirected.
Why are my vans always in the shop when I need them most?
Preventative Maintenance
Mistake #1: Using the Wrong Schedule
Go out to one of your trucks or vans and look in the glove box. Find the maintenance schedule, and look for an asterisk or go to the bottom of the maintenance table and look at the fine print. Look for their definition of “severe duty” and see what it says. Many people put their personal cars into the severe duty category during normal daily use without even realizing it. I guarantee you that your fleet vehicles qualify for severe duty. Here are a few common things manufacturers list as severe duty qualifiers:
- Frequent short trips
- Idling for extended periods
- Towing or carrying heavy loads
Sound familiar? So, here’s the problem. The standard schedule might say to change the oil every 5,000 (or even 10,000) miles. But if your people are idling while loading/unloading materials, getting stuck in traffic, and going from house to house or supplier to supplier, the oil wears out faster than if they were doing purely highway miles on long trips. Oil gets acidic as it wears out. The additives in modern oil start to break down. Its lubrication properties change. In short, its ability to lubricate and protect your engine starts to degrade. All of this happens faster when you are in the “severe duty” category.
And it’s not just oil changes. The same concept should be applied to all fluids, brake pads, suspension components – nearly all wearable parts on a vehicle wear out faster on fleet vehicles.
Mistake #2: Choosing “Quick Lube” Oil Change Centers
These quick-service oil change centers exist for a reason. They’re convenient, and they’re cheap (or at least they used to be). Some of them even perform other basic services beyond oil changes, which adds to the convenience. But there is a hidden risk that is costing you more than you realize.
Think about dentists. Common practice is to get your teeth cleaned every year along with a dental exam and x-rays. If you go to a different dentist every year, they might tell you your teeth look great but there’s a tiny spot we should watch in case it turns into a cavity. They might note that you have a crown that may need to be replaced soon. They may say you’re doing a good (or bad) job brushing and flossing. But what are they basing that on?
But if you go to the same dentist every year, they know that crown hasn’t gotten any worse since last year and doesn’t need to be addressed right now. They know that tiny spot on your x-ray is new and you should get a filling today rather than brushing it off as normal compared to their other patients.
It’s the same with cars and trucks as it is with dentists and doctors. You need to build history with a single shop that sees your vehicle every time the car needs service. Maybe the oil change is $20 more expensive. But having an experienced technician evaluate the condition of the vehicle while changing the oil can be priceless. Especially when that’s the same technician who replaced the brakes last month and the ball joints last year. And if he’s on vacation during your next visit, the shop has all of his notes about your vehicle in their shop management system, including pictures, part numbers, and warranty information.
You may feel like it’s better to just stop into a big brand lube center whenever it’s convenient for your drivers. And it does save your people time and keep them on the road and serving customers…at first. But what happens is that you get entry-level kids doing a “spill and fill” without a full evaluation of your truck. After a few cycles of this, the unnoticed problems turn into vibrations, noises, shudders, warning lights, and eventual failures.
I’m glad those places exist. It’s a good first job, like flipping burgers at McDonald’s. Just understand the level of service you should expect there. We all know that McDonald’s is not good for us. It’s a convenient place to pop in and grab a bite when you’re in a pinch, but going regularly is bad for your health.
Increase Uptime with a Better Schedule
You can shift the lost time from unexpected breakdowns to pre-planned service visits. Maybe that’s a 1 for 1 swap and doesn’t actually save you any time, but it does give you predictability. And it gives your customers a reliable service provider.
Every manufacturer lists recommended intervals for each maintenance and inspection item in both TIME and MILEAGE, and for standard and severe duty. That can get confusing if you have more than one model in your fleet, and even the same make and model can have different intervals for different model years. Here’s a simple way to think about it:
- Every fleet vehicle should be in the shop every 3 months.
- A professional shop’s fleet program will tell you what is needed.
Finding a shop that deserves that level of trust can be a challenge, but it is worth the effort. Once you better understand your maintenance reality, choosing the right shop becomes much easier.
Vehicle Rotation Schedule for Reliability
The concept is that you want to rotate your vehicles through their proper maintenance cycles in a predictable way – so you know when they will be out of service rather than being surprised by breakdowns. The size of your fleet is going to dictate much of this, so the final answer will vary from business to business, but here are a couple of examples.
12-15 Vehicles: A Comfortable Schedule for Small Fleets
A fleet of 12 vehicles should plan to have a unit in the shop every 1-2 weeks for the most reliable avoidance of preventable breakdowns. 3 months is roughly 12 weeks, so rotating your vehicles into the shop weekly provides a comfortable buffer to ease pressure on your drivers’ schedules as well as give the shop time to complete maintenance and service on even the most robust preventative maintenance plans. It also provides time for parts delivery should any problems be found that require special order parts. Many fleets of this size have an unassigned vehicle that drivers use while their assigned vehicle is in the shop. This keeps customers served on time, employees fully engaged, and your revenue remains steady during repairs.
If weekly visits are not feasible for your business model, a 12-vehicle fleet can stretch this to a biweekly rotation if needed. Rotating 12 vehicles through every other week in each 3-month period leaves less wiggle room for pickup and drop off or major repair work, but it can still be effective to prevent most foreseeable breakdowns.
Micro-Fleets: 6-7 Vehicles
With only 6 vehicles, your fleet can rotate through the shop every 2 weeks very comfortably. You’ll follow the 12-vehicle model in the prior section, but you’ll always be able to skip a week between visits to the shop.
Plan for Bad, Enjoy the Good
You’ll want to plan for each truck to be out of service for the full week for maximum stability in your schedule. Plan to drop off on a Sunday night or Monday morning and pick up on Friday. Important note! You should have the vehicle back much sooner in most cases, but planning for the full week is how you ensure minimal disruption to your customers. For vehicles that are on a dedicated and consistent preventative maintenance plan and have scheduled appointments, most visits can be completed in a single day. (Some heavy duty and specialty vehicles can take up to 2 days at certain intervals.) Scheduling the full week ensures that all required maintenance can be performed along with any unexpected services or repairs. For example, maybe one of your drivers hit a pothole and damaged some suspension components. Depending on the model and which components are damaged, this could easily add half a day (plus parts delivery).
Do you have to take the vehicle out of service for the whole week? No. With consistent preventative maintenance, unexpected repairs will be uncommon and visits to the shop can be brief. But once you get used to the predictability that these weekly rotations bring, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
Why it Works
Creating a predictable rotation like this allows small and micro-sized fleets to mimic the better margins that medium sized fleets of 50 vehicles enjoy. Better planning and a maintenance schedule focused on preventing breakdowns rather than just completing a checklist keeps your drivers on the road and serving customers rather than stranded and waiting for tow trucks. It ensures that the small problems are caught while still small instead of growing quietly until they cause a major failure.
Summary
If this raised questions, that’s normal. There are many ways to handle fleet vehicle servicing, and you probably didn’t take a class on the subject. Some owners find a brief call can be helpful to clarify their priorities.
If you manage a small fleet and this raises questions, feel free to message me on LinkedIn. Or if you prefer, you can also reach out through the Elite Automotive Repair page.
