3 Tips For Preventing Common Trucking Breakdowns For Your Peterbilt Truck

3 Tips For Preventing Common Trucking Breakdowns For Your Peterbilt Truck

It is common knowledge that Peterbilt truck breakdowns are costly. For most fleet managers, lowering the costs of breakdowns is a top concern. Looking at hidden breakdown costs, the amount of breakdowns/unscheduled service events, and the cost of breakdowns is a good place to start.

You may believe you know all the costs associated with a Peterbilt truck breakdown, but you are likely neglecting some significant fees. Price of rental/safety stock, lower driver productivity, overtime pay, towing charges, customer delivery penalties and lost warranty recovery chances should all be considered. The ideas below will help you decrease the frequency and severity of Peterbilt truck failures and their cost.

1. Stick to well-defined maintenance programs 

The most significant line of protection against Peterbilt truck breakdowns is a good PM program. You'll always know when it's time for each vehicle’s essential PM if you set up automatic maintenance alerts and notifications. Based on your application, including the OEM's suggested PM intervals, which may include calendar time, engine hours, or miles. 

When it comes to maintenance, keep in mind that more frequent PM periods may be necessary if your assets have long duty cycles.. Try to avoid depending  on spreadsheets or manual data changes to determine if PMs have been performed. An automated system notifies you when a planned PM is due and monitors the completion of that PM service. If you want to postpone a scheduled maintenance event, your system should record it as a pending operation, alerting you that the work is still required.

2. When feasible, bundle service events

At the point of service for each truck, you should be able to rapidly identify PMs that are due or coming due, deferred/pending operations, and outstanding service and recalls during any planned or unscheduled service events. Completing all necessary services while a vehicle is in the shop is preferred because it means that the truck's overall downtime will be decreased. 

3. Don't put off maintenance indefinitely

While some fleets may feel compelled to put off maintenance at certain times,  postponing maintenance eventually leads to more expensive vehicle failures. While waiting for maintenance may make the figures appear favorable for the month or quarter in question, breakdowns, in the long run, wipe out any benefits caused by delayed maintenance.

Final words 

Organized preventative maintenance programs and data are important when evaluating the cost of your Peterbilt truck.  You can use findings from previous maintenance service to help identify recurring issues and even forecast potential future failures. With this information, you’ll be more likely to prevent surprise breakdowns in your Peterbilt truck. . Examine your most recent Peterbilt truck breakdowns to see the hidden expenses  and what you're currently doing to decrease breakdown frequency. Use the tips above to help you keep your breakdown expenses under control. It will allow you to stay away from expensive Peterbilt truck maintenance fees. 

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