The difference between two PM programs
Two fleets of twelve trucks each sign up for preventive maintenance. Both get oil changes on a schedule. Both get an invoice with a fleet logo on it.
A year later, one fleet’s trucks are still going down between services: a brake chamber on a Tuesday, a dead alternator on a Thursday, a DOT write-up for a light. The other fleet’s downtime number went down, because every one of those was caught on the PM before it took the truck off the road.
The oil change was not the difference. The difference was whether the PM was an inspection with a findings list, whether the annual was on the same calendar, and whether anybody closed out the driver’s write-ups from last week.
How the program is built
Intervals by unit, not one interval for the fleet
A Class 8 tractor running regional and a Class 5 box truck running city stops do not want the same interval. Each unit gets a PM interval set from the OEM schedule and its duty cycle, and the annual 49 CFR 396.17 inspection due date is loaded on the same calendar so it is done with the PM instead of becoming its own downtime event.
Fleets with units in rotation get a standing day. The units come in, or the service truck comes to the yard, on that day, every cycle.
The PM is an inspection with a list
Each PM covers the items a roadside officer looks at and the ones that take trucks down between services: air build and leak-down, brake stroke and lining, tires and duals, lights and tape, steering and suspension, coupling, batteries under load, open fault codes and the DPF soot trend. The driver vehicle inspection report items from the last cycle are pulled and closed out, because 49 CFR 396.11 says they have to be and because an open DVIR item is the next breakdown.
You get a findings list per unit, with what each item takes, before any repair starts. You decide what is done now and what is scheduled. Nothing is added to the bill without a yes.
Records the way the FMCSA wants them
49 CFR 396.3 requires a maintenance record by unit, kept one year while the vehicle is in service and six months after. We keep it in that form: the PM dates and items, the annual inspection reports, and the repair history. An audit is a file, not a scramble.
Yard service from the service truck
During shop hours, in the Toledo area, the service truck does PM and light repair at your lot on the standing day. The units never leave. What needs the bay, which is alignment, engine, transmission and anything on a lift, comes to the shop, and the trailer can stay in service while the tractor is here.
One bill, one contact
Consolidated billing across units, net terms on approval, and one person at the shop who knows your trucks and your calendar. Call for the current rate; we go through it with the unit count in front of us, and the number you are quoted is the number you pay.
What the shop has behind it
- Four ASE certified technicians, Cummins certified, International certified
- Certified NAPA Truck Care Center, NAPA parts on the shelf, NAPA nationwide warranty on repairs for units that run out of state
- Qualified DOT inspector on staff for the annual inspection
- Hunter HawkEye XL heavy-duty alignment, which reads three axles at once and is where a fleet’s tire bill usually gets fixed
- CARB Clean Truck Check testing for units that run California
- Class 4 through Class 8, trucks and trailers, Freightliner, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Volvo, International, Mack, Western Star and Hino
- 4.7 Google rating across 40 reviews
The campus
The shop is one part of Sam’s Hub at 820 Matzinger Rd in north Toledo, a mile off I-75 exit 207 (Stickney Ave), close to I-280 and the Michigan line. Sam’s Parking & Storage is on the same campus for secure truck parking and trailer staging, Sam’s Travel Center for fuel, and Sam’s 3PL Solutions for cross-dock and warehouse support. A fleet that parks here has its PM, its parking and its fuel in one place, and a unit due for service does not spend an hour driving to the shop.
Fleets in Perrysburg, Maumee, Northwood, Oregon, Sylvania, Bowling Green, Findlay and Monroe, Michigan are a short run on I-75, I-280 or US-23, and the service truck covers the Toledo area yards.
What it is worth
We do not print a savings figure, because the honest number is yours, not ours: the hours a unit was down last year between services, times what that unit earns in an hour. The program exists to take hours off that number. Caught on a PM, a brake chamber is an hour in the bay. Caught on the Turnpike, it is a tow, a day, and the load.
Start with a conversation
Call (419) 724-2475 during shop hours, Monday to Friday 8 to 5, or send the request form with the unit count and where the trucks park. We walk the fleet, set the intervals and the calendar, and the first PM day is usually within the week.