Maintaining a truck can be a tricky affair since there is so much to keep an eye on. Keep these tips in mind in order to make maintenance a low-key and stress-free affair.
Follow Any Recommendations: Many truck drivers run into trouble because they do not follow advice and recommendations from other truckers or by those who are experienced with truck maintenance. You should be reading and studying OEM recommendations to keep up with maintenance questions and you should also closely follow a trucks maintenance schedule to ensure it keeps working properly.
Speak With The Truck’s Dealer: Dealers are a great source for maintenance information because they always are keeping tabs on the latest information pertaining to diagnostics and repairs. Speak with your truck’s dealer to get important information and then pass along the valuable intel to technicians who are working on your vehicle.
Follow Up With Workers: If maintenance is carried out by a third-party entity, make time to meet and speak with them on a regular basis to learn about their methodology and the different practices they are following. If providers are ignoring OEM recommendations, this could lead to unexpected repairs in the future and could even cost the entire fleet of trucks money.
Buy The Right Truck: One of the best ways to ensure smooth maintenance is to just buy the right vehicles from the start. Trucks that are well-equipped for the jobs they carry out can drastically slash maintenance needs and prices. There are a number of trucks of all sizes and functionalities, so take the time to research before purchase.
Bring The Drivers into The Conversation: A truck driver knows their vehicle better than anyone else, so make sure their insight and questions are brought into maintenance decisions. When drivers have a good understanding of maintenance practices and how their truck operates, they will know how to handle the vehicle better and be able to operate in a safer and more efficient manner.
Check The Electrical Components: Replacing and monitoring truck parts and fluids goes a long way towards keeping a truck well maintained, but you should also carefully study the vehicle’s electronics to keep everything running. Many of today’s trucks have a wide array of electrical components and run very complicated systems. Keeping up on maintenance pertaining to the batteries and other electrical systems is absolutely essential when it comes to keeping a truck in tip-top shape.
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Keep Stride With Any Advancements: Good maintenance means keeping up with new technologies so you can incorporate them into your schedule. Technology can also make it easier for people to understand when maintenance needs to take place. For example, new technology has given fleet managers the ability to read and respond to different fault codes that indicate potential issues. This lets them make better decisions about how to tackle maintenance problems, saving trucks from having to be out of service for a while.
Many of the new truck technologies mean that a lot of parts are relatively maintenance free. However, this does mean that you should totally ignore your truck and not do any repair work on it.
Keeping stride with maintenance standards and closely watching the parts and electrical components of a vehicle make it a lot easier to identify potential problems and fix the issue in a speedy manner. This keeps truck out on the road and keeps people on schedule, while ensuring a durable fleet that will pay off for the company.
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Courtesy of Cuselleration