Over the past five to seven years, “Maintenance costs have been pretty flat,” says Andy Stopka, vice president of maintenance for NationaLease. However, although not direct costs of vehicle maintenance, “Technician availability has been a problem, and workers’ comp costs have gone up,” Stopka adds.
But not everyone has had the same experience regarding flat maintenance costs – especially if you look at the situation further back in time.
Here are the results of a late 1980s survey by the Technology & Maintenance Council, involving 20,000 diesel tractors having run 3.5 billion miles and accumulating 5.2 million labor hours. The results were broken down by tractor system and percentage of repair orders generated by each. The results are presented here with commentary by Oren Summer, president of FleetNet America, which cares for thousands of vehicles, run by hundreds of fleets.
The original survey found that:
However, wiring and electrical, including cranking and starting, probably ranks upward toward 10 percent, Summer believes. “Contributors to this are much higher underhood heat, excessive cranking and high loads on circuits and connectors. Batteries also are taking a beating because of the loads that are imposed on them with today’s ancillary creature comforts.”
While TMC’s survey dealt exclusively with tractors, trailers have their own unique maintenance costs, some of which have changed over the years. “Corrosion (from newer ice-melting road chemicals) is a problem that’s driving up maintenance costs,” says Tim Ifland, director of strategic sourcing for Xtra Lease. But the news isn’t all bad. For example, “LED lighting has driven down electrical service costs, while composite panels are holding up much better,” Ifland says. “Maintenance-wise, everything else is pretty flat. But anything we can do to improve damage resistance, we’re trying to do.”
No one knows the future of tractor or trailer maintenance costs. But it’s a safe bet that incremental improvements will continue to be made.
