Ross Froat, manager of engineering & IT programs for ATA, is tasked with resurrecting the Fleet Maintenance Management Cost per Mile Standardization RP. Monday’s meeting at the TMC Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., was the first for the reinvigorated task force, and was designed to seek input from attendees on how to develop a formula that could be used to drive accurate calculations, helping fleets manage and decrease costs while maintaining a safe environment.
A TMC task force developed RP529 in 2004, but abandoned it with missing metrics, KPIs and equation solutions.
In the new RP, once approved, total maintenance cost metrics would be established using formulas fleets could use to easily calculate their costs per mile.
Total maintenance costs would be equal to direct costs + indirect costs, while a total maintenance cost per mile would equal total maintenance costs divided by total route miles. Total operations cost per mile would be equal to (Fixed costs/expected mileage) + (variable costs/actual mileage).
Repair types for accident, vandalism, abuse or natural causes wouldn’t be factored in as a maintenance cost.
“There is a difference in maintenance costs and costs to maintain,” Froat said.
Variable costs include fuel and maintenance, and fixed costs include purchase or lease payments and insurances.
Not yet approved as an RP, Froat said he hoped to use feedback from the meeting to make sure the proposed calculations would provide accurate data to fleets who elect to use them.
“We’re offering a universal method for a small fleet that may not even know how to do it, or may or may not even have time to do it,” Froat adds. “And to benchmark with fleets comparing with other fleets using this method.”
