What Metrics You Should Use to Measure Your Fleet’s Success

What Metrics You Should Use to Measure Your Fleet’s Success

You have a plethora of fleet data and metrics available to you each day. Trying to track all of them can be overwhelming – and might not even be beneficial.

So, what metrics should you be tracking to really measure your fleet’s success? We tackled this question in a recent episode of “The Fleet Success Show” podcast.

Take a look at three key performance indicators (KPIs) our hosts RTA CEO Josh Turley, fleet Hall of Famer Steve Saltzgiver, and former trucking executive Jeff Jenkins discussed.

Scheduled vs Unscheduled Maintenance

Tracking your shop’s scheduled versus unscheduled maintenance is important because it shows how proactive you are being instead of reactive – which can lead to cost savings.

Saltzgiver recommends aiming to have 60- to 75% of your maintenance scheduled. If you can achieve this benchmark, it means that you’re running a solid preventative maintenance shop — you’re bringing vehicles in for service before they’re being brought in by drivers.

This will save your operation money. It saves on road calls, parts, towing, and other expenses you can incur during an unexpected breakdown.

Learn about what expenses are tied to road calls when you listen to the full episode.

Maintenance Cost Per Mile

Another way to measure your fleet’s success is to monitor its maintenance costs per mile. Jenkins said a good-performing fleet will spend about $0.09 to $0.12 cents per mile on maintenance.

Your company might not hit this mark – or come close to it.

“One company I worked at, our costs were around $0.70 per mile,” Jenkins said.

Knowing these costs is important so you can look more closely at your P&L statements and determine where you need to make changes.

It can also help you decide when to replace fleet vehicles. As the maintenance costs increase, it can raise flags that the asset is too costly to keep in your fleet. Jenkins said some operations opt to replace vehicles after the 3-year, 300,000-mile mark when warranties expire.

“Your costs have the potential to go through the roof as soon as your vehicles are out of warranty,” Jenkins said.

At this point, it can be more cost-effective to replace the vehicle.

“I’ve always said, there’s no accident in how the length of a warranty is set,” Saltzgiver said. “(The manufacturers) know how long their vehicles will last.”

Hear how your vehicles’ total cost of ownership can impact when you replace your assets.

Technician Productivity

Another metric our podcast hosts recommend tracking is your technicians’ productivity. To do this, it’s essential to establish a standard repair time for how long each job should take, and compare it to how long it actually takes your mechanics to complete a job.

Tracking this will help you identify training opportunities for your technicians.

There are industry-standard repair times you can refer to, or you can develop your own standard repair times at your operation. Once you set these, you can use your FMIS – or other technology – to help track how your technicians are performing compared to the standards.

To dive deeper into these metrics and explore other topics – like the benefits of leasing vehicles – listen to the full episode of “The Fleet Success Show.”