Best Practices for Managing Large Fleet Service Orders

If your heavy-duty repair shop is doing well, it may be time to expand. But when you become responsible for managing a larger fleet-

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Larger text is harder to manage—and the same is true for heavy-duty fleets. When your shop starts working on more vehicles, you’ll need to put in extra effort to keep up with each of these vehicles’ differing needs. As a result, it can be surprisingly tricky to minimize downtime while keeping your budget under control.

If your shop’s processes are disorganized, you’ll definitely run into higher costs and reduced reliability in this situation. Fortunately, the opposite is also true; by taking control of your workflow, you’ll have a much easier time managing fleets of any size. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the best practices that can help you easily handle service orders (and other aspects of fleet management) for even the largest fleets.

Common Pain Points with Large Fleet Service

Believe it or not, your chiropractor isn’t the only person responsible for dealing with pain points. When your shop is tasked with managing sizable fleets, you could quickly run into problems such as:

• Lost paperwork and miscommunication. If your shop hasn’t gone paperless yet, the pandemonium associated with working on large fleets could easily result in lost paperwork. That, in turn, could cause delayed repairs and unexpected billing issues.
• Inefficient scheduling. The more vehicles your shop works on, the harder it can be to juggle your scheduling needs. Because of that, you might inadvertently overbook technicians or leave vehicles in limbo until they can get the services they need.
• Parts management-related chaos. Working on more heavy-duty vehicles than you’re used to will increase the rate at which your shop goes through parts—and that can raise your risk of stockouts. Even if you don’t run out of parts, your techs could have trouble finding the parts they’re looking for or order more parts than your shop actually needs.
• Lack of preventative maintenance. Finally, taking care of many different vehicles can make it difficult to track each of these vehicles’ maintenance needs. Missing preventative maintenance could increase a truck’s risk of breaking down, forcing you to take care of costly, time-consuming emergency repairs.

5 Best Practices for Streamlined Fleet Service

And now, the moment you’ve (presumably) been waiting for—our in-depth breakdown of the best practices your shop should follow while working on large fleets! Exciting stuff, isn’t it? You can applaud, if you’d like.

Anyway, your shop can manage larger fleets as efficiently and effectively as possible with the help of heavy-duty shop software. Ideally, this program should include features related to:

1. Centralized Digital Record-Keeping
   

   One of the many, many issues tied to traditional record-keeping is the fact that this method can make it difficult to find the information you need. Even if you aren’t literally tracking your shop’s history with pen and paper, digital spreadsheets can be harder to keep track of than you might think. But with the help of dedicated heavy-duty shop software, you can store data about your fleet as a whole and individual trucks’ maintenance history on the cloud.

2. Proactive Preventative Maintenance (PM) Scheduling
   

   Trying to keep track of an entire fleet’s preventative maintenance scheduling by yourself is…well, let’s say ambitious. Fortunately, you don’t have to handle this task on your own; instead, you can find a program capable of tracking your fleets’ PM needs for you. With the right software, your shop will be able to keep track of individual vehicles’ PM schedules based on mileage and hours. Along with that, you’ll also get automated service alerts when these trucks need oil changes, inspections, and other maintenance tasks. Thus, you’ll be able to enjoy benefits like minimal downtime, a longer fleet lifespan, and even improved fuel efficiency.

3. Real-Time Inventory Visibility with Fleet Focus
   

   In the past, keeping track of a heavy-duty shop’s inventory involved a significant amount of time and effort. But that’s no longer the case: today’s inventory management software can give you an at-a-glance look at the parts your shop has in stock at any given moment. The best programs in this category don’t just track your inventory usage—instead, they can give you access to breakdowns of parts usage by vehicle type, making it easier than ever to optimize your shop’s stock levels. Along with that, these programs can simplify the reordering process by integrating with your vendors and ordering systems.

4. Streamlined Communication Channels
   

   No matter how much effort you put into preventative maintenance, you can’t avoid Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will be misquoted.” Wait, that’s not how it goes… Your shop’s software can still help avoid pesky miscommunications. Drivers can stay up-to-date with repair progress or report issues directly to techs using your customer portal. Fullbay even has fancy brand-new 2-way texting capabilities, making it even easier to stay in touch. You’ll also be able to quickly and easily generate service orders and Quick Service Orders for your new repair job. Send automated notifications to customers and receive approvals from them during a repair, improving customer communication and avoiding unnecessary delays during this process.

5. Data-Driven Fleet Analysis
   

   Heavy-duty shop software can give you access to valuable data about your business’ inventory, maintenance records, and PM needs. But the top programs in this niche go even deeper than that: they can give you the power to make data-driven decisions about your fleet as a whole. With high-quality software (and the information provided by modern trailer telematics), you’ll be able to identify high-cost vehicles in your fleet, keep track of the repairs you commonly perform, and take a look at your fleet’s fuel usage trends. Thanks to these data points and others, you can make smart choices about vehicle replacements, routing, and parts purchasing, potentially increasing your shop’s revenue along the way.

Take Care of Your Fleets With Fullbay

No matter how large or small your shop’s fleets are, fleet management can come with all sorts of challenges. You’ll need to be ready to generate service orders, keep in touch with your customers, and avoid missing preventative maintenance milestones—just to name a few of your duties.

The easiest, most effective way to keep your fleets up and running is to invest in heavy-duty shop software, and no program in this category is better than Fullbay. Our software is made specifically for heavy-duty truck and trailer repair shops, so you’ll get access to all the tools and information you need to manage fleets of any size. Take the first step by scheduling a demo