How do you measure fleet maintenance performance? This is a question we often get asked. The answer is multi-faceted, yet quite achievable. In this article, we shall take a look at the top fleet maintenance KPIs that all fleet managers need to be cognisant of, and how they can use fleet maintenance software to achieve them.

What are The Top Fleet Maintenance KPIs to be aware of?

A good way to establish your fleet maintenance KPIs is to consider the factors that affect your fleet’s operational efficiency. Here are some fleet maintenance metrics every manager should track:

• Compliance scores (ensuring all vehicles pass their safety compliance tests)
• Fleet maintenance costs
• Mean Time Between Failures
• Mean Time to Repair
• Preventive Maintenance
• Compliance Rate
• Vehicle Uptime

Safety Comes First With Fleet Compliance

It should go without saying that safety should be the top priority for all fleet managers. For this reason, vehicle compliance test results should be considered a fleet maintenance KPI. Fleet managers should aim for every vehicle to pass any mandatory safety tests required, for example:

• NCT
• MOT
• CVRT
• SPSV Suitability Inspection
• Taillift inspections

Vehicles passing on the first go is a good fleet maintenance KPI and ensure that the vehicles you are operating are in optimal condition (both mechanically and in terms of safety). ForWare Compliance makes this aspect of fleet maintenance easy, allowing fleet managers to book compliance tests and any follow-up repairs that may be required post-test. In addition to compliance tests, regular Vehicle Health Checks should never be overlooked. This ensures that safety-critical items such as tyres, brake pads, and wipers are replaced before wear and tear makes them ineffective or hazards in themselves.

KPIs for Fleet Vehicle Downtime

A vehicle out of service can cost your fleet in more ways than one. Apart from the obvious expenditure on repairs, it also costs you time and efficiency. Jobs may be delayed or lost, and you may also end up bearing the cost of vehicle hire (or, worse still, having more vehicles in your fleet to begin with to cover such failures).
Here are examples of fleet maintenance KPIs you can set with regard to reducing downtime:

Preventive Maintenance Compliance Rate—this refers to the number of services and VHCs completed on time divided by the overall number of services and VHCs. 100% should be the goal here.
• Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)—the average time a fleet vehicle operates without a breakdown. Naturally, this should be as low as possible.
• Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)—the average time a vehicle spends under repair. Time spent in repair is time spent not earning, so again, fleet managers should aspire to keep this as low as possible.
• Vehicle Uptime—this refers to the percentage of time a vehicle is in working condition during a given operational period. It should go without saying that this is a figure that should be high, not low.

How can fleet managers use these KPIs to reduce downtime?

For a start, fleet managers can prevent major repairs from becoming necessary by keeping on top of service and VHC intervals. A good Preventive Maintenance Compliance Rate can be achieved by ensuring 100% of vehicles visit the workshop before their service or VHC becomes overdue. Apart from keeping your vehicles under warranty, this is also a great way to catch small defects before they snowball into big ones. ForWare Events is a great asset here, for it sends automatic notifications to fleet managers as and when services/VHCs become due. Efficient preventative maintenance also helps to increase your fleet’s Mean Time Between Failures; as mentioned above, regular checks help identify problems with vehicles before they escalate. To achieve a low Mean Time to Repair, fleet managers should consider how streamlined their repair authorisation process actually is. Does it involve a lot of time spent playing phone tag between the workshop, the service desk and the fleet manager? Does it involve several back-and-forth emails? Such a process is far from efficient and serves to prolong vehicle downtime when the repair work isn’t actually being carried out. Instant authorisation requests can make this process much more efficient. ForWare allows workshop technicians to send repair authorisation requests directly to the fleet manager (or a designated staff member). This makes authorisation (or rejection) easy, with just a tap of a button needed. You can also preset repair spend limits for automatic authorisations to streamline this process even further. Mean Time to Repair can also be reduced by ensuring that your workshop has a sufficient supply of parts to keep your fleet maintained. Fleet managers should liaise with their workshop’s service department and keep themselves appraised of any potential part shortages that may affect maintenance programmes.

Fleet Maintenance Cost Per Vehicle

Assessing a vehicle’s total cost of ownership (TCO) can be broken into two main areas:

• Fixed costs
• Operating costs

Fixed costs refer to spending on relatively predictable necessities, such as insurance, taxation, and the capital cost of purchasing the vehicle to begin with. Operating costs are more varied, with expenditure on fleet maintenance and repairs being prime examples here. In terms of KPIs, we need to consider the above as a Maintenance Cost Per Vehicle. This can be calculated simply by dividing your total maintenance cost for a given period by the number of vehicles operating in that timeframe. ForWare can give you this information at the tap of a button. The system makes it easy to bring up billing for a given vehicle (or fleet of vehicles) over its lifespan. This enables fleet managers to make informed decisions when it comes to fleet renewal time. You may find that some vehicles are costing more than others. This could be down to make, part quality, or even driving style. For instance, if you have 10 examples of vehicle Type X, but only one is frequently in for gearbox repairs, then it’s possible that this is down to heavy clutch use by its driver. We hope that this article has given you an insight into the key performance indicators for fleet maintenance. If you would like a free demo on how ForWare can help you achieve these fleet maintenance KPIs, contact Alan Maher today by emailing alan@forware.io. You can also call us on 353 21 4845550.

FAQs

What are the most important fleet maintenance KPIs?

The most important fleet maintenance KPIs include compliance testing, downtime, cost of ownership, and, of course, passing all compliance tests to ensure fleet safety.

How do you measure fleet maintenance performance?

Fleet maintenance costs, compliance test results, and vehicle downtime are all important indicators of fleet maintenance efficiency.

How can fleet managers reduce vehicle downtime?

Fleet managers can reduce vehicle downtime by ensuring that all vehicles are serviced before their due date and attend VHCs before they become overdue. This should be integral to any fleet’s preventive maintenance KPIs.

What is The Total Cost of Ownership?

The total cost of ownership (TCO) refers to the expenditure incurred by the vehicle over the course of its lifetime. This goes beyond the original purchase cost of the vehicle itself and includes maintenance expenditure (operating costs) and costs such as taxation and insurance (fixed costs).

What is Vehicle Uptime?

When we speak of Vehicle Uptime, we are referring to the percentage of time a vehicle is in full working order during a set operational period.