Over time, the five most expensive truck costs are fuel, tires, brakes, batteries and oil changes. Trucking fleet maintenance software helps owners and companies keep up with routine maintenance, reduce costs and increase profits. Although this might not be a major issue for a single operator/owner, people with two or more trucks find small things slipping by until they get an expensive wakeup call. Having a tire or battery replaced in town is not a major expense; however, a service call 150 miles down the road or a 75-mile tow into the nearest town increases these normal costs substantially. Between your constant vigilance as an operator and our sophisticated, user-friendly online trucking software, these problems and costs can be avoided.
Top Five Ongoing Truck Expenses
1. Fuel. Buying cheap fuel at out-of-the-way places may damage sophisticated diesel motors. Always opt for the better, clean-running fuel, even though it may be a bit more expensive. Yes, several cents extra per gallon adds up, but when compared to the cost of repairing your clogged engine after using cruddy fuel, it’s well worth it. One of the best ways to save on fuel costs is to match the tractor to the job; if the sleeper cab is not needed, eliminating the 500 pounds of deadweight increases fuel economy. The second is to match tire tread to the road type to improve your fuel efficiency on long highway drives.
2. Tires. Check your tires daily for signs of wear or damage to reduce the risk of blowouts or flat tires between towns. Monitor the air pressure in each tire at least weekly.
3. Brakes. Accidents caused by brake failure can be among the most expensive repair costs. Check your brakes regularly, and listen for any grinding or squealing.
4. Batteries. Checking your battery periodically with an amp tester can alert you to future and potentially expensive problems.
5. Oil. Routine oil changes keep your big diesel rigs purring, and prevent you from having to shell out wads of cash to repair an engine that’s been running on bad oil.
Trucking fleet maintenance software virtually replaces a full-time maintenance manager. This inexpensive program keeps track of each truck, whether the company has 5 or 105 big rigs, crossing the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America. The easy-to-use system updates each truck log every time any information is put into the system. Fuel-up receipts, mileage checks at the cargo delivery point—each of these is entered in an individual truck’s log. This careful recordkeeping help you know when maintenance is required for each particular rig.
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