Preventative Maintenance and Why It's So Important

Have you ever been.a rider on a bus that has broken down? I sure hope not. If you have, you discovered what an inconvenience an event like that can present to your daily riders. It can cause them to be late to work or miss a critical doctor's appointment. From a fleet maintenance perspective, a breakdown impacts your bottom line, you're scheduled. maintenance tasks, and parts department. So why do road calls happen? Sometimes they can be random occurrences, but more often than not they are caused by neglected scheduled maintenance, or Preventative Maintenance Inspections (PMIs). Every transit project has them, and occasionally every transit project misses them. But that's not what necessarily causes road calls - it's a lack of technicians properly trained in identifying issues that could lead to a breakdown during revenue service later (for one reason or another). Here we breakdown service intervals for different heavy duty transit vehicles.

Daily Pre-trip Inspection

Drivers are required by law to perform a pre-trip inspection of the vehicle they are about to operate and record any findings on a daily vehicle inspection report (DVIR), which is then turned into dispatch (when no issues are found), or taken directly to the maintenance department* (when an out of service issue is found - flat tire inoperable headlights, malfunctioning wheelchair lift, etc.). While many project have changed over to electronic DVIRs, the process remains the same, but can be subject to better data analysis, which could lead to better triage and identification of issues relating to fleet maintenance. Drivers are truly the eyes and ears of a fleet, and maintenance managers can effectively use them with the right training  to help debug their fleets. 

45-day Inspection

a 45 day inspection characteristically occurs about half way between two inspections that include a fluid change. So, if our hypothetical fleet manager has done their math correctly, approximately every 90 days, a vehicle with an internal combustion engine should undergo *at least* an oil change (in addition to the 45 day inspection. For example, vehicle number 1234 had a 45 day inspection, plus oil change on April 1st. 45 days later, on or before May 15th, it should undergo a 45 day inspection, but the engine oil does not need to be changed. Find out what the 45-day inspection typically encompasses here...

90-day Inspection or "A" PMI

The 90-day or "A" inspection usually builds upon the 45-day inspection and adds an oil change, undercarriage inspection, and chassis lubrication when applicable. The oil change task in this PMI adds a bit of a wrinkle in PMI scheduling. Oil changes are recommended preventative maintenance tasks recommended by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and are required to maintain your vehicle's warranty. Depending on the equipment that came with your vehicle ,you may be required to change the oil every 10,000 or 15,000 miles, which could occur before the vehicle reaches 90 days. If you are unsure of the recommended interval, contact your OEM. Find out what tasks may be involved in a 90-day/"A" inspection here...