Minimize Downtime for the Trucks in Your Fleet

Waiting is an irritating but unavoidable part of life. We wait for the light to turn green before we can drive, we wait for the BBQ to heat up before we can put the meat on the grill, we wait for our turn at the car wash before we can get started.

Sometimes, waiting is harmless. It’s a few minutes here and there that doesn’t really affect everything around it.

Sometimes, however, the waiting can be truly problematic. It can cause extraneous expenses and wasted time. It can result in angry bosses and customers and can affect your business.

How long do you have to wait for service when your vehicles need to be repaired? 

Fleet vehicles will need repairs from time to time. When that happens, downtime occurs. 

However, when you don’t have control of wait times, your downtime increases.  

The Relationship Between Response Time and Downtime

Service response time and vehicle downtime go hand in hand. The longer wait times for a service technician to replace a part, the longer downtime will be. 

Running a warehouse is an incredibly stressful job. We’ve seen how hard our clients work to maintain efficiency throughout their business. When a vehicle goes down, many areas of the business suffer. As a result, in order to reduce downtime, organizations need to focus on reducing the service response time as well.

One of our clients, San Francisco Specialty, dealt with this very issue. They were seeing incredibly slow repair response and slow service quote follow-ups from its current vendor. 

As a result, San Francisco Specialty had increased downtime on their forklifts and electric pallet trucks, which resulted in low productivity for the warehouse. 

That’s when they turned to us. With the capability to track response time, we were able to show real-time status of repairs. By responding quickly and enabling accurate planning, we increased their uptime and productivity. 

Do You Know Your Service Provider’s Response Times?

When you’re working with a service provider for repairs and maintenance of your fleet, knowing response times is a must. Don't try to estimate. It’s important to have accurate details on how long it takes your vendor to get your trucks back on the warehouse floor.

Our reporting shows the actual response time to your service requests, plus how long it takes to return the equipment to operation. This ensures our clients always have real-time details on when to expect vehicle repairs.

Instead of waiting for a response, our clients are able to minimize downtime status. 

Calculate Your Downtime Losses

Do you know how much money your company loses when vehicles are inoperable? 

When a vehicle breaks down the warehouse begins to lose productivity — and profitability — immediately. 

Once the clock starts ticking, it’s vital to get your vehicle back into operation to reduce losses.

In order to calculate losses, it’s necessary to measure the time between:

• When you report the issue to your vendor and when the technician arrives
• When the technician arrives and the unit goes back into service
  

This is your downtime. Imagine what your operations would look like if you could reduce downtime by 10%? 20%? 30%? 

Consider the amount of money you can save by reducing wait times on vehicle repairs.

How to Ensure Uptime for Your Fleet

Waiting around for your vendor to fix your vehicle is frustrating. Assess the quality of your current vendor by asking to see response time reports. If unavailable, this is a major red flag.

If they’re able to show response times, it’s important to ask for an improvement. How much time can they shave off? Calculate what kind of a difference that would make to your downtime. If they can’t promise any improvements, that’s another major red flag.

However, response times aren’t the only important metric you should be aware of. 

There are actually 4 additional key warehouse performance metrics that can help improve uptime and increase productivity. With over a decade of expertise in fleet management, we’ve compiled the most important performance indicators that help our clients make better business decisions.

If you’re interested in getting a deeper look at how your vendor’s response times are affecting the profitability of your business, get in touch with us at 844-360-8217 or book a no-obligation consultation. We can clarify just how much you can save by reducing your response times.