Before we broadly consider loss through the lens of equipment issues, let’s take a moment to define the scope of possibility when it comes to these kinds of issues. We could be looking at one of many types of concerns:

Types of Costs & Losses Related to Equipment

• Theft
• Unplanned maintenance
• Planned maintenance
• Fuel costs & efficiency
• Vehicle life cycles
• Equipment life cycles

When your fleet vehicles or other service assets break down during service, the cost of unplanned fleet maintenance can add up—fast. There are the hard costs associated with the vehicle repairs. There are wages to pay. And there’s the cost of delayed service or shipments.

Did you know that repairs performed by an outside vendor can costs up to 40% higher compared to maintenance at an in-house shop?

How Much Do Fleet Equipment Issues Cost?

When it comes to estimating the cost of equipment issues, there’s a caveat: it depends. 

For instance, a poorly maintained engine can burn up to 50% more fuel. When fleet maintenance knows about the health of a vehicle thanks to telematics data and drivers are actively monitoring the health of their vehicles, costs will be much lower than in those fleets where maintenance is all reactive.

Think about it this way: even in a healthy truck, you’re looking at medium-heavy gas trucks wasting 0.8 gallon for every hour of idling, according to US government testing. A diesel delivery truck will waste about the same amount of diesel fuel each hour.

How Can Field Services Businesses Reduce Costs Related to Equipment Issues?

Reducing your field services equipment losses is something that you can do, provided you take the right approach. Making sure that your equipment is equipped with tracking hardware is critical so that you can monitor both asset locations and, wherever possible, error codes across your vehicles in real-time. This could mean the difference between planned maintenance and a costly setback. 

Vehicle Life Cycles

Additionally, it’s important to know the lifespan of your core equipment assets. Scheduling benchmarked replacements and repairs before they are needed is a great way to reduce the cost of maintaining both your vehicles and any important service equipment.

Preventing costly issues is often a simple matter of maintaining the details of day-to-day maintenance. For instance, HardWorking Trucks.com reports over 90% of all automatic transmission failures are caused by overheating. 

Reducing Theft with Asset Tracking

Monitoring your assets with tracking is also a way to deter and reduce equipment theft. For instance, a 2016 National Equipment Register (NER) and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) estimates field services companies are losing somewhere between $300 million to $1 billion annually in equipment theft.

Toward Better Fleet Equipment Management

GPS Trackit provides an easy way for businesses like yours to monitor their service vehicles and equipment assets from one simple dashboard which will save money in the long run while giving back more valuable hours during busy workdays. 

If you’d like to learn more about how GPS Trackit can help to improve safety, increase productivity and reduce costs for your business, speak with one of our knowledgeable Fleet Advisors at 866-320-5810 or get a quick Custom Quote.