If David Cruz had his druthers, he and his employees would handle the repairs every time one of his dump trucks, bulldozers, excavators, or tractors broke down.
It’s not cheap to send a truck back to its dealer or to a private shop for repairs. The high rates these outside sources charge—sometimes more than $75 an hour—make David Cruz shudder.Cruz, though, is not inflexible. If a repair is too complicated to handle in-house he’ll send the truck outside for repairs.
The trick, of course, lies in recognizing when each option makes more financial sense. It’s a juggling act that Cruz doesn’t face alone. The owners and operators of truck fleets both large and small face it every day. Under ideal situations, savvy owners will consider a host of factors—the cost of a repair job, the time a truck might be out of commission if the work is done in-house versus at the dealer’s shop, the complexity of the repairs required—before making their decisions.
Unfortunately, there are times when the conditions are far from ideal and owner/operators must make their repair decisions while facing limited options. Just ask Cruz.
Cruz’s company, Cruz Construction, works in Alaska. From its headquarters in Palmer, the company’s crew members build roads, clear land, and tackle heavy civil construction in some pretty remote areas—chunks of this massive state that are accessible only by airstrip, boast temperatures in the minus-25-degree range and, depending on the time of year, are shrouded in darkness for up to 20 hours at a time. When something breaks down in such untamed areas Cruz doesn’t even have the option of sending a truck to a dealer or an outside source. He and his employees have to solve the problem themselves.
In December 2004 Cruz’s company was tackling a large erosion control project on the Yukon river—the largest in Alaska, stretching in total about 1,800 miles—as it wound its way past Galena, a tiny town of about 664 residents. The village sits in a remote stretch of interior Alaska, a section of the state that in December offers just four hours of daylight and where the temperatures can dip to 30 degrees below zero.
It’s not an easy place in which to work. And the crew’s job became even more challenging when an alternator on one of its trucks suddenly failed.
“That doesn’t sound like a big deal until the temperatures we’re working in are minus 20, minus 30 degrees,” Cruz says. “Then, when you consider the conditions, it does become a big deal. Everything was dark and cold, and this truck needed help.”
To solve the problem Cruz got creative. First he called the local dealership. The dealer, unfortunately, didn’t have the alternator that Cruz needed. Cruz then purchased a used alternator from another repair shop and flew it into Galena. Problem was, when Cruz’s crew installed that alternator in the truck it didn’t work, either.
Creativity Again Is Called For
Cruz’s crew pulled parts from the used alternator, used them to breathe life into the truck’s failed one, and got the vehicle running well enough to finish the project.
“That was a lot of work, but sometimes you have to do that in the type of environment in which we work,” Cruz said. “We didn’t have a lot of options. It was really up to the crew to get that truck running again. We certainly weren’t going to be able to send the truck to a dealer out there. There were no dealers out there.”
Cruz’s story may be extreme, but it does prove that owner/operators must consider all outside factors before deciding how to handle a repair on their fleet. Those that don’t stand to lose a lot of money.
Considering Your Options
Sean Bennett knows trucks, both long-distance semis and heavy-duty construction vehicles. He’s worked 35 years in the trucking industry, teaches truck technology college classes in Toronto, ONT, Canada, and is the author of several trucking books, including Heavy Duty Truck Systems, published by Thomson Delmar Learning.
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PHOTO: JOE GIMBEL, CASE CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT |
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PHOTO: JOE GIMBEL, CASE CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT |
It makes sense then that Bennett also knows the challenges owner/operators face when it comes to truck repairs.
“There are so many factors owners need to consider, both when debating how to handle repairs and how to maintain their vehicles so that repairs aren’t needed as often,” Bennett says. “Everything has become more sophisticated than it used to be. And owners have to adjust to that.”
Ideally, owner/operators would handle all their repairs in-house, saving on the high fees dealers and outside repair shops sometimes charge, Bennett said. But often owners have little choice but to turn to outside help when it’s time for repairs.
The determining factors are often the size of a fleet and its age. Technology has long ago infiltrated the heavy duty trucking industry. And while this technology has resulted in better-performing vehicles, it has also made repair work far more complicated, something that makes in-house work more challenging.
“Most of today’s trucks run off databases. They have multiple computers managing them that are all linked together,” Bennett explains. “If you have a relatively modern fleet—both highway and vocational—you’d need specialized computer diagnostic equipment just to access that database. Most owners are not going to have that available onsite. They’re going to have to turn to outside sources to deal with these more modern trucks.”
Owners, of course, can handle these repairs in-house if they are willing to spend the money to purchase specialized tools. They must also be willing to spend the dollars necessary to train their employees in how to deal with their trucks’ computerized systems.
For many owners, though, spending this money makes little sense.
“If you only have three or four units in your fleet, that’s really not enough to justify the purchase of special tools or training to handle the repairs,” Bennett says. “For owners in this situation it’s actually more cost-effective to let the dealer handle repairs.”
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PHOTO: JOE GIMBEL, CASE CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT |
Owners who operate larger fleets, though, might consider investing in the tools and training needed to handle repairs in-house, says Bennett. This especially makes sense when owners consider that much of their heavy work is seasonal in nature. Companies don’t perform much road construction during certain times of the year because of weather conditions. Owner/operators, then, can concentrate on repairing and providing specialized maintenance to vehicles that are largely idle during this time.
Maintenance, in fact, is the key for all owner/operators who want to save money on repairs, Bennett says. Performing routine maintenance can make the in-house/dealer question pop up far less often.
Most fleets operating today come with specific preventive maintenance systems, many of which are driven electronically. Original equipment manufacturers will design a maintenance program centered around an operator’s specific needs. It’s then up to operators and owners to follow that maintenance program. Those who do will save loads of money they’d otherwise spend on trips to the repair shop, Bennett says.
“Developing and following a preventive maintenance plan is definitely time well-invested,” he comments. “Preventive maintenance was almost ignored 12 years ago. Now it’s become a buzzword for the industry.”
Most preventive-maintenance plans recommend certain activities—say an oil change or filter change—after vehicles reach either a certain number of miles or a certain number of engine hours. In the case of construction vehicles, preventive-maintenance plans are usually driven by the number of engine hours a truck logs.
Owners can tailor their maintenance plans depending on the type of work a machine does. This, Bennett says, is crucial.
“Consider air filters. A filter on a line haul truck can last about four years. That same filter in a construction application where a large degree of dust is being kicked up can be plugged in less than a week,” Bennett says. “A maintenance schedule has to consider that and can’t treat the filter the same if it’s in a different type of vehicle.”
A preventive-maintenance program would instruct the operator of the heavy-duty construction vehicle to launder its filter on a schedule that makes sense for the work the truck performs. If the truck is operating in a particularly hostile environment—say it’s dealing with grain dust that can plug a brand-new filter during an eight-hour shift—a preventive-maintenance plan will include a host of options for operators seeking to drain as much use as possible out of the filter before having to purchase a new one.
“Maintenance has gotten so much more sophisticated over the years,” Bennett says. “There has been a major thrust toward this over the last dozen years. The cost of downtime is being reckoned to a much higher degree than it was just a dozen years ago. There are so many good software programs now out there that can monitor the exact performance of a vehicle. Everyone is under a much higher degree of scrutiny than before.”
The Importance of Relationships
There’s another factor for owner/operators to consider when debating the in-house/outsource question. Do they have strong relationships with either local dealerships or mechanics they trust to provide fair service and a good price? Such relationships make sending trucks out for repairs an easier decision.
Allyn Ricker, highway superintendent for the Town of Hartford in Vermont, is fortunate to have such a relationship with a local Ford dealership.
“If we have some technical problems they help us out,” Ricker says. “If we need some minor help with something, we can drop a truck off there and they’ll help us with the repairs or help us do whatever is needed to get that truck running again.”
Early last winter, for instance, one of Ricker’s crew members was driving the department’s Ford L800 truck, plowing snow from the town’s roads. Unfortunately, the truck’s engine blew in the middle of the job, leaving the crew member stranded while fat snowflakes continued to fall.
Ricker called upon his favorite Ford dealership. The local shop quickly shipped the department a re-manufactured motor. Ricker’s crew members changed some parts, installed the repaired engine back in the truck, and continued their plowing duties.
That is only one time when Ricker has called on the local dealership for help. The relationship is an important one because Ricker’s department is responsible for maintaining about 140 miles of road. That means he must keep his fleet of dump trucks, pickups and plows in good working order or risk falling behind.
“It obviously hinders us in our treatment of roads in the winter time to have a truck out of service,” Ricker says. “We don’t have a spare truck. We do have equipment set up so that we can use trucks for multiple uses. One truck [out of service] we can struggle through. Two out of service would be a little touchy.”
To prevent excessive repairs, Ricker and his crew members perform routine maintenance in-house. They base the need for oil changes, tire maintenance, transmission checks, and other maintenance on the amount of use each truck engine has registered. For example, Ricker’s crew changes a truck’s oil after 200 hours of engine use.
This schedule keeps trucks in good working order. But when problems do occur, Ricker—despite his strong relationship with the local Ford dealership—must make the tricky decision: Should he handle the repairs in-house or outsource the work?
Not surprisingly, this depends on the type of repair needed and the type of truck that is having problems.
“We try to do as much here as we possibly can, but you can’t always take on the work yourself,” Ricker says.
Ricker’s department does employ a mechanic. This staffer works as a mechanic half the week while spending the other half of his time working on the streets. Ricker’s fortunate that his road foreman is also a former mechanic.
“These two are very knowledgeable of how to maintain and replace all this stuff. If weather and time permits us, we prefer to do a lot of work ourselves rather than send it out. It just saves money that way,” Ricker says.
When problems hit the department’s heavier equipment—its loader and grader, for example—Ricker usually sends the vehicles outside the department for repairs. The reason? It makes more economic sense.
“Some of those machines require specialized tools,” Ricker said. “Those are tools you need in your tool bins that we don’t have. It might be a tool you use once in 10 years. We just can’t afford to put a tool like that in stock. And local dealers, if it’s a specialized tool, they don’t like to let them out. They don’t like to see them get broken or lost.”
The Million-Dollar Question
When asked how he handles repairs, Ed Carson, one of the owners of C2S Group, a construction firm based in Sutherlin, OR, laughs. “Well, that’s a good question. That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”
For Carson, it’s certainly an important question. Send too many trucks out for repairs and a given year’s profits can be nibbled away. Handle all repairs in-house and Carson’s employees might be wasting their talents—talents they can better spend out in the field.
Carson, though, made his decision years ago. He doesn’t employ an on-staff mechanic. When something goes wrong with one of his trucks, he sends it to a local repair shop with which he’s long done business.
This makes sense for Carson largely because of the size of his fleet. C2S Group employs six trucks. That’s a relatively small fleet. It makes little sense for Carson to have a mechanic on staff. That mechanic would spend most of the time doing nothing—hardly a cost-effective hire.
Carson trusts the work of the repair shop to which he sends his damaged vehicles. While participating in this interview, in fact, he has hired the shop to repair a dump truck suffering from a broken axle.
“They’re putting it together right now,” Carson says. “It’s just a truck getting old, it needs some work.”
Like most owner/operators, Carson can’t afford to have his trucks out of service for long. His company specializes in road construction and is frequently called upon to build logging roads. Carson needs all his trucks operating well to handle such work. Equipment sitting in a repair shop waiting for repairs means lost income. That’s why Carson’s strong relationship with his local mechanic’s shop is so important.
“The shop is pretty timely in their efforts to help us,” Carson says. “We appreciate that, and that’s why we continue to work with them.”
Of course, there’s one other step owner/operators can take to minimize the amount of truck repairs they’ll face. They can always work with as few trucks as possible.
That’s the strategy Dan Balkema, president of Kalamazoo, MI–based Balkema Construction, takes. Balkema keeps his fleet of trucks at a minimum. He currently operates just six of them.
“I avoid trucks,” he said. “I just can’t justify having them around. I guess I’m not a trucker at heart.”
Balkema, when he needs a larger fleet, simply contracts the actual trucking out. This prevents him from having to worry much about costly truck repairs.
Most owner/operators, though, won’t take such drastic measures. They’ll instead continue the balancing act of mulling over a host of factors before deciding to handle repairs in-house or to outsource the work.
“Our repairs aren’t excessive,” says Cruz. “And we do all the routine maintenance to make sure they don’t get to that point. If I have something, though, that is starting to cost me too much, if it’s needing so many repairs that it’s losing us money versus the amount of revenue it brings in, then we’ll get rid of it.”