Time is essential in the trucking industry; to be more time-efficient; the trucking business has adopted the 24-Hour repair standard. According to Stefan Kürschner, senior vice president of aftermarket, every minute counts as far as uptime is concerned for the customers. Stefan insisted that a quick turnaround time is necessary for the customers to operate their businesses efficiently.
Bruce Croker stated that Peterbilt set a target of handling repairs within 24 hours. Peterbilt has embraced the use of data flow and communication to hasten the repairs as much as possible. The company keeps the customers informed throughout the entire repair process. In other words, they monitor the whole process closely to eliminate any challenges that may slow down the progress rate.
Mike Eppes, managing vice president of operations for the Rush Enterprises truck dealerships, reiterated that most sectors, including the consumer and trucking sectors, are into the dynamic, quick turnaround time expectations. Rush implemented a delivery system that would ensure customers get their orders faster. Moreover, they created a portal for making orders. And also a call center to gather information from customers to be more customer-oriented. Rush also has mobile repairs with technicians attached to fleets to reduce the time consumed on repairs.
Importance of fast repairs
Jeff Harris, vice president of maintenance for Van Buren, Ark.-based USA Truck, stated that the company sets an estimate of what time all equipment should be released from their facilities. According to him, the main driving factor for the quick repairs is mainly the hours-of-service regulations. And those must be complied with by all the truckers. When truckers evaluate time against the cost of losing the time, fast repairs become very important.
Doug Kading, vice president of maintenance, said that Salt Lake City-based C.R. England's shops set a target of utilizing less than 10 hours on any of their repairs. After assessing the extent of the amount of repair, the estimated amount of time required is indicated on the vehicle. He insisted that they are only interested in how long the repairs would take once a vehicle is at any repair location.
Shane Barnes, P.A.M. Transport vice president of maintenance, claimed that his company does not operate on the 24-hour standard but must do all repairs as soon as possible. Penske Truck Leasing sped up its repairs through the collection of adequate data. Chris Hough noted that there also is preventative maintenance where technicians are remotely guided through repairs and assessment of vehicle parts. The remote guidance saves on time that could have been wasted on paperwork.
Companies are focused on ensuring that customers are accorded with services that are effective and timely. In addition, Daimler has set up several distribution centers to reach customers better and embraced technology to gather the information that would be necessary to serve customers' needs. Technology through data analytics will provide better insight in dealing with all repairs. And it will provide enough information to anticipate and avoid and/or plan for repairs.
