UPT IME
How do you analyze the cost
savings of accident avoidance?
New vehicle technologies are providing payback,
but it’s more complex to measure the cost savings.
How do you validate a return on investment (ROI)
from accident mitigation? When you avoid an accident
you don’t know how much revenue may have been lost
because of unforeseen downtime, and how much you
didn’t spend on repairs or hospital bills.
Th is topic was one of the talking points at a recent
panel discussion during Heavy Duty Aft ermarket
Dialogue this past January.
Th e conversation circled around the increased
spec’ing of air disc brakes in heavy duty fl eets, and
validated why this adoption continues.
Th e reasons for spec’ing air disc brakes over drums
haven’t changed — reduced stopping distance, almost
no fading or pulling, longer service intervals, less
time to perform basic maintenance, to name a few —
as more scrutiny continues to be placed on keeping
operations lean and reducing costs. Not to mention the
added pressure of adhering to Compliance, Safety and
Accountability (CSA). Since air disc brake adjustment
is done internally, it results in fewer CSA violations by
eliminating out-of-adjustment situations.
A recent reader study on braking systems, conducted
by Fleet Maintenance, also confi rms continued air disc
brake adoption, with 26 percent of respondents indicating
they spec air disc brakes for their fl eet.
While air disc brakes have been available on heavy
duty vehicles for some time, when the cost and weight
of the product come down and the decrease in accidents
and vehicle downtime can be validated, adoption will
continue to rise.
Validating changes
While air disc brakes were a focus for this discussion,
ROI on safety technologies in general can be more
challenging to confi rm. Th is is one of the reasons we
have seen such an advancement in the adoption of data
analytics when it comes to vehicle and shop operations.
Data has signifi cantly improved many aspects
of fl eet maintenance: not only can it help confi rm
the return on safety technologies, it can also make
processes like preventative maintenance (PM) and
technician schedules more effi cient.
In this month’s cover story (page 10), we look at the
process of how to evaluate and implement diff erent
strategies that help increase overall shop effi ciency,
focusing on the use of data analytics to improve operational
8 Fleet Maintenance | March 2018
processes.
New safety products and procedures
If you haven’t quite reached the point of spec’ing the
latest vehicle safety technologies in your fl eet but you
want to know more, our editorial team spoke with a
number of diff erent suppliers focused on providing
technology that promotes and enhances safety while
on the road. We talk about the diff erent safety systems
currently available, and the (somewhat unsurprisingly)
minimal maintenance that goes into many of these
systems. Check out page 20 for more.
Speaking of safety, are you familiar with lockout and
tagout procedures? Depending on your operation, you
likely follow many Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) guidelines that are regularly
reviewed and enforced to ensure the safety of your
employees. Th is month we cover another accident
mitigation technique — creating a formalized lockout/
tagout procedure when working on vehicles (page 26).
Many accidents are avoidable with the right
processes, tools and knowledge. But, it’s inevitable
that accidents will happen. When they do, it’s
important to learn from those mistakes. Our regular
Management columnist Joel Levitt shares his input
on the “problem” paradox — and why you should take
steps to learn from what happened to help avoid the
issue in the future (page 34).
I hope in this issue you’ll fi nd valuable information
to help you run a more effi cient maintenance operation,
taking into consideration aspects of your business you
may not have thought about previously. As always, I
welcome your thoughts and comments.
By Erica
Schueller
Editor-in-chief
» Reviewing incremental changes can help fleets adjust different aspects of their
operation, such as improved scheduling or more efficient maintenance cycles.
Photo courtesy of Transervice
2018 FLEET
MAINTENANCE
BRAKE STUDY
Interested in learning
more about current
trends in braking systems?
Check out a free
downloadable PDF of the
2018 Fleet Maintenance
Brake Study. To access,
visit VehicleServicePros.
com/20993716.
/20993716