Episode 109: Summer Fleet Tips

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Hey, welcome to the Fleet Success Show. My name is Tony Yankovich, the Director of Fleet Consulting for RTA, and I'll be your host for this episode. It's good to be back on the show. It's been a few months since I've been on the podcast, so I'm excited about being the moderator today. I'm super thrilled to be joined by Nathan Shafer, a longtime fleet professional. Nathan has been a contributor to the show in the past and always has great insight coming from a fleet perspective. For those of you that don't know Nathan, Nathan, can you give us a quick rundown of your experience?

Sure. Yeah. I'm glad to be back as well. And, uh, yeah, I've been in the fleet industry, you know, little 20-ish years. Well, really my whole life, right? Growing up with my, my dad was a car salesman, being around dealerships and, uh, you know, going through school and wanting to be a technician and then being a technician and, um, you know, graduating into fleet management and, you know, being able to manage a couple of different fleets from, you know, the construction industry to national fleets to city fleets and things like that. So kind of well-rounded.

Well, great, Nathan. I know you've been around fleets for a lot and you've helped fleets all across the United States and even up in Canada, so it's great to have your experience on the show today.

Thanks.

Well, I know the calendar says that summer doesn't officially start for another week or so, but the triple digits on the thermometer here in Arizona this week seem to indicate that summer is already here and in full force. So Nathan, for many people, summer means vacations, taking time off, being away from the job site, being away from work. I know with my kids out of school, we typically try to get away somewhere during the month of June or July. In your work with fleets, how do you deal with summer vacations and technicians requesting time off and still operate and maintain a fleet operation?

Yeah, it gets tough. Sometimes you got to get real creative with scheduling the you know, the maintenance. You know, larger operations can kind of absorb those vacations a little easier with, you know, 2 or 3 guys are gone. But when you got small fleets that maybe have 1 or 2 technicians and, you know, they're doing parts and managing that scheduling, it gets real tough. So typically you see, you know, one guy always has to be there, right, to keep the operation going. And then the turnaround time may be longer or stuff may not get worked on as quickly. So You generally have to, you know, plan for that stuff and kind of schedule your workload accordingly.

Well, that's a great point, Nathan. You know, the point you make about the size of your staff, you know, from a fleet safety perspective, we never really like to see a technician by themselves in the shop. So, you know, it's been my experience that we try to schedule time off for the technician so at least, you know, 2 or 3 are still in the shop. Now obviously with a bigger staff, that's not as important. And sometimes working with a shop that's a union shop, you have very specific requirements and very specific schedules and time off schedules to adhere to. So that makes it a little bit more difficult. Do you typically let more than one technician off at a given time?

You know, when I had a shop that had 7, 8 technicians in it, you know, we could handle letting 2 or 3 go that may overlap. It was tough to let that, you know, be all during the same time period, but, you know, we could cover that in a shop that size. But I've been in shops where there was 2 of us, you know, and so the nice thing about during the summer is, you know, some of those smaller fleets, if that company has, you know, high school kids that come in and help during the summer, things like that, you can generally pull one of those kids in to kind of be, you you know, a lube tech or a helper during the summer. And so back to your point, you're not leaving somebody, you know, by themselves in the shop in case something were to happen. So, you know, there's ways to manage it. It just depends on the operation, what the business is, you know, that you're supporting and things like that to kind of find some workarounds. But generally, you don't want to leave yourself too short for sure.

Well, that's great. And, you know, I found that the HR policies surrounding PTO are generally pretty helpful. It will generally identify when you can start applying for time off and when you can put in your vacation requests. So that's generally pretty helpful as well.

Right.

Well, that's a great point. Then do you typically let your customers know that you're going to be short-staffed and that there might be some delay issues, or is that something that you don't necessarily communicate with your customers?

You know, I think I think when it comes to summertime and vacations, you know, if somebody calls to schedule stuff, you can always tell them, you know, we're a little bit short-staffed due to vacation. You can drop it off. It may take us a day or two longer. And you always want to communicate that regardless, you know, that expected turnaround time. But, you know, usually people are pretty understanding of those summertime months, you know. And on the flip side of that, you also see where your internal customers may be doing the same thing and taking those vacations. And so you may get stuff for scheduled maintenance you've been trying to get for months. And finally, they're like, yeah, we're gonna take a week off, so I'll drop that off for you. So, and that usually will help, you know, some of those longer turnaround times because now you've got a week instead of them dropping it off at 4 o'clock and want to pick it up at 7 AM the next day. So it kind of works both ways, which is kind of nice.

Absolutely. And I'm glad you brought that up because generally speaking, you know, the customer groups are also taking time off at this time, and it's a great way to get caught up on some deferred maintenance. So A great use of that time as well. So one of the other things that I worked in municipal government for a long time, and one of the things that we used to our advantage was summer hours. We would— a lot of the people wanted to come early, come in early and get off early, not only to avoid the heat of the day in the afternoon, but also to give them more opportunity to spend time with their families in the afternoon and evenings. Do you— have you seen a lot of people actually change their operating hours in the summer to accommodate things like that?

Yeah, I've seen some fleets that will do that. You know, they want to come in earlier in the summer, especially when you get into some of those construction companies, because, you know, they're trying to beat the heat. They want to start, you know, 5 in the morning in the, in the nice cool weather, do the stuff they got to do and be out of there by, you know, 2 or 3 in the afternoon. So I have seen that. One of the things that I always like to do in our shops is, is try to do maybe a split shift where you maybe have a guy start or 2 guys start fairly early and then you just, you you know, make a couple of overlapping shifts throughout the day. So you maybe have 10 or 12 hours of coverage with one shift. So I've seen a couple of different things work really well, and it just kind of depends on that industry.

Well, good, good. Well, the other thing that— and again, from an individual perspective, many more people are traveling during the summer months. As most of us know, total vehicle miles traveled, or VMTs, are highest this time of year, with peak mileage generally coming in the months of July and August. So with miles traveled up in the summer on a personal perspective, what's your experience show in fleets? Do the vehicle miles traveled increase in the summer months or do you usually see a decrease?

I think you definitely see the increase in those regions of the country that experience four seasons, right? Because that's when they can get the outside work done and that's when they're really pushing some of that stuff. You know, some of the areas that have the nicer weather year round, you may see an uptick a little bit, but I think it's a little more leveled out for some of those. So, you know, I think it just kind of goes back to that regional aspect. And again, I think industry drives some of that as well.

Well, exactly. I, you know, around here, as soon as the weather breaks, you see those orange cones and orange barrels out on the street. So, you know, they're certainly trying to get those projects in when the weather is decent.

Yeah.

So let's talk about that in a little bit more perspective when it comes to fuel. So the good news is that gasoline prices are down about $1.40 a gallon from this time a year ago. Diesel prices seem to be down about $1.92 from this point a year ago, but they're bouncing around a little bit. You know, last week they were a little bit higher, they bounced, they went down a little bit this week. So they're really all over the place. So what do you expect to see and what trends are you seeing with fuel prices for this summer months?

You know, it's tough with the way the economy's been the last probably 2 years. It's tough to predict it. You know, 5 years ago you could look at some of the economic trends and you could kind of guess where fuel was going to go with that and kind of budget for it. But ever since COVID happened, it's like, it's kind of up for grabs. You know, typically you would see those summer months, the fuel start to creep up in the spring and, you know, hit the peak in the summer and then in the fall, you know, they'd kind of start to come back down. So they kind of would trend with those, you know, mileage increases that you're traveling. So, but, but lately it's been tough, you know, it's hard to pinpoint lately.

Well, that's a great point. We've done some trend analysis on fuel costs over the last several years. And, you know, generally speaking, you know, you could just run some analysis and identify what months you're going to, you know, consume more fuel and, and plan for that. And you kind of could see where the trends on fuel costs were going. Typically you see that spike right after Memorial— leading up to Memorial Day and after. You know, simply put, the demand for gasoline and diesel is a lot higher in the summer months. So of course, the old supply and demand matrix is going to result in higher costs. And recently, you know, Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest oil exporters, said it was slashing oil production by at least 1 million gallons— or 1 million barrels per day through July. And that followed on the heels of OPEC's announcement this past April that it was also going to slash oil production by almost 1.6 million barrels per day. So with the increasing demand for fuel and the decreasing supply, you know, I would tend to see that fuel prices will probably be ticking upwards.

Definitely.

Well, the other thing, you know, obviously we've got the war in the Ukraine war. Which is impacting supply. We, we have China finally bouncing back from their continued COVID lockdowns, which is going to increase, increase the demand for fuel. So, you know, it's really, you never really know, but I'm thinking that we're going to probably see a, a slow increase in fuel prices over the next 3 or 4 months.

Yep, I would agree.

Cool. The other thing about operating a fleet in the summer is obviously with, with higher temperatures comes a unique set of issues and problems with fleets. What are some of the key maintenance issues that we need to address and consider during the summer months?

You know, I think the first thing that comes to mind when I think about, you know, weather or season changes, there's two. First one's batteries, right? For some reason, batteries, when temperatures change the extreme from hot to cold or cold to hot, it just You know, it takes a toll on those batteries. So I always tell people, hey, just get your batteries checked or pay attention to how your car is starting. If it starts to sound different, you know, go get that thing checked. And then the other one is tires, right? If you're coming into fall or winter, you definitely want to make sure that you got some good tread, things are looking good there. And then coming into summer, if you plan on taking road trips, you want to make sure that those tires are in good shape. But, you know, to go along with that, right, we should be checking our fluids, making sure coolant's topped off. Drive belts look good, you know, we're changing air filters, things like that. So some of that, you know, very basic routine stuff we definitely want to make sure we're checking, especially between those hot summer months or those cold winters.

Well, that's great, you know, and Nathan, it's interesting that you led off with batteries because most people are more familiar with batteries failing in the winter and for obvious reasons, for, you know, if you get extreme cold temperatures, batteries seem to fail immediately at times. And so people are always considering the life of their battery in the winter, but your comments about batteries in the summer is so true. I think a lot of individuals don't realize that, but a lot of fleet managers and fleet technicians, they experience that because not only is it the extreme weathers that impact the battery life, but also changing from season to season and the way the vehicles are used. I mean, you know, there's a lot more going on with the vehicles in the summertime at points of time. So it really does impact the fleet batteries.

Yeah, and you definitely see an uptick in the, you know, the air conditioning complaints. You know, as the weather gets warmer, people start to turn the AC on and realize it's not blowing as cold as maybe it should, or they feel like it should, so they want to drop it off and have that looked at too. So you definitely see some of those seasonal things for sure.

Well, that's great, a great point. You know, the thing about the— you'd mentioned the AC, and obviously that was Probably the number one thing that I thought you were going to say, but as a fleet professional, it shows that you've looked at the numbers and you've done the analysis that show that the batteries, the tires, which I find fascinating that the tire wear is so important in the summer. Not only are you traveling more miles, you need to be considered, considerate of the tread wear and the tread depth, but, but also the fact of tire inflation. How important is it to have the right amount of air in your tires.

Yeah, tire inflation is a big deal, and I don't know exact numbers, but I know, you know, if they're underinflated, it's going to increase, you know, some of that resistance, which makes fuel economy go down and things like that. But not only that, you know, as you drive and you drive farther distances, you know, those tires heat up and it increases air pressures. So if they're high already, you know, that can lead to blowouts and things like that. So just a lot of issues with tires, not only with tread, but I'm glad you bring up air pressure because that's another great thing to check. And to pigtail off that, you got spare tires, right? And how many people check those?

So yeah, guilty here. I can't remember last time I checked my spare tire. That's a great point. You know, the other thing, I do have some seasonal allergies when it comes to tree pollen specifically. So I know cabin filters are very important to be checking, not necessarily in the summer, but maybe in late spring. Is that part of a regular PM maintenance check for most fleet organizations?

Yeah, we would typically see those on an annual. You know, they would get replaced on an annual unless there was some complaints of, you know, odors or things like that. I've seen tree leaves, like you mentioned with the pollens, you know, I've seen tree leaves and things get sucked into those cabin filters and then, you know, they get wet and they start to make an odor. Typically you'll see those on a yearly or an annual inspection get chapter replaced.

Okay, and then what about overheating? You know, you don't see it nearly as often anymore, but you know, before when you're on a long vacation, you'd always see cars pulled over on the side of the road with their engine hoods up and the car overheating. Thank goodness we don't see that nearly as much, but what are some of the things that you can do as a fleet owner to eliminate or at least reduce overheating in your vehicles?

Yeah, I think the first thing I would do is definitely make sure that we're keeping our vehicles clean, right? Those radiators can get plugged up in things very easily with road debris, garbage, leaves, again, things like that. Especially if you operate in dirty environments, you know, the construction crews that are out on the job sites with dirt, mud tends to plug that stuff up. That's probably the biggest, you know, leading cause of overheating that I see. And then the other one obviously is coolant leaks or things not properly maintained there. So, you know, just checking those coolant levels, checking to make sure that everything looks clean and, you know, airflow can flow the way it's supposed to and keep things cool is definitely going to be some good things to check.

Well, it sounds like a lot of the stuff that you've identified, Nathan, you know, really could be checked in your regular daily pre-trip routine. Is that correct?

Yeah, absolutely. When you get fuel, stop and get fuel, pop the hood while it's pumping and, you know, check the fluids, make sure you don't need anything topped off, everything's clean, it looks good.

Fantastic. What about, what have you seen for idling policies during the summer with people? And I know law enforcement fleets are idling all the time and they're running their air conditionings and you've got a lot of inspectors out on the road or you have people that are making daily trips and their vehicles idle a lot while they're making that run to the person's front step to drop off the package. And what kind of policies have you seen affected to reduce idling or to reduce fuel consumption?

Well, you're definitely seeing a lot more idle reduction policies come into effect. The city I managed, we had a mayor that instituted a no-idling ordinance for the whole city. It wasn't just employees. Obviously, there's always exceptions to that, right, for those people that are out working in the heat or in the cold. You know, they're going to idle a little bit for that temperature control. But I will say with the newer technologies with vehicles, you know, not only hybrids but some of the newer stuff, your AC and heater are going to now be electronically controlled. So it's not engine-driven, you know. So that idling, you know, the idling isn't going to be so necessary to keep the climate control running in the vehicle. So I think you're going to start to see a big reduction in that over the next several years as that technology starts to come out in more and more vehicles. Policies, you know, in my experience have been kind of all over the place. Some companies have them, some don't. You know, obviously city governments are a lot more strict with some of that stuff. So they're kind of all over the place.

Exactly. And I think the other thing that we're seeing now with so many more people using telematics in their fleet operations is that organizations have a better tool to help plan their routes. And obviously better route planning is going to reduce vehicle miles traveled, which hopefully will reduce fuel consumption. Have you seen organizations successful in reducing travel based on improved routes?

Absolutely. Yeah. We, you know, I worked for a national fleet for a little while and that was one of their very top projects. You know, when I went to work for them, they'd instituted telematics. They were watching that drive time. Route optimization was like their number one thing that they wanted to look at for the fleet so that they could save you know, not only the fuel, but be more efficient and add, you know, maybe more stops or service other clients during that same time period. So I think route optimization is going to be a big, big deal. And I've seen it work for fleets and there's just the money that you can save can be amazing. It just depends on what the fleet's doing when you look at it, right? If you're fairly efficient, you might save 5 to 10%. If they're not very efficient, you could save 20, 30%. So It's definitely something that I see fleets looking at for sure.

Well, good, good. You know, the other thing, and I know a lot of people think that telematics is really Big Brother watching you and making sure, you know, looking at all your driving habits, but, you know, aggressive driving, whether it be speeding or rapid acceleration, can really impact your fuel mileage. I mean, I've read some studies recently that, um, it can, you know, speeding, you know, 5, 10, 15 miles an hour over the speed limit rapid acceleration can lower your gas mileage by anywhere from 15 to 30% at highway speeds and 10 to 40% in stop-and-go traffic. So, you know, it's not necessarily we're looking at the driver to, you know, say, "Gotcha." I think it's more of, "Hey, you know, let's be a better driver. Let's impact behavior so we can reduce fuel consumption, save some money for the organization." Yeah, telematics are a great tool.

I've used them at several fleets. You know, they work really well for, you know, for instance, we started using it for low battery warnings so that we could actually see that, make some predictive maintenance, have vehicles come in and swap batteries out before the drivers got stranded. So, you know, they enjoyed that and thought that they started to see that positive side of it. And, you know, they didn't think we were watching where they were necessarily. We just wanted to see the health of the vehicle.

Exactly. And, you know, the only other— my last comment on possibly reducing fuel consumption is, you know, whenever possible, reduce the weight of the vehicle, and not necessarily the actual vehicle, but the payload and the cargo. You know, reducing the weight that you're hauling in the back of a pickup truck or in a van or wherever it is, you know, for every 100 pounds that you can take out of the vehicle, you're going to improve your fuel efficiency by about 1%. So what have you seen organizations actually proactively look at, that type of stuff?

You know, I think they start to look at that when you start to think about right-sizing, you know, when you start looking at the what vehicle they're, you know, they're using for the job they do, that's when that becomes a bigger thing to look at. But, you know, right-sizing what they're carrying as far as payload is all part of that kind of that bigger picture. So yeah, I've definitely seen it. You know, again, some fleets are really good at it. Some are still behind the times.

Well, perfect. Well, Nathan, I really do appreciate your time today. You know, we just wanted to spend a little bit of time and let people know what they should be looking at and considering when managing and maintaining their fleets for the summer months. So I really appreciate, appreciate your input today. And that's it for this week's Fleet Success Show.

Well, thanks for having me.

Thank you.

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