Vehicle Maintenance Improvements

Welcome to CSA Basics.

CSA Basics.

The podcast where we talk about all things related to safety, compliance, and insurance for the trucking industry. We're here to help you save money, save time, and save lives. Now, here's your host, CEO of Carrier Risk Solutions, Sam Tucker.

All right, welcome back and thanks for joining us on another episode of the CSA Basics Podcast. Today we want to talk about some tips to help improve the vehicle maintenance of any fleet. So the first tip we want to share with you today is ensure that all lights are operational at all times. So if you've been exposed to us for any amount of time, you know I'm constantly preaching out there that lighting, lighting, lighting, lighting, lighting is always most important factor out there to prevent any roadside inspection, but especially helps us vehicle maintenance basic scores as well. So you want to ensure that all lights are operational at all times. This really isn't that tough to do. I mean, it really just involves the driver doing a once around the truck and trailer, maybe once every couple of days. It doesn't have to be every single day, but maybe once every couple days. If they walk around the trailer, which we would like them to do it every single day. But you know sometimes that doesn't happen. And just make sure all the lights on the truck and trailer are operational. That's the most important thing because having any of those lights out is like a beacon out to all law enforcement that comes in contact with that truck and trailer, saying, "Please inspect me. Please inspect me. Please inspect me." So you want to make sure that all trucks have all operational lights at all times. So that's the first quick tip. The second one is only allow trained adjusters or trained mechanics rather to adjust automatic slack adjusters. So drivers should measure the automatic slack adjusters and measure the brake stroke there, but they should never be adjusting those automatic slack adjusters. By nature, by the name of it, they're automatic, right? So nobody should be tinkering with those unless they're qualified brake mechanics and able to do so. Along those same lines, these next 2 tips have to do also with automatic slack adjusters too. So the second tip around those are make sure that the slack adjusters are fully greased. And what that means is every 25,000 to 30,000 miles, you should have a qualified brake mechanic flush those automatic slack adjusters and insert fresh grease into them, making sure they're fully greased at all times. Doing so helps get all that crud and dirt and water and crap out of those automatic slack adjusters, ensures that they're adjusting properly, and making sure that everything's functioning like it's supposed to. Along the same lines too, Each driver should do one full brake compression each day. So that also helps make sure those automatic slack adjusters are performing appropriately. Generally speaking, drivers don't actually push the brakes down fully once a day in their regular driving, or they really shouldn't be, right? Or if they are, that's really suggesting sometimes that they're not doing things correctly or having to slam on the brakes or following too closely or something's happening. So it's a really great idea for when they're in the cab starting up for the first part of the day to just do one full brake compression. Don't slam on the brakes, just have them fully compress everything down to the floorboard to make sure those automatic slack adjusters have the ability to go through the full range of motion and be able to adjust like they're supposed to. The 4th tip is to track tire tread depths at least once a month. So this has to do with the drivers actually physically getting out or measuring The tire tread depths in the major groove, and making sure that all the tires are adequate in terms of the tire tread depth. For all the rear tires, that's four thirty seconds of an inch or greater. For all the front, the two front steer tires, that's above two thirty seconds of an inch. So what that means is you want to have all the drivers go out at least once per month, do a full go around the whole truck and trailer, make sure they have a tire tread depth for each of those tires on the truck and trailer, and then that's reported back to management. That way. Management can actually take that information and make sure that each tire is appropriately wearing where it's supposed to be, and that they actually can plan and say, okay, I know that this tire is at 6/32, and based on the number of miles that truck is running on average each month, we're going to have to replace that tire within the next month or two. So they can start planning for that instead of having a tire emergency on the roadside, which costs you more time, money, and energy in getting those things fixed. So you want to make sure that happens. And that will also help keep that the vehicle maintenance basic scores in check too, obviously. Another really great tip is to document every major repair made to the truck and trailer. So obviously the FMCSA makes or regulates is supposed to force everybody to have full and complete vehicle maintenance records on every truck and trailer. Part of that's actually having the repairs that are done to that truck and trailer well documented and retained in the vehicle maintenance file for that truck or trailer. So always document every major repair is made, and especially, especially if that repair has to do with something that was detected by an officer on the roadside. So if a driver actually receives a DVER, a driver vehicle examination report, where they're cited, it doesn't matter if it's a warning or if it's an actual violation given for a specific vehicle maintenance issue, you want to make sure that's obviously communicated back to management and that repair is made. But also, once their repair is made, you want to make sure that documentation is not only kept With the vehicle maintenance records for that truck or trailer, but you should probably also get that information or get that repair receipt and attach it to that DVER in case of a compliance review. You'll have that information together, so you're not scrambling and searching for it. Makes it look like you have your stuff together, right? So that's always a really great idea. So again, document every major repair made to the truck and trailer. Keep that information in the vehicle maintenance file and keep those files. The last one is there really is no substitute for a thorough pre or post trip inspection. So drivers having an intimate familiarity with the truck and trailer, understanding the nuances of the truck and trailer, and making sure that those systems are working like they're supposed to is critically important, right? So what a thorough pre or post trip inspection looks like could really depend on the driver, the truck, and the fleet. So it's no real solid answer. You know, we know we have to do post trip inspections. We know we have to document if there's an issue, and that should be documented. But the problem is, is again, there's the FMCSA is really, really good about telling you what you have to do. But they're not really good about telling you how to do it. So there's a lot of open interpretation about what a good post-trip inspection looks like. Now I could sit here for hours and say, oh, you should do this, this, this, and this. But the reality of the situation is that drivers out there aren't going to go through a 50-point checklist of the truck and trailer every single time. It's just an invitation for them to pencil whip it, right? So we don't really want that. But what we do want is we want them focusing on the most important things. So as a fleet, you really need to decide what those most important things look like from a vehicle maintenance perspective and make sure that's communicated communicate to the drivers as well. In fact, you probably want to get the input from the driver saying, in your, in your eyes, what's the most important things we should be looking for on a vehicle maintenance inspection or pre- or post-trip inspection? That way, that gets their buy-in to the situation and the process too and helps get a very good baseline understanding of exactly what is expected of the drivers to say, you know, what can we expect you to do every single day when you're looking at this truck and trailer? So that will help improve the vehicle maintenance program overall, but it'll also help improve those post-trip and pre-trip inspections And it also helps the driver be involved in the process where they don't feel like they're being bullied into having to do something. You know, it's really having that buy-in in that situation where, you know, these are the things as a fleet we've come together and we said these are the things that we need to inspect on these trucks and trailers every single day to ensure that we have success in our vehicle maintenance program. So obviously, like I said, again, thorough pre- and post-trip inspections are important, but also you want to make sure you get the driver's buy-in and understanding exactly what's expected of them and communicate that clearly to everyone. All right, so just to recap, ensure all lights are operational at all times. Only allow train mechanics to adjust those automatic slack adjusters. Ensure those automatic slack adjusters are fully lubricated. Have drivers do one full brake compression each day to help adjust those brakes. Make sure the drivers are tracking the tire tread depths and the management's focusing on monitoring that at least once a month. Document every major repair that's made to each truck and trailer and keep those in the vehicle maintenance files. And then make sure the drivers are doing a thorough pre- or post-trip inspection each day to ensure that the vehicle maintenance of that— or the maintenance of the vehicle is in top condition as much as possible. So that about wraps up for today. If you have any questions or want to talk about this any further, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Our phone number is 1-855-211- And you can also check us out at mysafetymanager.com. Hope you enjoyed this episode and look forward to seeing you next time.

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