THE IDEAL SHOP

STAFFING & SKILLS

How many technicians does a fleet's “ideal shop” require? That depends on the fleet, as does the skill sets required. For A. Duie Pyle's Miske, the size and age of the fleet is more important than the size of the shop or shop bays. “This can be a constantly moving target depending on operating conditions and specific retention goals for a vehicle,” he says. Miske points out that since 2004, fleets have been evaluating retention goals more often due to the “required emissions controls and associated costs to purchase and maintain this equipment.”

According Palm Beach County's Weichman, who wrote a section about shop creation criteria in the new Fleet Management Operating Guide put out by the National Assn. of Fleet Administrators, a rule of thumb is 1.5 or 2 bays per technician. “This allows for vehicles waiting for parts once repairs have started and working two vehicles by one technician,” he says. “To have the vehicle removed from a bay if the vehicle is waiting on parts is a waste of time. An efficient shop would have minimum time spent by a technician on vehicle movement rather then working on it.”

For current and future estimates of how many repair bays or technicians are needed, fleets can use either maintenance repair units (MRU) or technicians-per-vehicle ratios, says Weichman. MRUs are more accurate, he points out, because they take into consideration the number of technician-hours a particular type of equipment might need. Basing the estimate purely on the number of vehicles in the fleet will provide a ballpark estimate.

“Once the number of technicians is established, projections can be made concerning support staff and square footage, affecting supervisor's offices, stockroom room size and staff, fiscal personnel space, etc.,” he adds.

“In terms of manpower, the ideal shop would have every technician equally trained and skilled in each area of fleet maintenance, with the exception of major component overhaul and repair,” says Miske. “Fleets extending the age of their equipment to points beyond component warranty life face the need to locate, hire, train and keep technicians with these skills.”

Saia's Burger agrees. His fleet performs most of its own maintenance, including heavy engine work; body repairs are outsourced, enabling the fleet to avoid the hazardous materials rules surrounding the paint process. “It's important to have those skills, though we don't do as much major component work as we used to,” he says.

That's the flip side, says Miske. Not only would these same technicians maintain that higher skill level, they also have the ability to slide over to conduct preventative maintenance and more routine repairs when needed. “That said, the ideal shop recognizes the…importance of a PM check performed by attentive personnel,” Miske says. “The ideal shop would likely devote the largest portion of its labor to PM, which is where dependable equipment originates.”

THE DIGITAL AGE

All maintenance shops now need computer systems to help diagnose and repair trucks. Just how extensive those systems need to be and what type of technology they use varies from one fleet to another.

“We wanted real-time access to information, so we've supplied every technician location with a Panasonic Toughbook laptop equipped with dual-core processors,” says Jeff Bryant, vp-maintenance for TL carrier Celadon Group. “Every decision revolves around the technician staying on the truck, so having this technology at hand boosts their ability to get information quickly.”

Cemex goes a step further, using the same business-grade SAP enterprise resource planning system in its maintenance operation as is used by the corporate office, notes Carew.

“My ideal shop would be completely paperless to the maximum extent [possible], with electronic workstations located strategically in each work area,” says A. Duie Pyle's Miske. “If there are multiple technicians working in each area of the shop, there would be a minimum of two electronic workstations providing access to electronic repair order creation and maintenance, vehicle history and all web-based research tools.”

Miske adds that there would be enough storage space at these workstations to safely house a laptop at each, along with any hand-held diagnostic tools the technician requires for all systems, including ABS, engine and transmission troubleshooting.

Even at the municipal level, more computing power is the ideal for maintenance shops. “We are Wi-Fi throughout the whole compound …allowing technicians to use laptops right at the vehicle to connect to the Internet or our server to get data from various vehicle manufacturers, including service manuals, to make repairs,” says Palm Beach County's Weichman.

At Saia such systems are not used as extensively. “We don't have PCs for every technician; we have enough for them to do the job,” says Burger. “We haven't addressed using Wi-Fi networks, though we're moving in that direction.”

“Computers are here to stay; fleets just need to figure out whether wireless or cable-connected systems work best for their shops,” adds TMC's Stuart. “But you need to control computer use, [making sure] technicians are spending time on the truck and not on data collection. In my view, 90% of problems can be fixed with common sense; you don't need to surf the Internet to fix everything.”