Last month, senior executives of about two dozen innovative truck fleet operations gathered in the Florida Keys for an annual summit hosted by Commercial Carrier Journal, a sister publication of Truck Parts & Service. The initiatives highlighted touched on numerous important areas of fleet management, including safety, efficiency, productivity and environmental stewardship, just to name a few.
One presentation that generated considerable interest was that of the director of maintenance for a large Southeastern less-than-truckload carrier. CCJ had recognized the company for its efforts in streamlining and standardizing procedures across the company’s 41 shops, thereby reducing waste and unnecessary movements and increasing productivity.
What really got the conversation going, however, was an initiative that CCJ hadn’t even addressed previously. In 2009, this trucking company had quietly begun doing maintenance work for other fleets, and the effort had grown significantly over the past 18 months. The carrier’s sizeable fleet consisted of just one make of both truck and engine, but its shops were now stocking parts for competitive equipment in order to service these new customers.
Fleets are beginning to collaborate in surprising – and scary – ways
During a period when freight activity was in a lull, to put it mildly, taking in outside work helped the LTL carrier bring in a little extra cash and keep a seasoned maintenance staff — the average experience level is 17 years — more fully utilized.
Based on the discussion, most executives in the room clearly were suddenly considering how they might take advantage of such an arrangement — either as service provider or customer or both. The chief operating officer for a large refrigerated carrier didn’t even try to hide his interest: He asked whether the maintenance director had a map of his shop operations with him.
