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 Ask
the Expert question: I've
heard a lot lately about outsourcing trailer maintenance, but
in order to change my company's maintenance process I need to
learn more about the advantages. Will outsourcing really save
me money and time?
Jeff Ballew,
Maintenance Management product manager, answers: Many of our
leasing customers are facing the same question of whether or not
to outsource the maintenance of their trailer fleet. There are
also many companies that own their own fleet and have turned to
outsourcing because maintenance has simply become a distraction
from their core business - such as operating a retail store chain.
 One
of the first things to evaluate is the location of your distribution
and maintenance facilities in relation to your routes. Will you
be able to maintain your trailers cost-effectively when they are
on the road and far away from your distribution facilities?
Outsourcing
with a nationwide vendor that has remote locations throughout
the country or offers mobile maintenance units ensures that your
trailers are maintained in a timely manner - with little downtime.
With the challenges of the driver shortage and rising fuel costs
impacting fleets this can be another important way to help reduce
costs and keep your trailers on the road.
Some other
things with outsourcing are quality, cost and time consistency
through standardized repair procedures, and consistent maintenance
expertise. For instance, having a set of published repair and
time standards with one vendor allows you to know what you will
be charged, how long it will take and how it will be performed
every time the same type of repair is needed. This consistency
helps you predict what your expenses will be and plan accordingly.
Relying on
an outsourcing company that can also consolidate you repairs by
type and expense can have a huge impact on your operations. When
you know the cycles of repairs or re-occurrences of maintenance
problems it can help you make adjustments to things such as future
equipment specifying or even driver training. This consolidated
view of your maintenance expenses can best be achieved through
an outsourced partner because you are capturing repair data regardless
of where the repair was performed - even at a facility hundreds
of miles from your closest distribution point.
GE's Trailer
Fleet Services operates 100 maintenance shop branches across North
America and 450 mobile service vans staffed with trailer maintenance
technicians. Also, because GE manages 135,000 trailers in its
own fleet, we not only have the advantage of that maintenance
experience, but also the ability to remarket trailer assets for
our customers if needed.
Contact your
local branch today to learn more about how our maintenance management
solution can save you time and money in your fleet operations.
For more on
this topic, read "Outsourcing Trailer Maintenance" in the December
issue of Fleet Equipment Magazine.
To
submit a question to be answered by a GE expert in a future On
the Move issue, click
here.
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