Early 21st century fleet management

Looking for a challenge? You might try the United States Marines, or you might consider dairy and ice cream fleet management in the early 21st century.

Wow, $4-a-gallon (and still rising) "clean" ultra-low-sulphur diesel, $100,000 route trucks, 2010 engine emissions regulations, skilled CDL driver shortages, monumental traffic congestion and deteriorating roadways. Plus, there are no "silver bullet" quick solutions out there.

So how does a successful dairy or ice cream fleet manager deal with these major expense and operating challenges? As an old friend said, "Just like eating a whale, you take it one bite at a time." For starters, you go back and review fundamental fleet management and operating basics.
With diesel at $4 and climbing, you start with fuel management and accountability. In past times of high prices or scarcity, fuel diversion for personal use was almost entirely a gasoline issue. But with today's population of diesel-powered autos, pickups and SUVs for personal use, diesel theft by employee drivers and mechanics, fuel delivery drivers and fuel wholesalers, it's now a larger a potential dairy fleet problem than $3-plus gasoline.

All fuel delivery gallons-received manifests should be verified against both P.O. gallons ordered and before-and-after delivery tank inventory readings. It's also good practice to use multiple alternating personnel for fuel receiving verification and signature acceptance. At the minimum, fleet usage must be tracked by date, by individual vehicle miles and refrigeration unit engine hours. Fleet usage pump totals should also be balanced against tank inventory records on a weekly basis, at a minimum.

Fleet vehicle miles-per-gallon and refrigeration unit engine hours-per-gallon averages must also be tracked weekly, monthly and life to date against all other fleet units with the same specifications (as a particular vehicle class). Individual unit average mpg is continuously tracked against both the group average and for variations from its own average.

By establishing the vehicle class miles-per-gallon average as the "norm" for the class, you can concentrate on the "exceptions" and determining what's required to get each "below-norm exception" up to meeting at least the class average, thereby raising the class average as well. Below-norm averages may be an indicator of maintenance or repair needs. It could be also be due to excessive idle time or need for driver education and training, or it may indicate a fuel-theft problem.

As you first identify and correct problems causing below-average fuel mileage, you should also look into why some units are better than the norm. Are there identifiable characteristics in the above norm performers that can be applied to all other vehicles in the class?

Unnecessary vehicle idle time can, in truth, be a very high percentage of total vehicle engine hours in many route delivery operations. In past years it was not uncommon to see as much as 80% of a route truck's engine hours prove to be idle time. Route trucks were commonly left running while making a delivery. If not already corrected, those kinds of practices must be eliminated. Today the goal of total fleet idle elimination has two prominent external pressures also working to help insure compliance. State and local noise-suppression ordnances, along with emissions reduction (no-idle) ordnances, are also forcing elimination of vehicle idling. In addition, fleets also now have technology available to restrict idle time using programmed engine shutdown times for stationary vehicles.

Fleet tire management and controls are probably the next broad set of fleet basics that should be carefully reviewed and updated. I would also suggest this is one of the weakest areas of many dairy and ice cream fleets. Simply put in this short space: If you can't track and measure individual tire cost by mile, by truck or trailer per mile and with unit average cost per mile by vehicle type and class, along with tire costs per mile averages by position (i.e., steering, drive axle, trailer) and by make of tire, you simply can't manage or control fleet tire costs. On the other hand, when you reach the capability of determining that a particular tire make and tread design, when used on steering axles in a certain group of tractors, will produce a 0.3-of-a-mile improvement in fuel mpg, you then have a top-tier fleet tire management program that will make your company money.

Simple tire management basics will also reduce tire costs and improve fuel mileage. That begins with ensuring that proper tire inflation levels are constantly maintained and checked daily. Duals must be measured and checked for commonalty of size and specification. Front-end alignment and trailer tracking is another frequent fleet tire management weakness as well.

Today's fleet-operating environment demands basic fundamentals management excellence as a foundation for building a top-tier fleet management program and organization. In this column, we have briefly touched on but two of the most basic requirements for successful dairy and ice cream fleet management programs in the early 21st century. DFR
Don Wilson is president of the Wilson Group, Waxahachie, Texas, and the principal organizer of the Dairy Distribution and Fleet Management Conference.