Municipalities

Municipal fleets include public works vehicles, public transportation and emergency vehicles. Keeping the vehicles in these fleets up and running is critical to the operations of any city or town. Many locations have their own maintenance garages to service the municipal fleet which can include hundreds or even thousands of vehicles.

Sending oil samples to an outside laboratory works but it can be expensive and results can take days or weeks. Waiting for results means the vehicle might be back on the road and failures could happen before the analysis is obtained.

Having on-site oil analysis capability can help fleet managers solve issues while the vehicle is still in the garage. It also helps them achieve operational cost savings, reduce downtime and unexpected failures as well as manage the work flow of the service bays. Many cities and towns also use oil analysis to help achieve “green fleet” initiatives by monitoring the condition of the oil and changing only when necessary rather than on a time or mileage basis.


Challenges

Oil drains are expensive for large vehicles
By monitoring oil condition with on-site analysis the maintenance staff can determine if the oil drain interval can be extended safely. Reducing the number of oil drains required per vehicle by even just one time per year can provide significant savings across a fleet of vehicles. This also helps achieve green initiatives by reducing the oil consumption and oil disposal.

Repair costs can be high
Oil analysis can help identify potential problems early – before they become catastrophic and costly repairs. On-site analysis provides the service technicians the information about the vehicle while it is still in the garage so repairs can be made immediately before it goes back out on the road. Early identification could mean the difference between a $2,500 EGR cooler repair and a $30,000 engine rebuild.

Downtime of vehicles impacts service and revenue
When a vehicle is unavailable due to mechanical problems it means it is not available to provide necessary service like in the case of a city transit bus or if it is part of the public works fleet for things like snow removal. For companies like freight haulers or mining equipment it means it will impact the revenue generating service it provides. Oil analysis can help fleet managers to ensure their vehicles will be up and running when they are needed.

Managing maintenance work flow can be difficult
A busy service garage, especially one that maintains a large fleet of vehicles needs to optimize the flow of their vehicles to get them in, serviced and back on the road in a timely manner. Many fleet customers of the MicroLab oil analyzer will bring a vehicle in and immediately pull an oil sample for test. While it is running they can conduct other necessary service checks. Within 15minutes, they will know whether they need to change the oil or if they can move on to other tasks. Incorporating oil analysis into the routine diagnostics checks allows fleet service providers to be more efficient with their time.