Maintenance
Preventive maintenance plan: how to build one that survives month two
Almost every mid-size fleet has a maintenance plan. Very few have a live one. The difference is not the document, it is whether somebody finds out in time that the vehicle hit the mileage.
· 7 min read · Maintenance
Why corrective work is always more expensive
A timing belt replaced on schedule is a planned work order, half a day out of service and a part bought with a quote. The same belt snapped is a tow truck, an open engine, a missed delivery and a part bought at whatever price is available today.
The real cost of corrective maintenance is rarely on the shop invoice. It is the vehicle standing still. For a last-mile operator, a truck down for three days is another company running that route for three days, and that route does not come back.
The point of a preventive plan is not warranty compliance. It is that the number of surprises per month trends down, and the ones that still happen do not take the operation with them.
The five steps that actually matter
Everything else is decoration. With these five the plan works even in a spreadsheet; missing one, it fails even with the best software.
A real inventory with real mileage
Plate, class, year, engine and current odometer for every vehicle. If mileage comes from what somebody remembers, the plan is dead on arrival: every mileage interval depends on that number.
Intervals by mileage and by date
Oil every 5,000 or 10,000 km depending on the engine, brakes by wear, battery by time, filters by both. A vehicle that barely moves does not escape maintenance, it just comes due by date instead.
One owner per interval, not per fleet
Saying maintenance belongs to the operations lead assigns nothing. The brake interval on plate ABC123 has to land on one specific phone.
An automatic trigger
The alert has to fire on its own at 500 km or 15 days out, not when someone opens the file. This is the step most fleets skip and the one that decides whether the plan survives month two.
A record of what was done
Date, mileage, shop, parts and cost. Without that history you cannot negotiate with the supplier, claim warranty, or know which vehicle is eating the budget.
Starting intervals
Reasonable starting points for a mixed fleet. Adjust with the manufacturer manual and with your actual routes: dense city work and long-haul freight wear very differently.
| Service | Light urban | Heavy freight | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oil and filter change | 5,000 - 10,000 km | 10,000 - 20,000 km | Mileage |
| Brake inspection | 10,000 km | 15,000 km | Mileage |
| Tire rotation and alignment | 10,000 km | 20,000 km | Mileage |
| Battery and electrical check | 12 months | 12 months | Date |
| Timing belt or chain | Per manufacturer | Per manufacturer | Mileage |
| Mandatory roadworthiness test | Yearly where it applies | Yearly where it applies | Date |
Three mistakes that keep repeating
The first is building the plan per vehicle instead of per interval. Forty vehicles with six intervals each are 240 live dates; written as 40 vehicle sheets they are impossible to follow, written as 240 items with an owner and a date they are an ordinary work queue.
The second is not closing the loop. The order opens, the shop does the work, nobody records the closing mileage, and the next interval is computed from stale data and fires late.
The third is treating preventive maintenance as separate from the pre-trip inspection. The driver is the first person to hear the noise; if that report does not create a maintenance item, the information is lost every single day.
Frequently asked questions
How often should fleet preventive maintenance be done?
There is no single number: it depends on the manufacturer manual, the type of operation and the environment. What is universal is that every interval needs two triggers, mileage and date, and runs on whichever arrives first.
Is a spreadsheet enough for a maintenance plan?
It is enough to store intervals and history. It is not enough to warn anybody. It works while someone has time to open the file every week; it breaks when that person takes leave or the fleet passes thirty vehicles.
What if my shop is external?
Most fleets of 10 to 200 vehicles use external shops and that is fine, as long as the shop can update the work order without creating an account or learning a system. A link over WhatsApp is usually enough.
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