I asked one fleet manager how he spec’ed replacement trucks for his fleet application. He related that many years earlier an OEM rep spec’ed out his trucks and he has been using the same formula ever since. While this may work in some cases, specifications should be defined by today’s fleet application to ensure the replacement truck is designed to accommodate current operational requirements rather than trying to make your operation conform to trucks spec’ed for yesteryear’s requirements.
Properly identifying payload parameters is the foremost consideration to properly spec’ing a truck. To illustrate this fact, the weight of the payload will determine the engine, transmission, size of tire, frame, and just about everything else.
Fleet managers need to view work trucks as earning assets. To maximize the productivity of this working asset, it is necessary to optimize specifications, operating procedures, and replacement strategies. The best way to optimize truck productivity is to spec the right vehicle for the fleet application. This may sound like I am stating the obvious, but, as many truck professionals will attest, it is often not the case in the real world.
Under OSHA regulations, an employer must provide a workplace (which includes upfitted work vehicles) free from recognized hazards. Across a variety of vocational segments, today’s fleet managers are devoting increased consideration to ensuring upfits will be ergonomically safe for the driver over the service life of the vehicles. Here's what they are doing to reduce Workers' Comp claims.
The multitude of upfitting options and potential configurations makes it easy to fulfill Murphy’s Law, which states, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Unfortunately, in many cases, who triggers Murphy’s Law is the fleet manager who does not carefully review the upfit specs, or has not consulted thoroughly with the actual users of the equipment, or attempts to over-engineer the upfit. These are all avoidable mistakes.
How you spec a truck has a direct bearing on its future resale. Here are the some of the dos and don’ts in truck spec’ing that will impact resale values.
The key word in calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) is total. When spec’ing vehicles, the cost-avoidance benefits of good ergonomics must be monetized to an approximate value and factored into calculating the true total cost of ownership.
Spec’ing a truck is a complicated process no matter where you are in the world. Building the right truck requires hundreds of decisions and choices – and each choice potentially impacts another. Where it gets tricky is finding the balance between over-spec’ing and under-spec’ing a truck, each with its own unique set of consequences.
When used in the manufacture of truck bodies and van equipment, lightweight materials, such as thinner gauge high-strength steel, aluminum, fiberglass, and plastic composites, enable fleets to reduce vehicle weight to improve fuel economy, increase legal payload, and even drop down to a smaller (often more fuel-efficient) vehicle.
Building a truck is a complicated process. Specifying the right truck requires hundreds of decisions and choices – and each choice potentially impacts another. The tricky part is finding the balance between over-spec’ing and under-spec’ing a vehicle, each with its own unique set of consequences.