Vehicle maintenance history: how to build yours

Maintenance history refers to the combined data from all the inspection, repair and fixing processes that fleet vehicles have undergone.

With the necessary information, it is easier for managers and their teams to plan daily actions and find suitable solutions, considering each vehicle's needs.

But none of this would be possible without an integrated system that meets company requirements. After all, the goal is to improve fleet processes and optimize transport routines. Learn more about:

• What fleet maintenance history is;
• Why keeping a maintenance history matters;
• How to create a maintenance history;
• How to control the maintenance history of fleet vehicles.

What is fleet maintenance history?

Maintenance history is like a document containing all the information about repairs and fixes already performed on a fleet's vehicles. These documents are usually created in spreadsheets or a system.

It contains specific data about vehicle condition, such as:

• Maintenance type;
• Date of the service performed and/or last inspection;
• Which components were replaced;
• Service costs;
• Time spent out of service;
• Mileage to date.

Through this compilation, managers and their teams analyze vehicle performance and, if necessary, make decisions intended to bring improvements to the fleet.

That is not all maintenance history is for. In fact, it is a major pillar for creating a maintenance control plan — which also details the entire maintenance routine and service schedule over a given period.

Why is keeping a maintenance history important?

Because maintenance history allows you to guide and plan decisions about fleet vehicles.

And also because it is a resource when unexpected issues occur in vehicles.

In these cases, you can access the history and check whether every item in an inspection was filled in correctly or whether a service was not performed and may have caused the failure, and so on.

In addition, all its information helps schedule services by urgency and the individual demands of each case.

This not only reduces excessive costs for unplanned corrective maintenance, but also helps extend the vehicle's useful life.

See some advantages of keeping and using maintenance history:

• Greater visibility into the fleet's maintenance routine;
• Creation of a knowledge base about maintenance processes;
• Ease of access to data and report generation to support managers' arguments;
• Speed in finding information when a vehicle has unforeseen issues.

How do you create a maintenance history for your operation?

Create a maintenance routine

Preventive maintenance is the best alternative to avoid costs from unforeseen events, such as mechanical failures.

In your operation's routine, you should include vehicle checklists, which can work by inspection type or frequency, as well as by vehicle type.

For example, a truck checklist includes inspection of the driver's cab, while a motorcycle checklist needs to include checking the belts.

If planning by frequency, a daily inspection should consider basic items, such as headlights, brakes and the seat belt. Meanwhile, a monthly inspection needs to assess balancing and vehicle alignment.

The important point to remember here is: this step is essential to generate information in your fleet and be able to create a maintenance history. So is using the right tool to collect data during this inspection routine.

Use the right tools

What do you need to have a maintenance history?

First, a tool to perform vehicle inspections. Then, a way to control fleet work orders, recording maintenance types, services performed and costs incurred.

Finally, an integration that cross-references this data and can organize everything in a single view — that is the history.

Although it is possible to build all of this in a maintenance management spreadsheet, this alternative takes more work and is more prone to errors.

A maintenance management system, combined with an electronic checklist, provides everything you need to organize and keep track of fleet maintenance.

Train the team

In many fleets, drivers are responsible for the daily vehicle inspection. They must be capable of the task and know its importance, so that they perform it correctly and contribute to generating reliable data for your management.

If the mechanics' team is managed in-house within the fleet, they also need training and to adapt to the processes of the platforms adopted in the operation.

As a result, maintenance happens faster, services are efficient, and data is correctly recorded and updated in the system.

How do you control the maintenance history of fleet vehicles?

The best way to control maintenance history is by using a digital platform, where data is organized automatically from daily input of inspection records and services performed.

For this, your effort goes into the other tasks that are essential for the history to exist, rather than controlling the history itself.

As technology advances, new software to meet the requirements of those operating vehicle fleets is appearing more and more frequently.

Naturally, manual work prone to errors is replaced by digital resources. However, a system should be chosen based on your operation's needs and by comparing the features the technology offers.

We invite you to discover the Prolog App Electronic Checklist and try our tool for free.