Truck Maintenance

The truck maintenance functionality in Ranger has been designed to assist in managing the uptime and cost effectiveness of the fleet. More specifically:

• Maintain the safety and operating performance of the equipment that is essential to delivering service to customers - providing alerts when a planned preventative maintenance event is coming due (or is past due)
• Identify potential cost issues - assessing ongoing vehicle operating expenditures for fuel, maintenance, and repair - to discern variances that require management action

Truck maintenance is a relatively recent introduction in the Ranger tow management solution, and capabilities continue to grow.

1. Enter truck numbers, truck type, and the icon to be used on the map. Go to Configuration»Device Setup»Trucks. Typically this is part of the initial setup process when implementing Ranger
2. Enter the VIN number, and vehicle specs for each truck. This step is optional but useful. Go to Truck Maintenance»Configuration»Trucks
   1. Select a truck from the list in the top panel
   2. In the lower panel enter the VIN, and click on “Check VIN status”
   3. The VIN Status should show as “OK”, and the Lookup info should be populated
   4. Click on the “Copy year, make, and model to Details” button
   5. Click on “Save”

There is a list of Maintenance Events that is preloaded into Ranger. However, these are user-defined - you can use what is available and add “Events” that better fit your requirements. It is often helpful to view Maintenance Events in four categories:

• Inspections - e.g., 5,000 mile inspection. These events are typically employed when there is already an established checklist already in use. The Inspection Event creates a reminder and can track the associated costs
• System Summaries - e.g., Brake system check and inspection. These events are more granular than the more general “Inspections”, but also anticipate that the technician has an understanding (or checklist) of what is expected in a “ Brake system check and inspection”
• Checklist Items - e.g., Fuel filter Replacement. These events specify exactly the maintenance activities to be performed. And again, more can be added as appropriate.
• Administrative events - e.g., Compliance/Vehicle Registration. This category illustrates the potential to enter events that are not maintenance related, but that are time sensitive and where reminders would be helpful
• Settings - e.g., Monitor/Odometer. These enable the setting of initial conditions in each vehicle as needed.

To review and revise Maintenance events

1. Go to Truck Maintenance»Configuration»Trucks»Event Types
2. Click on Add Event Type to enter a new “Event” - Type is a drop down menu, Name and Description are user-defined, ID is created by Ranger and for Ranger use only

Typically, preventative maintenance services are defined in the context of a periodic, scheduled activity - e.g., a 5,000 Mile Inspection or a 6 Month Check-Up. These are constructed as “Maintenance Templates in Ranger”. Each Template can have any individual Event category as described above, or a combination. A Maintenance Template can be configured to target all trucks, a type of truck (e.g., service vehicle vs. wrecker), or even an individual truck. A truck can have as many Maintenance Templates assigned to it as is needed.

To create a Maintenance Template

1. Go to Truck Maintenance»Configuration»Maintenance Templates
2. Select a “Type” - typically scheduled maintenance (as required for Repairs)
3. Enter a name and description. If for a certain class of trucks, it will be helpful to capture that differentiation in the name
4. Set and enter “Reminder Triggers. A single trigger can be selected (e.g., mileage) or a rule can be created that will take more than one parameter into consideration
5. Enter an estimate for expenses that should be considered as a repair for reporting purposes. Ranger will automatically populate the Maintenance % as the difference to total 100%. These are defaults for convenience - a better estimate can be entered when the service is performed as appropriate.
6. Click on Save
7. In the panel in the NE corner, click on the new template.
8. In the bottom panel, select the “events - services to be performed - for this Planned Maintenance Activity (Template) – and click on “Save Configuration”

As mentioned earlier, a truck can have one or more Maintenance Templates assigned to it. Given likely variability among trucks, the assignment of Templates is truck-by-truck. Somewhat counter intuitively, a Maintenance Template is assigned to a truck by recording - on a best efforts basis - the last time this maintenance activity was performed on the truck. In so doing, the counters for the triggers are initialized to determine when the next such activity needs to be performed.

To assign a Maintenance Template to a truck

1. Go to Truck Maintenance»Configuration»Event Log
2. Select a truck from the top panel; in the bottom panel, click on the Log Entry Detail tab (fields will be blank)
3. Choose a Template. In the Service Performance fields enter information on the last time the service was performed
   1. Finished Date - required
   2. Odometer - required if trigger is based on mileage
   3. Hours - required if trigger is based on engine hours
4. Optionally, enter information on Service Expenses. Note: Quantity is only relevant for fuel purchases; the Fields in Target can be left as is
5. Review/revise Service Expense Allocation, as appropriate
6. Add Service Details and Notes for the record as helpful
7. Click on Save, and then go to the “Log” tab and click on the truck. You will see the event just entered on the record, along with information on the trigger for the next scheduled maintenance activity

On the Dispatch Board, the truck panel on the right side will indicate when scheduled maintenance is approaching

By default, Ranger uses the odometer reading as entered by the driver at Log Out. An odometer reading can also be entered manually, in which case Ranger will assume the larger reading. So for example, if the preference is to periodically update odometer readings manually as part of a weekly vehicle review, proceed with the following steps

1. Go to Truck Maintenance»Configuration»Event Log
2. Select a truck from the top panel; in the bottom panel, click on the Log Entry Detail tab; click on “reset for new event”
3. In the Identification section, choose “Odometer” in the drop down menu; and the Event date - when odometer was manually observed
4. In the Service Performance fields, enter the Odometer reading on the Event date
5. Click on Save
6. Note: manual entry of a fuel purchase would work in an analogous way