RECEIVING priority maintenance treatment was a key consideration for Pain Enterprises, Bloomington, Indiana, when the distributor of solid and liquid carbon dioxide products decided to use the Kenworth PremierCare Managed Maintenance Program.
“We are spread over 14 Midwest states and have to rely on many garages to do our maintenance,” said Matt Pain, vice-president of operations for the family business. “In some cities we may only have two trucks, so we weren't a preferred customer at the local garage.”
Pain Enterprises wanted to get better control of its truck maintenance program. Each of its trucks is driven between 85,000 and 120,000 miles a year, and maintenance costs were jumping through the ceiling, according to information from Kenworth.
“I wanted to reduce my maintenance costs, standardize my costs per truck, and do a better job of maintenance,” Pain said. “Another great thing is that I can go online and look at the maintenance done on each truck and the amount spent on each one using Kenworth's Maintenance Manager software. For the preventive maintenance, I pay a set fee each month and that's entered online. Any repair work beyond the preventive maintenance is directly billed to me and I can enter the amount online to keep track of the cost per truck.”
Mike Moss of Fort Wayne Truck Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, worked with Pain Enterprises to evaluate the program. “We wanted to help the company take better care of its trucks and upgrade its fleet,” Moss said.
After the initial inspection of the trucks that is required before starting the program, Moss helped Pain Enterprises buy six used Kenworths to replace trucks that Pain decided were too expensive to fix.
Moss pointed out that by consistently following a preventive maintenance plan, trucking companies will enjoy higher resale value when they sell their vehicles. “We believe you can get more for a truck that has full maintenance records than one that doesn't have record keeping.”
Companies can keep track of all the maintenance performed on its trucks by using one of five different maintenance options — each customized based on a vehicle's annual mileage, maintenance intervals, level of inspection service, and type of payment. The options range from pre-packaged preventive maintenance to active maintenance management for a fee.