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Annual events like National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (NTDAW) provide a dedicated moment to recognize the incredible hard work, dedication and sacrifice of the men and women who keep our supply chains moving. While truck driver appreciation is prioritized daily, observances like NTDAW highlight the importance of truck drivers and how safety comes first.
At MICHELIN Connected Fleet, safety is always our top priority. One of the most effective ways to show appreciation is by ensuring that drivers operate well-maintained, reliable vehicles. Proper maintenance not only protects your drivers—it reduces fleet costs, minimizes downtime and ensures operational efficiency.
In this blog, MICHELIN Connected Fleet lists actionable tips on preventative maintenance strategies and how to support driver safety and operational efficiency.
The importance of vehicle maintenance
Vehicle maintenance should be at the core of your driver safety strategy. Drivers who operate poorly maintained trucks and trailers, or drive with old or worn parts, run the risk of potential breakdowns, incidents and unplanned downtime. Driver safety is compromised, as well as driver trust.
However, prioritizing vehicle maintenance helps ensure your drivers are operating fleets in good condition and are ready for the road ahead. Not to mention, integrating maintenance into your driver safety strategy mitigates wasted resources, improves uptime and cost savings and enhances operational efficiency. Consider adopting the following steps into your fleet management strategy:
- Implement Real-Time Monitoring Technology
When it comes to fleet maintenance support, implementing technology with real-time monitoring capabilities can have a positive impact on driver safety and vehicle performance. This kind of technology provides live alerts on vehicle location, driver behavior, fuel efficiency, equipment performance and more.
Fleet managers can stay up to date with live trip alerts, and in turn, drivers can know the state of their vehicle in real-time. This can support maintenance by informing teams when it’s time for equipment and fleet repair before it’s too late, saving your team time, resources and money. Relying on these tools increases safety and achieves maximum productivity and profit with minimal resources.
- Be Proactive
Keeping up with vehicle maintenance minimizes the potential for breakdowns and downtime. An efficient way to do this is by implementing a preventative maintenance plan. This entails proactively scheduling maintenance check-ups to monitor vehicle and equipment performance and identify worn parts or areas that require replacement. These inspections should be scheduled regularly, both before and after trips, to ensure the equipment is operating properly. This helps reduce the likelihood of unplanned downtime due to poor maintenance, supporting safety, lowering costs and enhancing operational efficiency.
Proactively maintaining your assets can help support driver safety through regular equipment upkeep. Drivers can rest assured they are operating up-to-date, well-maintained fleets that will keep them moving forward.
- Leverage Incident Management Technology
Incident management is another solution to ensuring driver safety and prioritizing vehicle maintenance. By relying on vehicle location tracking, fleet managers can determine the exact time and location of an incident. Whether your driver experiences a breakdown, an emergency roadside service incident, or other unplanned events, incident management technology provides immediate response support and data that can analyze how, when and why an incident occurred. This data can help inform maintenance teams about what is needed in terms of repairs or replacement and proactively schedule the next check-up.
Moreover, the use of connected fleet technology, such as AI camera systems, provides fleet managers with increased incident visibility. Video documentation helps determine the cause of incidents, provides evidence for insurance purposes and holds drivers accountable.
Your partner in safety and maintenance strategies
It’s always a good time to reflect on ways to support your drivers with proper fleet maintenance. MICHELIN Connected Fleet understands that maintenance has a direct impact on driver performance and safety. By leveraging connected fleet technology and implementing preventive maintenance strategies, you can help set your drivers up for success on the road and keep your operations moving forward.
Ready to reduce your costs, improve your productivity and ensure driver safety? Contact us today.
Reach Out to MICHELIN Connected Fleet to Learn More Today.
Written by The MICHELIN Connected Fleet Team
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