By
Team Writer
/ September 30, 2016
There is a recent jointly produced study by FTR and CK Commercial Vehicle Research that is now available. This study examines heavy duty vehicle usage, maintenance practices, as well as replacement parts purchasing activity. The cost of these maintenance and replacement parts is analyzed through identifying the annual dollars the reporting fleets spend on vehicles.
Key Takeaways:
- The 30-page report gives a close look at the activity that drives equipment replacement and parts purchases such as vehicle age, typical trade cycles, miles driven per year and preventive maintenance intervals.
- Small fleets averaged a Class 8 truck age of 5 years while large fleets reported an average of 2.7 years.
- Class 8 miles driven is expected to increase in 2016 by 2.2% compared with 2015 and Class 8 ton miles is forecasted to increase by 1.1%.
“Fleets revealed that the primary reason for outsourcing maintenance was a lack of technical knowledge to complete the work at the fleet level and the report also found that more than half of outsourced maintenance was performed by original equipment dealers.”