MAINTENANCE CYCLES
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The right maintenance cycle will give optimal maintenance cost and minimise downtime.
Base maintenance schedules on mileage as well as time. Six-week maintenance intervals are a rule-of-thumb average, but more frequent maintenance is desirable if vehicles or trailers run high mileages or are operating in harsh conditions.
Do not overrun maintenance periods, but also ensure that such periods are not too short for the work to be undertaken, eg if the equipment runs low mileages and carries low weights, then a six-week maintenance programme will be too frequent.
Auditing doesn't have to cost a great deal. Consider substituting a vehicle inspection audit for an external contracting inspection. An external check on your on-contract repairers just once or twice a year could yield useful results.