Poor Fleet Management Can Kill

February 26, 2009

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In good times, your fleet operation can become an easy target for policy-makers trying to find money for pet projects. In hard times, the size of that target can grow out of control. In many cases, there are some areas where we can tighten the belt slightly without long-term detrimental effects. However, when lifecycles are extended to extreme lengths, staff cuts go too deep, replacement funds are pilfered and logical fleet policy is replaced with uneducated number crunching, the results can be deadly.

In recent years, there have been too many cases where poor fleet maintenance has led to the death or serious injury of drivers, passengers and by-standers. There are times when a combination of people, including fleet managers, drivers and technicians, have been partially at fault (Click here to view our story on the Irving, Texas police officer killed in 2007 due to worn tires). In a number of cases, poor fleet policy or illogical budget cuts have been at the root.

In January of this year, the Boston Ladder 26 fire truck crashed into an apartment building killing a firefighter (Click here to view TV news coverage). The investigation found that the crash was caused by brake failure. Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser admitted that the Fire Department did not have a preventative maintenance program. The last time the brakes had been inspected on Ladder 26 was over 10 months prior to the incident even though the manufacturer recommends inspections at 3 months intervals. Staffing cuts, budget cuts and poor fleet maintenance policy all contributed to this sad situation. I encourage you to read the Boston Globe story for more details and to see the solution they are looking to implement.

The main reason I bring this up is to make sure we do all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. Along those same lines, I want to try to arm you with another tool to fight for sound fleet policy and reasonable budgeting for your operation. Policy-makers and financial managers (and some fleet managers and their crews) need to be educated on the devastating effects that their decisions can have. If you need to put it in dollars and cents in order to make the point, contact a safety and accident management provider like CEI, Corporate Claims Management or Fleet Response. They can give you a report on the average cost to an agency or company for a serious accident. The liability costs alone will get any politician's attention.

Whether it is a horrible accident or not having your fleet able to respond effectively to a disaster, the long-term results of poor fleet management can not be understated.

Fight for what you need to make sure all of your vehicles, from police cars to street sweepers, are prepared to serve, protect and operate safely. Please share your own experiences and insights below. The more stories you share, the more ammo we all have to take up the ladder.

Share your thoughts below and set me straight.