Fleet

[screenman]

I also remember well the new fleet accounts, 17 in one windshield and the customer insisted he wanted it repaired, not one windshield with less than 3 chips in it.

[Glasseye]

My experience of servicing a fleet of large commercial trucks is limited and that is of my own choosing. The type of equipment I use (not Delta) does not lend itself well to performing high volume repairs but I'm OK with that. The largest fleet I serviced had 65 vehicles and the main issues I found were :-

1) Downtime - to survive and prosper, haulage companies have to be very efficient. So the time a vehicle is parked up, is very limited. Quite often I would be pressurised to complete the work.

2) Location - the trucks were constantly being repositioned for loading, so I spent a lot of time chasing them around the yard trying to find where they had been moved to.

3) Attitude to repair - the manager was pro repair but some of the drivers were not happy about having the screen on their truck repaired rather than replaced

4) Fatigue - I am not exactly a spring chicken, so after 2 to 3 hours of climbing up and down my energy levels were seriously sagging.

In time, I resolved these issues, but for the newby repair guy these are some of the problems you may encounter when you take on a commercial fleet.

[glassdoctor]

I can be a skeptic too.... but I don't have reason to doubt this experience and I'm not cynical enough to assume the worst. If these were all peterbuilt rigs that had never been serviced before, then yeah... there would be a lot of chips and it would be a pain to climb around on them all day. But that's not what he said. Simply said he found 48 trucks out of 200 to repair that day. If there was 3 or 4 chips on each, then there would have been about 200 trucks to fix, not 48.

And a yard with 200 trucks isn't that big, so yeah... you could work a few at a time easily. I've done truck accounts that constantly had rigs with trailers moving in and out, spread out over a huge lot, etc. Again... that's assuming a worst case, and it's not what was stated.

I would have worked them 2 trucks at a time, and curing and finishing with my lights as I went. I have better lights than yall so for me it's 10-20 seconds and scrape, done... on to the next one. No need to go back later to pick tabs and clean up. Even on a sunny day, it's faster for me to use lights lol. Also, my equipment/bag/technique is built for efficiency... it's something I've worked on over the years. I don't follow the book on wsr. I don't lug around a big case or bunch of extra crap and I have instant access to all my tools. In fact, if I still worked truck lots, I would convert my tools over to a carpenter style rig. But I only do car lots now, except for an occasional RV rig.

[a1repair]

Greetings All,

Hey Glazzstars remember me?

[just chippen away]

Greetings All,

Hey Glazzstars remember me?

Tell us more,,, There has to be something to read here for you to chime in to him at this time while he is in the hot seat...

[vintage]

Glasstarz, I commend you for sharing, showing newer techs what's possible. Some of the negative comments about your speed could be classified as jealosy, I for one am glad you are able to service your customer with a quality repair in a timley manner. I do a few auction lots, and 10 per hour is a good pace, and only can be attained with experiance, efficincy, knowledge, and a bit of luck(cars close together, easy to repair breaks, nice sunshine to cure fast). With a new hire 2 repairs per hour is OK, but after a few weeks I expcet at least 5 per hour. To be able to attain that pace there needs to be an investment in equipment and training, if you only have 2 or 3 injectors, 10 repairs per hour is a fnantsy, if you have 10 injectors, you can do more, but having 10 injectors is not given.

Keep up the good work and sharing.

[glassdoctor]

I can do it with 2 or 3. I realize that's not typical, but for me its no fantasy. LOL

[vintage]

I can do it with 2 or 3. I realize that's not typical, but for me its no fantasy. LOL

If I read some of the previous posts in this thread, you must really be a hack doing poor repairs
What is important is not haow many repairs you can make in a given amount of time with X number of injectors, but that your customers are satisfied, and that you are profitable.

[glassdoctor]

I can do it with 2 or 3. I realize that's not typical, but for me its no fantasy. LOL

If I read some of the previous posts in this thread, you must really be a hack doing poor repairs
What is important is not haow many repairs you can make in a given amount of time with X number of injectors, but that your customers are satisfied, and that you are profitable.

I don't expect you to understand. I think you completely missed the whole "fleet" aspect here. If you have done fleet accounts, or would even stop to think for a minute, you would understand the difference. Doing a lot full of delivery trucks is a bit different than a used lot of bmw and mercedes, let alone a retail job working some tool's 400hp mustang.

20 years working the same accounts... you have no idea who you are calling a hack. Makes you sound like an idiot.

btw, I could call you a hack for using 10+ units at a time.... insinuating that you can't possibly monitor that many repairs at once. But I'm more open minded than that. I've worked with 6+ before but now I only do 2-3 because I can actually stay on top of the process start to finish and yes, I can easily do 2-3 in 10 min. I do it my way because I think the quality is actually better than doing a dozen at once and just letting them cook. I'm not saying that's wrong, but it's not what I do anymore.

[vintage]

I can do it with 2 or 3. I realize that's not typical, but for me its no fantasy. LOL

If I read some of the previous posts in this thread, you must really be a hack doing poor repairs
What is important is not how many repairs you can make in a given amount of time with X number of injectors, but that your customers are satisfied, and that you are profitable.

I don't expect you to understand. 20 years of taking accounts from others because I can fix what they can't.... if that makes me a hack? I guess I am. You win.

Sorry my attempt at sarcasm went undetected, you are far from a hack. Someone who is in the biz for such a long time, and is profitable is doing it right. There are no norms that say you must take 45 mins to do a repair, or that you must charge $X,xx to do them. As I mentioned above, the most important measure is your customers satisfaction, what anyone here thinks is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.