How to stay ahead of truck service without a whiteboard

Why the whiteboard falls behind

A whiteboard only knows what someone wrote on it. The mileage is from the last time anybody checked. The sticker on the windshield has faded. The registration card is in a glove box, with last year’s date.

Nobody forgets on purpose. The truck just keeps running, until it doesn’t. The usual misses look like this:

• An oil change that’s 2,000 miles past due.
• A trailer inspection that ran out last month.
• An insurance card with last year’s dates.

Set it up in five steps

1. 1

   List every truck and trailer

   Put in each one you need on the road: trucks, vans, trailers and the box truck. Use the name your crew already uses, like Truck 2.

2. 2

   Add today’s mileage

   Walk the yard once and write down each odometer. That’s your starting point.

3. 3

   Set service by miles or by date

   Oil every few thousand miles. A trailer inspection once a year. Pick what fits each one: miles, a date or both.

4. 4

   Add registration and insurance dates

   These go on each truck too, so they come up before they run out.

5. 5

   Have drivers log mileage

   Drivers type in the mileage from the phone: More, then Truck Mileage. Once a week is enough for most trucks.

See what’s due before it’s late

Krew Point checks each truck’s mileage and dates against its next service. When one gets close, it shows as Due Soon. When it’s past, it shows as Overdue. The office sees them all in Trucks due, worst first, and a reminder comes in as an alert.

A truck 300 miles from its oil change is a call to the shop this week. A truck 2,000 miles past due is a bigger repair waiting to happen.

Say it’s Monday morning, and Trucks due shows three. Trailer 1 is overdue for its inspection. Truck 2 has 300 miles left before an oil change. Truck 5’s registration runs out at the end of the month. So the office books Trailer 1 for Tuesday and Truck 2 for a slow Thursday afternoon. It renews Truck 5 before lunch.

Do the math on your trucks

Here is an example, so try it with your own numbers. A truck that drives 300 miles a week goes about 15,600 miles a year. With oil every 5,000 miles, that’s about 3 oil changes a year.

With 10 trucks, that’s 30 oil changes, plus 10 registrations, 10 insurance renewals and 10 inspections. About 60 dates a year, more than one a week. That’s too much for anyone’s head, and too much for a whiteboard.

Make it easy for drivers

Logging mileage takes a few taps: open More, tap Truck Mileage, type the number. With no signal, it saves on the phone and sends when the phone is back in signal.

Pick a habit and keep it: every Friday before the last clock out, or at every fuel stop. The more often drivers log it, the closer the reminders land.

Give one person the job

Reminders only help if someone acts on them. Pick one person in the office to own the trucks. Every Monday, they open Trucks due and book anything due soon.

• Overdue first. A truck past due goes to the shop before it goes back out.
• Due soon next. Book it for a slow day, not the week it runs out.
• Registration and insurance get the same treatment. A late date can park a truck as fast as a bad engine.

Trailers count too. They don’t have an odometer you check every day, so set their inspections by date.

Close the loop with the shop

When a truck comes back from service, update its service with the new mileage or date. The next reminder counts from there.

Do that every time, and the reminders stay right without anyone keeping track in their head. The whiteboard can go back to holding the lunch order.