Report shows roadside mechanical repair costs continue to increase in 3Q: ATA

Update from TMC & FleetNet America showed fourth straight quarterly jump in costs

Atlanta – American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council, along with FleetNet America released its latest benchmarking report on roadside maintenance, showing a costs had jumped for the fourth quarter in a row.

The report, co-authored by TMC and FleetNet America, an ArcBest company, showed the cost of an unscheduled mechanical repair continues to increase. The average cost of a mechanical roadside repair exceeded $400 for the first time since the TMC/FleetNet Vertical Benchmarking Program began in 2017.  At $407, the average cost of mechanical repair was 24% higher than mechanical repairs in same quarter in 2018.

 “Cost per repair looks like a permanent headwind our industry is facing and it would be advantageous to fleets to seek to address this.” said TMC Executive Director Robert Braswell. “The TMC/FleetNet Vertical Benchmarking Program is TMC member benefit designed to help fleets deal with increasing costs by having fewer unscheduled roadside repairs.”

The report, which looks at repair costs in the truckload, less-than-truckload and tank sectors, also showed roadside repairs vary significantly across all three sectors. In every VMRS system, the average truckload carrier experienced significantly more roadside repairs, meaning fewer miles between breakdowns, than the average LTL or Tank fleet.  The best-in-class truckload carrier, however, outperformed the LTL and Tank vertical averages in some VMRS systems.

“There is a wide variance between the performance of the average fleet and the best-in-class carrier in each vertical,” said Jim Buell, executive vice president of sales and marketing for FleetNet America. “This is a pretty good indication that our industry has room to reduce maintenance costs by closing the gap between the average and best-in-class fleets.”

Five select systems account for 64% of all roadside repairs experienced by participating fleets in the third quarter of 2019, including tires, brakes, lighting, power plant and cooling systems.

The Vertical Benchmarking Program is a benefit for TMC fleet members and a partnership with FleetNet America. In addition to the executive summary, which is available to TMC fleet members, carriers that participate by sharing their data are provided an analytic tool that allows them to drill into their data, comparing it to the industry average.

The program is a strategic collaboration between TMC/ATA and FleetNet America, an ArcBest Company, and is open to TMC fleet executive level members and FleetNet America customers. The analytics provided via the program will be cumulative and non-fleet specific.