Fleet Service Schedules: By Kilometres, by Months, or Whichever Comes First

A service schedule answers one question for every vehicle in the fleet: when is the next service due? For most vans and cars the answer has two parts, a distance and a date, and the vehicle is due at whichever it reaches first. Fleets that track only one of the two end up servicing some vehicles late and others for no reason.

Why one limit is not enough

Manufacturers set service intervals by distance because parts wear with use, and by time because oil, coolant, brake fluid and rubber age whether the vehicle moves or not. Take a schedule of every 30,000 km or 12 months:

• A van covering 50,000 km a year reaches 30,000 km in about seven months, so the distance decides
• A van covering 10,000 km a year reaches twelve months first, with only 10,000 km on the clock, so the date decides
• A van parked up for the winter is still due when its twelve months are up

Track only the date and the busy van runs months past its service. Track only the distance and the quiet van goes years without one.

Where the intervals come from

From the manufacturer, for that model and engine: the service book, the handbook, or the dealer's records for the vehicle's chassis number. Don't copy a schedule from another vehicle in the fleet. Two vans of the same model can have different engines with different intervals, and what is a timing belt on one engine is a chain on another.

For each vehicle, find out:

1. The main service interval, as a distance and a time
2. Any item with its own interval, such as a timing belt, brake fluid, coolant, filters or spark plugs
3. Whether the manufacturer gives a different schedule for hard use

Hard use is the schedule most work vehicles are really on

Many handbooks give shorter intervals for what they call severe or arduous conditions. The definitions vary by manufacturer, but they usually include:

• Lots of short journeys, where the engine rarely warms up fully
• Stop-start urban work, such as multi-drop deliveries
• Carrying heavy loads or towing
• Long periods of idling
• Dusty sites or unmade roads

That is an ordinary day for a lot of commercial vehicles. Read the definition in the handbook and be honest about which schedule each vehicle is on. A delivery van serviced on the standard interval is often a delivery van overdue for a service.

What to put on a schedule

Keep the list short. A schedule nobody acts on is worse than none, because it looks like the job is covered.

Start from the last service

A schedule needs a starting point: the date and the odometer reading of the last service. Without both, the next due date is a guess. Take them from the last invoice or the service book. If a vehicle's history has been lost, book a service now and start the schedule from that, rather than inventing a date.

Get reminded before it is due, not on the day

A reminder on the due date leaves no time to get the vehicle into a garage. Build a margin into each limit:

• By date, a few weeks ahead, long enough to get a slot
• By distance, a margin before the limit. For a van doing 1,000 km a week, a 2,000 km margin gives about two weeks' notice

Set the distance margin from how far the vehicle actually travels. A margin that gives a quiet car three months' warning gives a busy van three days.

The odometer is the weak link

A distance-based schedule is only as good as the latest odometer reading. If the readings are months old, a busy van can pass its service without anything noticing. Ask drivers for a reading on a fixed day, weekly for high-mileage vehicles and monthly for the rest, and record one whenever a vehicle is at a garage or a test centre.

A service is not a safety inspection

For HGVs, buses and coaches, the service schedule runs alongside the periodic safety inspections operators carry out at set intervals, not instead of them. A service keeps the vehicle mechanically healthy. A safety inspection checks the roadworthiness items, such as brakes, steering, suspension, tyres and lights, and has its own records. See what HGV and bus operators must record. Neither one replaces the annual CVRT.

Keep the invoice with the vehicle

For each service, record the date, the odometer reading, the work done, the cost and the garage, and keep the invoice. That record:

• Shows the vehicle was serviced on time if a warranty claim comes up
• Adds value when you sell, because buyers pay more for a documented history
• Shows which vehicles cost the most to keep on the road, which is the starting point for working out what each van really costs to run

How FleetMain runs service schedules

Service schedules are on every FleetMain plan, the free one included:

• Set a schedule on a vehicle by distance, by months, or both, and FleetMain works out which limit comes first. Distances follow the vehicle's country: kilometres for Irish vehicles, miles for UK ones
• Start it from the date and odometer reading of the last service
• Add one schedule to several vehicles at once. Each starts from its own latest service record with a reading
• See every schedule's status: OK, due soon (within 30 days, or within the reminder distance, which starts at 10% of the interval) or overdue
• Get an email when a schedule becomes due soon and another if it goes overdue. An overdue service then stays in your regular reminder of lapsed items until the work is marked as done
• Press Mark as done to save the work to the vehicle's service history and restart the schedule from that date and reading
• Attach the invoice, as a PDF or a photo, to the service record
• Get a reminder to update odometer readings weekly, monthly or every two months, so distance-based schedules stay accurate

The maintenance calendar shows every service that is due on the day it falls, alongside test dates, tax and insurance. A service that is due by distance goes on the date the odometer is heading for, worked out from the vehicle's recent readings.