With technician health as the focus of our latest issue, it's only fair we also discuss some easy tactics to help a shop's most valuable assets. In one example, Mark Ciolek PT, DPT, a consulting physical therapist with Pro-Activity, described a shop that was able to help a mechanic who couldn't do overhead lift work, one with back pain, and one struggling to adjust after moving to management. "This shop and their organization engaged in all aspects of a musculoskeletal health initiative," Dr. Ciolek said. "Learning how to better prepare for work (morning movement priming), examining how to reduce the load they are under (tool use & ergonomic position), addressing aches and pains early (physio consults), and improving the conditions of their working body (health strategies)" all helped the three employees. #technician #truckingindustry #healthandwellness #fleetmaintenance
Fleet Maintenance magazine
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad
Fort Atkinson, WI 3,706 followers
All maintenance. All vehicle classes. All management. All the time.
About us
Fleet Maintenance magazine provides a curriculum of managerial, technical, and regulatory information to enable maintenance managers to better perform their roles in purchasing and maintaining a safe, efficient, and profitable fleet.
- Website
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https://www.fleetmaintenance.com/
External link for Fleet Maintenance magazine
- Industry
- Transportation/Trucking/Railroad
- Company size
- 501-1,000 employees
- Headquarters
- Fort Atkinson, WI
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- Privately Held
- Founded
- 1997
Locations
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Primary
Fort Atkinson, WI 53538, US
Employees at Fleet Maintenance magazine
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Alex Keenan
Associate Editor at Endeavor Business media
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Neil Pope
Freelance automotive writer, transportation writer, fleet writer, automotive case study writer, white paper writer and content creator
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Dieselgirl Missy Albin
Senior Lead Technician. Master of Navistar Product~.…
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Brendan Lucero
Automotive Technician at Fleet Maintenance
Updates
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Service relationship management (SRM) platforms can allow shops to dig into their pain points and figure out solutions. For instance, SRMs can "serve as a hub for connected vehicle, service event, history, and other actionable, in-context information," said Dick Hyatt, president and CEO of Decisiv, Inc. "Data at the point of service also reduces triage and diagnostic time, speeding repairs." Hyatt delved into more SRM benefits in our guest column below. #technology #truckingindustry #maintenance
Solving industry challenges with SRM data
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Delivery droids are still on the move, and Vayu Robotics is roaming even farther than college and business campus food deliveries. The company's Delivery Robot can handle payloads of up to 100 lbs. and is aiming to move further into last-mile delivery spaces, with the potential to assist with parts deliveries between dealers and fleet terminals. “We see the systems as capable of democratizing the movement of items like parts within a supply chain ecosystem,” said Vayu co-founder and CEO Anand Gopalan. “When the cost of goods movement is high, it necessitates higher levels of inventory at dealerships, longer lead times for procurement, and a host of planning steps." #technology #truckingindustry #parts #equipment #robotics
Vayu's on-road delivery robot has big brains, bigger plans
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In the final part of our technician health and wellness story, we focused on mental health. While this issue may not be as obvious as lifestyle or financial problems, it can spiral severely and quickly. “Mental health is just not talked about,” said Joshua Taylor, an Ontario, Canada-based-mechanics coach and host of the Wrench Turners podcast. “It’s a very short road from dark to very dark. And unfortunately, it’s a disastrous road.” One of the easiest ways to deal with this is simply to meet with your technicians and know their habits, so that you know when something's off and can work with them. #healthandwellness #truckingindustry #fleetmaintenance #technician
Putting techs' mental health top-of-mind
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In Part Two of our Shop Operations feature from our latest issue, we discussed how technician health and wellness impacts not only their productivity, but their shop's profits, too. “The average worker’s comp claim costs just over $41,000 per year,” said Dr. Mark Manera, a physical therapist who founded Offshift, a health app for transportation industry workers. “The more severe ones get up to $100,000 . But about a third of musculoskeletal issues can be prevented if we can get these people to be physically active on a consistent basis.” To cut down on these costs, fleets can review the previous year's worker's comp claims to figure out how to help their technicians. For more tips on how to keep technicians happy and healthy, see below. #technician #healthandwellness #truckingindustry
The Uptime Paradox: The cost of ignoring technician health
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In our cover story for this month's issue, we discussed preventative maintenance not on trucks, but on technicians themselves, which can be a sorely neglected issue in the shop. “As a service technician, it’s really hard to get the permission to step away, for [management] to understand you need to step away, or that you need a day to recuperate or a mental break," said Patrick Walton, senior master technician at a Texas dealership. And there's more to technician wellness than offering enough PTO. Everything from the pressure to produce to the need to pay off student and tool debt can push a technician to work more, even at the cost of their physical health. For more insight on the factors that push mechanics toward burnout, see Part One of our Shop Operations feature. #truckingindustry #fleetmaintenance #technician #healthandwellness
It's time to address technican health and wellness
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With electric vehicles on their way into the shop, technicians need to be aware of the risk of battery fires, especially when they can burn hotter than a typical blaze and reignite without warning. “Ultimately, it all starts with the lithium-ion cells and ensuring that they're designed correctly for the correct usage in the field,” said Lisa McKenzie, president and general manager for the Battery Power Systems Unit at the Freudenberg Group's E-Power Systems (FEPS). “A lot of times these fires happen because the cells are used too aggressively, or they're used in areas that they really shouldn't be used.” For more on how these incidents occur and how they can be prevented, see below. #truckingindustry #electricvehicle #safety #fleetmaintenance
Tips to avoid EV battery fires during maintenance
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It's a common adage that partnering with vocational schools and high schools is a strong way to recruit more technicians. But for short-staffed shops, how you partner is just as important as if you partner. “There isn’t necessarily a ‘better’ institution to partner with,” said Cindy Barlow, director of industry outreach at WyoTech. “When it comes to building the educational pipeline, it largely depends on the specific goals and the needs of the organization or industry involved.” That means thinking about whether you're looking to hire technicians or other staff for your shop, how close your local schools are, and what curriculum a particular school is teaching. For other tips on how to make school partnerships count, see the story below. #truckingindustry #technician #recruitment #fleetmaintenance
School’s in: How to make meaningful tech recruitment partnerships
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Key performance indicators can provide honest windows into your shop operations, providing indicators for helpful changes. “They expose weaknesses and places where you need to make more effective decisions, such as possibly outsourcing some services—and they point to what you’re doing best,” said Mike Palmerr, VP of fleet services at Estes Express Lines. But to do that, shops need to know how to leverage their fleet data, from examining how many items crop up during preventative maintenance to mobile technician response times. #truckingindustry #efficiency #maintenance
How to improve technician-related KPIs
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Dieselgirl Missy Albin's journey into fleet maintenance hasn't been an easy one, with challenges such as adapting to new technology and working as a woman in a male-dominated field. "But I’m just as dedicated to fixing trucks, learning, and keeping drivers safe now as I was then," said the senior lead master technician at a Taylor and Lloyd, Inc International dealership. "And through it all, I know I’m doing what I was born to do." Read more about Missy's work and advocacy in our diagnostics piece from our latest issue. #truckingindustry #fleetmaintenance #womenintech
From cheerleader to lead tech
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