Walking Tour Of Demo Expo Examines Fleet Management

When your truck speaks to you, Dan Samford hopes you’re listening.

The trucking and fleet management consultant is scheduled to lead a walking tour of the trade floor at the International Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition in Louisville, Ky. this October.

Samford, the principal behind Peak Performance Asset Services of St. Joseph, Mo., doesn’t plan to promote any of the wares on display. Rather, he wants to use the trade floor as a field classroom to educate his audience about managing, maintaining and getting the most from their fleets.

“We’ll be looking at the whole cradle-to-grave — understanding crucial steps and resources in asset procurement, recognizing opportunities when you’re purchasing, and also asset disposal,” Samford said. “We’ll look at how to evaluate services and determine if efforts are worth the gains.”

The plan is to walk attendees step-by-step through the lifecycle process, with a heavy emphasis on new technologies. He’ll conduct two such “field classrooms” on Oct. 4 — from 1 to 2:30 p.m., and from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

ICUEE, also known as the Demo Expo, takes place Oct. 3-5 at the Kentucky Expostion Center.

Tech drives performance

“Technology is the driver in new products, in compliance and in safety,” Samford said. “It’s no longer a luxury we can choose. More and more, it’s becoming a requirement.”

The latest technology star is telematics, where a truck or other asset communicates with its owner or operator using modern-day tools such as the internet and wifi.

“It can help with location and with dispatching,” said Samford, who has managed fleets in excess of 2,800 units and 600 vehicles during his career. “The driver can see his routing better and find his job site easier. He may know he needs to go work on a wheel loader and even have a rough idea where it is. But if the job site is spaced out, say, over five miles he’s able to find out exactly where the machine is located. As opposed to previous days when he would hit the job site, find a foreman, and the foreman would get on the radio, talk to other people and then give the best directions he can.”

Owners, operators and mechanics can also use telematics to look at an asset remotely. Using a laptop or cellphone, they can read applicable manuals and view fault codes and other data to make a diagnosis — all before getting on-site.

A fleet owner or dispatcher can also know where their service truck operators are and optimize their deployment.

“If a mechanic is at a particular job and there’s another problem nearby they could have that mechanic run over and look,” Samford said. “Or maybe the mechanic’s almost back to the shop so it makes more sense to schedule that job for tomorrow.”

While the capabilities of telematics seem endless, Samford says fleet managers need to understand the range of products and services out there and what they’re best used for in order to optimize purchasing decisions.

An introduction to the field

Samford said his walking workshop is aimed primarily at people who are relatively new to the field. An expansive trade show floor can seem daunting to the under-initiated, and even veterans need to make careful, informed decisions.

While new, digital communication technologies are clearly the way forward for owners and operators, successful fleet management also depends on conventional tools, many of which are also benefiting from advances in technology.

Take the crane mounted on the back of many service trucks. Samford actually prefers to call these lifting devices, because with so many new safety rules governing cranes he’s acutely aware not everything that lifts is, technically speaking, a crane.

“Cranes denote a new set of rules — the rules and regulations that are normally associated with the cranes — and some lifting devices fall under those rules but others don’t,” Samford said. “It depends on the size, capacity and things of that nature.”

Regardless of the category, technology has had all kinds of impact on these units that industry personnel need understand.

“There’s things like a load moment indicators, auto-stow for the boom, auto-levelling for the outriggers, decrease of speed when you make a heavy pick,” Samford said.

Information systems can tell operators if a load is heavy enough and if it needs to slow down, or offer details about a boom angle or extension prior to and during a manoeuvre.

Like a rolling shop

“Service trucks are a rolling shop,” Samford said. “Usually that mechanic is out there by himself, maybe with a helper, and that lifting device on the back of his truck is his helper in most cases.”

Lifting devices aren’t the only major tool investment. In fact, Samford said, not all trucks need them. He wants to help attendees gauge what they need and what they don’t.

“Some trucks will need a lifting device, others may not,” Samford said. “Some will need an air compressor or a generator or a welder, and some may need all of these. But there’s no reason to put a welder on the back if your operator or technician can’t weld. It’s about right-sizing the equipment with the technicians’ capabilities.”

Ergonomics are also creating lots of buzz on show floors. “The steps, the handles, the brake contacts and the grip strut where the operator’s going to put his muddy boots after stepping off a gravel lot or muddy field,” Samford says. “Where before maybe they were on the list but didn’t get quite as much attention, now they have to be at the top of the list because they’re doable corrections for safety.”

Another priority is security. “The technician often has his life’s savings tied up in that service body, and then he’s asked to park at motels and places where security might be a challenge,” Samford says. “You’re seeing different locking devices, including single-key situations where the ignition key for the truck fits all the doors on the service body. That sounds petty, but if a technician has 12 different keys for 12 different boxes on a truck it becomes a nuisance, and many times they simply don’t get locked.”

Good mechanic is hard to find

The bottom line, Samford says, is quality technicians are often tough to find. “Once you get them you want to hang onto them, and the company that provides their technicians with the tools they need to safely and securely do their job will have preference over an employer who might not provide the tools employees need.”

Samford says he hopes his session will help people relatively new to the sector see what’s available in the marketplace and figure out how to ask the right questions in order to get proper answers.

“If you’re aware of the technology then, as challenges arise, you’ll at least be able to look at your options,” Samford says. “There are literally hundreds of vendors for telematics and they’re going to be everywhere. People may be overwhelmed at first, but information is powerful for the fleet manager.”

For more information about Peak Performance Asset Services, visit: www.ppasllc.com

For more information about ICUEE, visit www.icuee.com.

Saul Chernos is a freelance writer based in Toronto.