Benefits of Keeping Commercial Trucks and Equipment in Good Repair

Times are tough right now and perhaps you’re thinking about putting off that small repair for a later date. Before you make your decision, consider the following:

Consider this scenario. Two landscape companies come to bid a job at your new office facility. You have spent a tremendous amount of time creating a good ‘first impression’ for your customers to see when they drive up. Landscape company #1 drives up in a fairly new truck with a dent in the bed side, dents in the tailgate, peeling paint, dirt all over the vehicle, and the decals crooked on the door of the truck. Landscape company #2 drives up in an older truck, but the truck is clean, no dents, paint looking sharp, with a nice graphics package on the side. Which company are you more likely to hire to work in front of your facility? Your customers feel the same way. The thought is, if a company and their employees take good care of their own vehicles and equipment, they are more likely to take care of their customer's freight and property. Which brings us to the next consideration; the employees.

Take the example above a step farther. Venture to say that if you followed the two landscape trucks around for a day you would notice the employees in the first truck haphazardly throwing the tools into the bed of the truck with no consideration as to whether or not the tools were denting the inside of the truck bed or sliding around and denting the tailgate. They probably eat and drink in the truck, leaving trash in the truck and not bothering to clean up spills, etc. In the second vehicle, the employees probably take care locating the tools in the truck and being careful with the inside of the truck. Why? It is obvious to them that the company cares about the equipment by the way it is maintained. If you don’t care, your employees won’t care either!

Are you D.O.T. regulated? If so, you are likely to spend much more time at an inspection station or scales if your truck is in disrepair or looks as if it is not maintained. Again, human nature takes over. An inspector that sees a truck that is not well maintained will assume there are issues with the truck more than the ones immediately visible. One thing leads to the inspection of another, and another, and on and on. This applies to being stopped on the Highway as well.

It is normally much wiser to have a small repair addressed while it is still a small repair, rather than waiting until ’later’ giving the repair a chance to become major. Commercial trucks and equipment, just by the nature of the work performed by them, take more abuse than the average passenger vehicle on the road. Cracks in hoods and fenders that are left un-repaired can very quickly lead to hood and/or fender replacements which are much more costly.

So, when considering whether or not to spend the money to have your truck or equipment repaired or repainted, consider your image with the community, the benefit your are deriving from the advertising your are paying for with your logo, the way your employees are going to take care of your equipment, the fact that your vehicle won’t be held up at inspection stations, scales, or pulled over more often, and the fact that a small repair now may save you from a major part replacement later,