Truck Maintenance: A Fluctuating Cost for Fleets and Owner-Operators

Truck maintenance is a fluctuating overhead cost. For fleet owners, regular repairs can eat into capital reserves, especially when multiple trucks need maintenance.

For owner-operators, truck maintenance and repairs not only cost parts, but unplanned equipment failures can cause business to grind to a halt. While one can never be too prepared for unexpected truck maintenance, not being prepared at all can stop revenue completely.

Whatever You Order, Add at Least One More

One good rule to use in truck maintenance is that if you need to order a particular part, try to add one more to your purchase.

While QA for truck parts is very thorough, there is a very small percentage of faulty parts that make it through. Apart from faulty parts, ordering extra means you will be prepared for the next round of truck maintenance further down the line.

Mandatory New Equipment

As we saw in 2017 with electronic logging devices, sometimes legislation requires mandatory equipment and the truck required to install it.

ELDs in 2017 were a prime example, and there may be more as more segments of the trucking industry move towards electric vehicles, platooning capabilities, onboard diagnostics, and more.

While equipment upgrades due to legislation usually have a set deadline, the initial cost can be hefty, and that won’t be recouped until tax season.

Ensuring Capital for Truck Maintenance

Since truck maintenance is not cheap, fleets and owner-operators alike need to ensure there is ample capital on hand to cover both regular and unexpected repair costs.

Unfortunately, trucking is an industry where a good portion of revenue is tied to unpaid receivables. By using freight factoring, trucking companies and owner-operators can get cash for receivables within 24 hours, so they can build up capital for trucks and mandated equipment.

Express Freight Finance was founded by people with deep roots in the trucking industry, and we have grown to become a national leader in freight factoring services.

Whether you want to build up capital reserves to cover maintenance costs, improve cash flow, or have money on hand for growth projects, our factoring services can help. Contact Express Freight Finance today to get started.