Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/846064
56 commercial carrier journal | july 2017 EQUIPMENT: BRAKE VIOLATIONS repeat violations and determine at what point the issue could have been avoided altogether. Brake woes at Transpro led the company to make a friction change. "We had the mechanics do an analysis of why the shoes were being removed," Frolick said. "We were using reman brakes at the time, and the techs noted they were cracking prematurely and causing drum wear." e company transitioned away from reman brakes and saw an immediate improvement, he said. Transervice transitioned from drum brakes to disc brakes in 2012, with many of the trucks going through their service life – 750,000 miles – never needing a brake job. "Techs love the idea of not having to do as much maintenance," Darakos said. "e negative is that it can lull you to sleep. If disc brakes are worn down and no one catches it, it can become a pretty expensive repair by wearing down to the point that the rotor is damaged." Disc brakes are about a $1,200-per- axle premium over drums but offer reduced maintenance costs if they are maintained adequately. "ey're not indestructible," he said. "ey wear down like everything else. If you let things wear down and you get rotor damage, that can be a $2,000 to $3,000 [repair] bill, and you lost all the things you tried to do." Post-trip inspections If a pre-trip inspection is the first line of defense, a post-trip inspection is the last, Frolick said. "[Post-trip inspections] help the next driver ensure he not only isn't wasting time getting needless repairs that could have been done earlier when he should have been departing, but also to avoid needless violations that could have been easily fixed had they been reported to the company at first notice to allow them to get it repaired," he said. "Instilling this pro- cedure into protocol with your drivers is a key component to help reduce, if not eliminate, roadside violations and citations in your fleet." If having a first and last line of de- fense isn't finding your brake problems before the scale house does, in-house inspections are a good middle ground. "We have to see every piece of equipment every three months, including owner-operators' trucks," Frolick said. Trucks are brought in for inspection an additional three times per year beyond quarterly checks. "Every time a guy comes in for an oil change, we're going over their truck," he said. Disc brakes are about a $1,200-per-axle premium over drums but offer reduced maintenance costs if they are maintained correctly. For trucks not equipped with brake stroke indicators, brake inspections consist of measuring from the back of the brake chamber to the middle of the center of the clevis pin, applying the brake and remeasuring.