Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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38 commercial carrier journal | may 2018 technology Equipment checklists Dossier to help fleets enforce inspection, PM, repair tasks BY AARON HUFF L ast month, a group of fleet maintenance experts arrived in downtown Philadelphia for the Dossier Summit to network and learn about new features coming to the Dossier management system. One new feature seemed to stand out given the circumstances. A Dallas-bound Southwest Airlines jet had made an emergency landing nearby at a Philadelphia airport after a turbine fan blade snapped from its hub at 30,000 feet above Pennsylvania. According to news reports, the airplane had been inspect- ed two days earlier. Yet a preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found evidence of metal fatigue where the blade had separated. Fleets that use maintenance management software from Dossier Systems have motor vehicles of all varieties. What are the chances that one of their truck drivers or mechanics recent- ly had missed a faulty item in a routine inspection or repair? Electronic mandate During a session at the summit, Bob Hausler, Dossier's vice president of marketing and technology, presented a new "checklist" feature coming to the next version of Dossier. Scheduled with the 6.7 version planned for release this sum- mer, the Dossier checklist feature is designed to let users set up and automatically enforce tasks during inspections, preventive maintenance and repairs. Checklist items can prompt users to answer a question or enter data. When conducting a PM, a fleet may want their technicians to enter tire pressures. Once all checklist items are defined for one type of equip- ment, users can copy them to checklists for similar units. A PM schedule created for a Mack truck could have similar items to complete for a Freightliner. "You do not have to build every (checklist) from scratch," Hausler said. "There is no limit on the number of lists or items per list." With the feature, no Dossier user, be it a fleet supervisor or a mechanic, will be able to close a PM or repair order in the software until every item in the checklist is completed. The system uses login credentials to keep a record of who completed each step. The Dossier user interface is designed for a Windows PC and is mouse-driven. Hausler also demonstrated how Re- mote Desktop can run on mobile devices for users to mark off items on a checklist and navigate through Dossier. Hausler also previewed the next-generation Dossier ver- sion 7 that will run on any web browser and mobile device using dedicated mobile apps. Version 7 will incorporate swipes and gestures to make users more efficient in a mobile environment, he said. Dossier is scheduling the initial release of version 7 for the second quarter of 2019. Driver inspections The Dossier system supports mobile electronic inspections through integrations with telematics providers. Dossier On- Board is an available module that captures mileage updates, diagnostic trouble codes and driver vehicle inspection reports. Hausler said 38 Dossier fleet customers are using the module that can automate the workflow for approving and creating repair orders for items that fail drivers' pretrip in- spections. Once repair orders are complete, a message is sent back to the driver to confirm the work was done. About eight months ago, Souderton, Pa.-based Hagey Coach installed the Zonar telematics system across its fleet of 37 charter school and motorcoach buses. While Hagey Coach has used the system primarily for electronic logs, it plans to integrate Zonar's Electronic Vehicle Inspection Report with Dossier On-Board. Zonar's EVIR requires drivers to walk around the vehicle with a tablet to scan a radio-frequency identification bar- code at each inspection point. "As much as you can say to a driver, 'Do a pretrip inspec- tion,' do they?" asked Bob Nolen, fleet and facilities manager for Hagey Coach. "By using Zonar, at least they now have to walk around the vehicle." in focus: MAINTENANCE SOFTWARE Dossier Systems' fleet maintenance management software can convert DVIR reports into repair orders. A new "checklist" feature is scheduled with the 6.7 version planned for release this summer.