Carrier Maintenance Systems - The Key Actors

Introduction

Welcome back to article three of ten in this series on trucking company safety management systems.  Prior to this article, we examined the role of systems in organisations and looked at the different purposes of the safety management system found in trucking companies throughout North America. 

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the maintenance system in a carrier and how it relates to safety and compliance.  While a preventative maintenance program is an important part of ensuring equipment remains reliable and repair costs are controlled, well-maintained vehicles are also safer to operate than their neglected counterparts.

A freshly inspected and serviced vehicle should be free from mechanical defects.  The challenge for a carrier is to ensure that vehicle safety equipment remains in serviceable condition between service intervals.  Without a maintenance system, vehicle defects can easily go undetected by the carrier and mechanical systems can degrade.

In the sections that follow, I invite you to follow the journey of a defect - a single defective low beam headlight - through a functioning carrier maintenance system.  While we watch the maintenance system manage this defect, we will see how many different interrelated roles interact throughout the system.

Actors in the Maintenance System

In the sense I use the term in this article series, an actor is a role that plays a part in a system.  It does not necessarily refer to a single individual; rather, it describes a set of responsibilities and an overarching purpose that may be held by one person, a group of people, or just be part of a single person’s job description.

Now let’s looks at the various actors that play roles in a carrier’s maintenance system.

Driver

Drivers are rarely the main maintenance worker that a carrier uses to perform maintenance on a vehicle; however, they are often the most critical component of the maintenance system in the sense that they interact with all other actors in the system.  Drivers are also often physically present for much of what occurs in the maintenance system.

In Canada, it is a requirement under the National Safety Code Standard 13 that commercial vehicles be inspected daily in accordance with the schedule that applies to a particular vehicle [1].  Since the driver is in care and control of the vehicle, must carry inspection reports, and must present inspection reports to a peace officer for inspection, it makes sense to have the driver be the person who inspects the vehicle and verifies its condition.  Personally, I would not want to drive a vehicle without personally inspecting it, and in most carriers, the driver is responsible for this inspection.

If during an inspection a driver identifies a single defective low beam headlight on their truck, this needs to be noted on an inspection report.  Such a defect is not, by itself, an out-of-service defect and the vehicle may continue on its trip prior to arranging for a repair.  However, just because the defect is minor enough to allow the vehicle to continue does not mean the driver cannot be given a recorded notice of violation by a commercial vehicle inspection officer; repairs must be made promptly.

Technicians

Technicians are individuals qualified to maintain and repair commercial vehicles.  With the complexity of modern vehicles, technicians require constant professional development and training. 

In the maintenance system at a larger carrier or dedicated shop, the technicians work under the direction of a maintenance manager.  Drivers who identify defects on their vehicle need enough training to know when they can go to a shop or when the defect is so severe that a service truck needs to come to them; technicians should be available to be consulted remotely by drivers who need help assessing an on-road defect.

Once the driver has identified a minor defect like a single defective low beam headlight, they need a way to report it to the shop so technicians can repair it and prioritise which repairs will be tended to first.  The maintenance system needs to be able to send notices of defects to technicians and coordinate with operations so the vehicle makes it to the repair facility at the optimal time.  Once reported and the vehicle is repaired, repairs need to be tracked so that the inspection report noting the defect can be traced to a record of repair that confirms the repair has been completed.  This shows a complete cycle: defect noticed, defect repaired, action recorded.

Maintenance Manager

A carrier with a knowledgeable and effective maintenance manager is in a fortunate position.  Commercial vehicles are complicated and expensive, and a lot of knowledge is needed to ensure their preventative maintenance program is cost-effective and reducing the incidence of on-road compliance problems.

Maintenance managers at trucking companies have some overlap in responsibility with safety managers because of the compliance requirements for maintenance and the on-road safety implications of defective vehicles.  As a result, these individuals provide each other with valuable feedback.  At smaller companies, maintenance and safety may be the responsibility of a single person.

For our single defective low beam headlamp, the maintenance manager would not typically be directly involved in such a repair except that they might triage it with other work depending on the operational demands of the organisation.  Where the maintenance manager adds their magic, though, is in analysing data from past repairs, identifying trends, and modifying parts procurement and repair methods to improve reliability and reduce costs.  By tracking the occurrences of headlight failures and repair costs, they may be able to modify preventative maintenance schedules to proactively replace components to reduce the incidence of on-road failures.

Commercial Vehicle Inspection Officers

Commercial vehicle inspection officers refer to any peace officer who has the authority to enforce legislation regarding commercial vehicle mechanical fitness.  In some jurisdictions, this is a police officer who has specialised in commercial vehicle enforcement; other jurisdictions have police forces that only focus on commercial vehicles.

Officers play an important role in a carrier’s maintenance system because they have the ability to check the condition of vehicles during the vehicles’ operation.  They are also not under the control of the carrier.  In this way, they provide the carrier with unbiased and external feedback on the carrier’s maintenance system performance.

For the example of our single defective low beam headlight, such a defect would be unlikely to go unnoticed by an officer.  Since lights are visible, the defective light may be the reason why an inspection was started in the first place.  The officer would note the defective light on their inspection report.  They would also check with the driver to see if vehicle inspection was done by the carrier and if the defective light was noted on the report.  If the inspection report provided by the driver does not document the defective light, depending on the driver’s story, the officer may also write up the carrier for failing to conduct a thorough daily vehicle inspection.

Commercial vehicle inspection officers are most concerned with the immediate actions of the driver and the present condition of the vehicle.  However, they are important actors in the maintenance system because they provide valuable feedback for system performance.  An effective maintenance system will not only reduce the frequency of roadside inspections resulting in violation reports but will also show prompt repairs after an inspection reveals defects.

Compliance Auditors

Just like commercial vehicle inspection officers, compliance auditors are external actors that assess the performance of the carrier maintenance system.  However, a major difference between officers and auditors is that officers take a look at single vehicles and drivers, whereas auditors generally examine the entire system.

Maintenance systems at carriers fulfil various legislative requirements, and auditors are able to assess the system to see if it is meeting its minimum legal standards.  Audits may be the result of a significant incident, a requirement for new carriers or carriers demonstrating poor performance, or arranged by the carrier to assess compliance and performance without an enforcement element.

Auditors want to ensure that the maintenance system is working.  At a minimum, the maintenance system needs to allow the carrier to identify defects through daily trip inspections, document these defects, ensure timely repairs, and then document these repairs.  In the example of our single defective low beam headlight, an auditor should be able to see a driver vehicle inspection report showing the light marked as defective.  There should also be a repair record such as an invoice showing that the carrier had the repair completed.  Driver vehicle inspection reports immediately after the repair should then no longer show the defect.

Summary

As people go about their workdays, it is easy to become focused on our immediate priorities and not pay much mind to the roles and responsibilities of others.  As I have shown above, carrier maintenance systems involve the coordinated action of multiple actors in order to function effectively; no single perspective captures the entire system.

Knowledge about the roles others play in the system helps everyone better see the reasons behind what they do.  As this series continues, I will further dissect other elements of a carrier safety management system to show how these complexities converge to assist the carrier in meeting its operational goals.

References

1 - “NSC Daily Vehicle Trip Inspection”, Canadian Council of Motor Carrier Administrators, accessed September 11th, 2021, https://www.ccmta.ca/web/default/files/PDF/Standard_13_March_2009.pdf