CONVERGENCE
management system every day. “I am able to preplan all of the servicing of the vehicles a number of weeks before they are due, because I know what work they will be doing. Then I let the depots know when any unit is needed for servicing and they get sent to the appropriate service location. “All of my preventative maintenance and everything else is in this system. I don’t really have to think of a thing, it’s simply
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a matter of getting the information in and updating it. It’s straightforward easy system to use and when we get our audits, I can pull all of the information out and make hard copies, if needed.”
ADAPTATION AND DEVELOPMENT Over the past 12 years Hi-Trans has adapted and developed the system to work precisely to help improve fleet performance. The Hi-Trans Express business model is all
around depot to depot line-haul over long distances, where the most important factor is the reliability and consistency of the rolling stock day-in-day-out. The Sydney to Adelaide trucks do around 400,000km per year, running a changeover regime, a pattern which is repeated between most of the capital cities in Australia. There are over 40 trucks in the fleet as well as over 150 trailers. There are also lot of subbies involved in the operation hauling the trailers, as well. Monitoring of the trailers is an important part of the data collection, ensuring they are fit for purpose on each night run. Trailer maintenance is all done in-house by the operation. “If you plan everything in advance, it’s so simple,” says Andy. “It’s not reactive maintenance, it’s all planned maintenance. We also do a lot of history reporting, with every repair having a job associated with it. The stock of spares is also allocated to each job and monitored to assess costs. “Every tyre is monitored. If you put air in the tyre or torque them up, look at steer tyres and rotate them, everything goes into the system and is put against that asset.” It was this monitoring which brought
