Fleet maintenance and repair services

Every breakdown, vehicle repair and routine maintenance visit takes your valuable vehicle assets off the road. The sooner your drivers and vehicles can get back up and running, the better.

Boost driver productivity and control vehicle maintenance costs

What is fleet maintenance and repair?

Fleet maintenance is the practice of keeping company vehicles in good operating condition for safety, reliability, and longevity. It involves performing recommended periodic maintenance, replacing parts, and tracking asset history to avoid unexpected breakdowns. Incorporating scheduled replacement parameters by vehicle type and focusing vehicle replacement more by distance driven than months in service are also good recommendations to follow.

Fleet maintenance and repair through Element

Our premier suite of services helps you get fleet maintenance and repair costs under control, while increasing vehicle and driver uptime. Comprehensive vehicle maintenance and fleet repair services, unmatched buying power and more actionable data for better analysis and decisions will keep your fleet well-tuned and your bottom line happy. When you need to minimize costs and maximize productivity - we’ve got you covered both on and off the road.

Using fleet maintenance management to uphold high level of productivity

Our maintenance services keep your cars and trucks on the road and out of the shop. When your vehicles need repair or maintenance, drivers can simply visit one of the 50,000 authorized national and independent providers in our fleet maintenance and repair network.

Our experts will analyze work estimates, recommend the best repair facilities to handle your jobs, and negotiate prices on repairs, warranties and post-warranties on your behalf – maximizing cost and time savings. You’ll receive consolidated invoices and reporting for all fleet repairs and realize quantifiable savings by tapping into our extensive selection of suppliers.

How proper fleet maintenance can reduce overall cost

Proactive preventive maintenance

With vehicle allocation challenges, the importance of preventive maintenance (PM) compliance (oil changes) has never been higher. Properly maintaining vehicles will help reduce the likelihood of unscheduled, costlier repairs as vehicle replacement cycles may need to be extended. Also, extended oil change intervals provide fewer opportunities for a mechanic to inspect a vehicle’s brakes and tires for safety. We recommend establishing PM schedules according to OEM recommendations with possible adjustments for more demanding job applications. Then, track upcoming PM events and proactively send out reminders to your drivers to improve compliance.

Fleet vehicle maintenance

Our premium suite of fleet maintenance solutions is designed to reduce downtime and associated costs for fleet vehicles, offering:

Convenience
- 24/7 driver assistance from multi-lingual, in-house contact centers
- Managed and contracted North American network of 50,000 national accounts, dealers, independent repair facilities and mobile repair providers including more than 12,000 tractor and trailer repair facilities
- Ability to service all asset types, including trucks, trailers, refrigerated equipment, forklifts
- Widely accepted service card ensures driver convenience and tracking
- Supplier Locator link available via desktop and mobile devices
- Proactive preventive maintenance notification reminders sent to drivers based on OEM recommendations
Quality
- Element's staff of ASE/310S/310T-certified associates consult on repairs and enforce client specific policies
- Contracted network ensures quality vehicle repairs and service at competitive pricing
- On-site and mobile repair provider solutions available
Management
- Policy management, reporting and consulting
- Negotiate warranty and post-warranties on your behalf
- Web access to view maintenance approvals, trends and repair history
- Online suite of standard and custom reports

Clients recognize an average savings of $203 per vehicle per year.

Element's Maintenance Team

Managed rental

Element oversees and coordinates vehicle rentals to minimize extended rental time
Consistent follow up with repair shop to track repair ETA and extend rental as needed

Downtime tracking

Repairs tracked from shop notification to repair completion
Dedicated process for delays or escalations

Commercial roadside assistance

Keeping drivers safe and getting them back out on the road quickly

Service requests handled by knowledgeable staff trained in transportation fleet emergency response and logistics
24/7 nationwide tow and roadside repair coverage
Personalized recovery ability for high value cargo, rail vehicles and off terrain

(U.S.) Element’s partnership with Agero, one of the nation’s leading roadside repair vendors, provides us technology to proactively identify, escalate and manage potential roadside delays. We provide comprehensive support, connecting with the driver and service provider to expediate service arrival for a seamless roadside event.

Easy job escalation

Reduces experience issues by proactively flagging and escalating at-risk jobs

Nationwide monitoring

Using a powerful estimated time of arrival prediction model, we can predict service delays in any zip code in the U.S.

Enhanced Services

Highly trained case managers follow up with clients and drivers and are empowered to do what it takes to resolve service issues

Client managed fleet maintenance

With Element’s purchasing program for fleet vehicle maintenance services, you establish the service card limits and escalation process, and your drivers/managers authorize all repairs. This allows you to reduce fleet vehicle maintenance expenses with our negotiated repair pricing through our extensive repair provider network. Optional Roadside Assistance program provides 24/7 nationwide tow and roadside repair coverage.

Client repair data capture

We offer a web-based fleet maintenance management system to document and analyze your in-house repairs:

One consolidated platform for all your maintenance information, including your own internally managed garages and Element’s supplier network
Allows you to see a complete picture of your fleet maintenance and repair costs
Integrates with major in-house garage software packages to facilitate data transfer
Web-based work order entry with simple drop down menus
Features online reporting that shows costs for your internally managed garage and total costs regardless of source

Fleet maintenance plan

Companies that rely on vehicles to service their customers need a solid fleet maintenance plan to ensure the vehicles they rely on are well maintained and on the road servicing their customers. At Element we provide our clients with an overall, customized approach to a fleet maintenance plan that includes the following key components:

Conduct analysis of the client’s vehicle fleet to understand what types of vehicles are used, for what purpose and for how long
Set approval thresholds for repairs – who provides approval, dollar limits and more
Utilize Element recommended in-network service and repair providers for maintenance needs to avoid additional costs
Follow recommended preventive maintenance guidelines
Adopt the practice of having the vehicle inspected to identify repairs before they become an issue such as brake and tire wear
Set appropriate vehicle replacement cycle to get the most from vehicle resale

Client Garage Management

Our Client Garage Management program is a comprehensive option for client-owned garages enabling full transparency into all maintenance activities. It makes it easy for you to consolidate and organize all your vehicle maintenance data in one place to drive meaningful insights, leverage advanced applications and make informed decisions.

Integrated garage service platform provides you with visibility to repair status and workflow to drive compliance and control costs.

Complete fleet functionality for maintenance stakeholder group in an intuitive platform
Efficient repair order process decreases admin time, provides cost control, and improvement in repair quality
Ability to track parts inventory and enables the facility's ordering of spare parts
Advanced dashboard, reporting, and analytics capability to drive short and long-term maintenance optimization

Blue Seal of Excellence certification

ASE is well known for its industry-leading certification program for automotive professionals. ASE certification means that a person has passed tough, industry-developed exams. ASE Blue Seal of Excellence Recognition goes a step further by identifying establishments which have a large percentage of certified professionals. It's a commitment that earns only the best establishments the recognition to stand out from the crowd.

More than 75% of our Maintenance team are ASE certified demonstrating Element’s commitment to delivering best in class service to our clients.

Client success story

Situation

Client had a current case limit approval of $500 and 64% of their maintenance expense occurred in the $500 to $1K range taking up valuable time in approvals

In addition, 39% of their tire expense and 64% of their preventive maintenance (PM) were completed at dealers and independents

Solution

Element’s Strategic Consulting team performed a maintenance deep dive analysis of spend (tires, PMs, roadside/towing, brakes, transmissions)

Quantified potential savings of steering additional volume to key national accounts

Recommended increasing case limit to $1K to reduce approval and subsequent driver downtime

Impact

5,388 reduction in downtime hours

$540K in downtime savings

$185K annual savings by shifting volume from dealers & independents to select national providers