vehicles to technician ratio
Tool Maintenance. This is where the bulk of the calculators work takes place. But, Babcox Media Editor Tim Fritz passed away on Feb. 23 from a heart attack. hours x 44 weeks x 95% utilisation x 12 per hour = 20,064 Gross profit on labour sales (Labour gross profit) = 93,456. Heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians repair and maintain engines, hydraulic systems, transmissions, and electrical systems of agricultural, industrial, construction, and rail equipment. Related: Fleet Management Lessons From the Private Sector. Thursday, September 8, 2022. The primary objective of this research was to produce an interactive staffing tool for use in determining optimum maintenance technician staffing levels for small, medium, and large public transit bus and other revenue fleets. By Randy Owen Main shaft An old fleet obviously requires more labor to keep in service than a brand new one. Introduced three years ago, the American Petroleum Institute (API)s CK-4 and FA-4 oil categories were billed as the next generation of oil, improving on the engine protection and fuel economy benefits offered by previous engine oil categories. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire. . The median annual wage for heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians was $53,770 in May 2021. Additional troubleshooting information here. 17 Save Your Own. These next two worksheets present the results of the tools calculations. Performance & security by Cloudflare. The Maintenance Staffing Calculator, a user guide and a Power Point presentation summarizing TCRP Project E-10 are available on TRB.org by searching for TCRP Report 184., _________________________________________________________. Information provided by Randy Owen. In these cases it might be a good idea to perform separate analyses for each location. Mall, K., & Sekera, J. What we used to accept as reasonable ratios no longer applies. Many employers send new service technicians to training sessions conducted by equipment manufacturers. %PDF-1.7 About 23,900 openings for heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Efficiency numbers should hover around 125 percent, which means a technician working on cars for 7.2 hours in a day should produce 9 billable hours of work. Median wage data are from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. >>/Group <> An official website of the United States government They work with a variety of vehicle components including engines, brakes, air-conditioning, suspension, transmission, security and sound systems. The automated truck conversation expands beyond the technology and into business reality. Perhaps you would be willing to write an article about it. Benchmarking fleet age is complicated because fleet composition must be considered. The percent change of employment for each occupation from 2021 to 2031. Most service technicians work full time, and many work evenings and weekends. 4 0 obj Another calculation includes maintenance and repair units, which involves comparing requirements of one vehicle group to another vehicle category. In the winter months, however, they may work less than full time. $200 - $5k. Additionally, organizations that do not actively manage labor reporting tend to lose hours during the year. Kenworth and Platform Science have announced a strategic partnership that will see the integration of Platform Science's Virtual Vehicle platform into Kenworth trucks using factory-installed telematics hardware. An example of challenges would be the difficulty of assigning a baseline average for the time required to complete specific tasks. The Work Environment tab includes the number of jobs held in the occupation and describes the workplace, the level of physical activity expected, and typical hours worked. Serving Car & Truck Fleet Management Professionals, Serving EV Intenders & Professionals In Commercial & Public Fleets, Serving Corporate, Executive, & Financial Managers Of Large Commercial Fleets, Serving Leaders In Fleet Mobility & Emerging Technology, Serving Public Sector Fleet Professionals, Serving Medium & Heavy Duty Commercial Truck Professionals, Serving Transit Bus, Private Motorcoach, & Passenger Rail Professionals, Serving School & Pupil Transportation Fleet Professionals, Serving Vocational & Service Fleet Professionals. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Creating a chart that allows for a certain number of staff technicians to repair each class of vehicles in the fleet is a tremendous boon for municipal fleet managers. The site is secure. To investigate these discrepancies, the research team conducted two rounds of interviews with transit agencies. This table shows a list of occupations with job duties that are similar to those of heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians. The average number of wrench-turning labor hours each mechanic on staff can produce (i.e., labor supply). Your email address will not be published. 160 is locally owned, in a state where a substantial subsidy is provided by the state for the upkeep, maintenance, and fueling of local school bus fleets. Troubleshooting skills. endobj (180 degrees) on a vehicle equipped with a steering gear with a 20:1 gear ratio. Do not over-maintain and have all the costs related to the hours your techs spend on changing light bulbs in the office at your finger tips. The number of maintenance technicians at a transit agency is based on financial constraints, fleet age, annual miles, powertrain type, how much work is outsourced, and a multitude of other key factors. Senior Member, thomasvista2012 Sick days? This tab also covers different types of occupational specialties. Once the labor demand is quantified, the number of productive hours available to service the fleet must be determined. Mechanics who work primarily on automobiles are described in the profile on automotive service technicians and mechanics. The companys top priority is to ensure safety and support the operational teams by sustaining a very high percentage of asset uptime and availability. If an agency does all its maintenance in one location then using the tool once is sufficient. Heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians must maintain accurate service records and parts inventories. JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. 5 0 obj Public Works fleets with a concentration of trucks and construction equipment clearly would be higher in age, while law enforcement fleets typically would be lower. This one calculates the required number of hours and full time equivalent (FTE) employees and compares this data to the actual existing staffing levels. They generally purchase these tools over the course of their careers, often investing thousands of dollars in their inventory. On the supply side in addition to the available productive hours factors already discussed factors to consider include mechanic training and skill levels, maintenance management practices, work rules (dictated, for example, by collective bargaining agreements), parts provisioning practices, and shop considerations (e.g., facility location, size, layout, condition, equipment, and tooling). Other programs, which lead to associates degrees, generally take 2 years to complete. I have experienced both challenges and benefits regarding the utilization of the VEU model to justify maintenance and repair staffing needs, said Fay. The employment, or size, of this occupation in 2021, which is the base year of the 2021-31 employment projections. We get by with what we have, but our staff is always busy. The following are examples of types of heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians: Farm equipment mechanics and service technicians service and repair farm equipment, such as tractors and harvesters. My question went to School Transportation News, on line. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $36,900, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $78,280. Sometimes the tech has to drive two hours to swap drivers because he has run out of hours. Mercury Associates Inc. in Rockville, Md., provides comprehensive fuel and fleet management consulting services to state and local governments, federal governments and private companies. Projected employment of heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians varies by occupation (see table). The calculator can help agencies perform three mains tasks: The calculator can be used by all sorts of agencies; survey participants had fleet sizes ranging from 10 vehicles to more than 1,000. Mechanics who work primarily on motorboats, motorcycles, and small all-terrain vehicles are described in the profile on small engine mechanics. Buses used to be relatively simple, so a bus-to-mechanic ratio was sufficient to determine if a transit agency had enough staff to maintain its fleet. By clicking the submit button below, you are agreeing with Bobit Business Medias Privacy Policy and this outlined level of consent. The projected percent change in employment from 2021 to 2031. If past efficiency performance is close to industry standards, a fleet manager can be confident the fleets historical labor data accurately reflects labor demand. Which technician is correct? Heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians held about 223,000 jobs in 2021. As such, the results of the calculator should be considered to reflect broad comparisons rather than objectively correct staffing levels. Contact Steve Hirano at Steve.Hirano@bobit.com. They also work on smaller consumer-grade lawn and garden tractors. Job Outlook Overall employment of heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians is projected to grow 8 percent from 2021 to 2031, faster than the average for all occupations. Which technician is correct? hours x 44 weeks x 107.8% overall efficiency x 60 per hour = 113,520. For example, they may use an oscilloscope to observe the signals produced by electronic components. This factor clearly must be considered when assessing how many mechanics an organization needs. Join Our List. Regression analyses were performed, and results include standard deviations to help judge how closely peer agencies perform on various measures. What kind of outsource work couldnt be achieved by regular fleet staff ? 960 0 obj <>stream If an agency had four or five buses per mechanic it was considered to have an excellent bus-to-mechanic ratio. New Vehicle Tech. Agricultural production requires the use of increasingly complex and sophisticated software-driven farm equipment, which is expected to create demand for farm equipment mechanics and service technicians to maintain the equipment and to train customers in its use. This graphic shows the share of Automotive service technicians & mechanics employed by various industries. At the end of the day, the ideal is the fewest techs, a simplified program with no complicated proceduresand no delays related to busy work. In addition, equipment should not be over-maintained, such technicians being taken off maintenance to do: Yard checks; snow plowing; cutting the grass; polishing my boat; washing someones car; or other non-essential tasks that take away from the maintenance jobs at hand.