Repair Shops Adopt Triage Process to Sort, Prioritize and Speed Up Work on Trucks

This story appears in the Sept. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Some truck repair shops are adopting a triage procedure to improve service by avoiding the problem of losing the use of a tractor for days when a simple fix could put the vehicle back on the road.

“We have to change how [repair shops] think,” Kevin Bowers, service manager for Trans Source Inc., said at a presentation to the Technology & Maintenance Council here on Sept. 15. “I use two triage technicians,” he said, to separate trucks needing complicated, lengthy repairs from those that can return to service quickly with a minor repair.

The goal for repair shops, said Jack Porter, a senior consultant for Decisiv Inc., Glen Allen, Va., and the session’s moderator, should be to figure out within two hours what’s wrong with a broken truck and then provide estimates for the time to fix it and how much will it cost.

While fleet managers understand that difficult problems can take a long time to fix, Porter said the point of triage is to avoid a worst-case scenario where a truck is sidelined for three or four days, when all it needs is 30 or 45 minutes of work.

Adam Knobeloch, director of service operations for Daimler Trucks North America LLC, Portland, Ore., said the change is coming because “customers want it.” He said the old, “linear” approach to maintenance — first-come, first-served and work on one truck until it is done — can lead to lengthy delays for minor problems.

Jason Graham, service manager for Dallas Freightliner Inc., said he uses a dedicated diagnostic technician, similar to Bowers’ triage technician. Graham said the technician also gets his own parts assistant.

Keeping a full-time diagnostician on staff is difficult for smaller shops, Graham conceded, but if one can do it, it is beneficial in terms of speeding repairs.

For an outside repair shop to speed up its work, fleet managers have the responsibility of making drivers and in-house maintenance staff available to the repair shop, said Dave Foster, maintenance vice president of Southeastern Freight Line, Lexington, S.C.

If a dealership or independent repair shop is working on an unfamiliar vehicle, Foster said, the technician there would need to talk to people who know the truck best, its driver and regular maintenance technician.