How to set up preventive maintenance that actually gets done

Why most PM programs quietly fail

We've onboarded 1,800 fleets. The ones that struggle with preventive maintenance all fail in the same three ways: the schedule lives in one person's head, the thresholds are optimistic, and the close-out has no teeth.

Fixing any one of these cuts your unplanned downtime meaningfully. Fixing all three is the difference between a shop that fights fires and one that doesn't.

Start with five templates, not fifty

Every fleet we work with wants to template everything on day one. Don't. Pick the five service intervals you do most often and get those dialed in first. Everything else is an optimization.

• Engine oil & filter (by mileage)
• DOT annual inspection (by date)
• Tire rotation (by mileage)
• Transmission service (by mileage or hours)
• Brake inspection (by mileage)

Set thresholds 15% earlier than you think

Operators default to OEM recommendations. In practice, those assume ideal conditions. If your trucking fleet is stop-and-go, dusty, cold, or heavy, shorten every interval by 15% and you'll avoid the slow drift into actual neglect.

We used to run 5,000-mile oil changes because that's what the manual said. We kept seeing 6,200 on the sticker. Pulling the threshold to 4,200 was the single best decision we made last year. — A. Ruiz · Hartwell Logistics

Close the loop or nothing matters

A PM that fires but doesn't close is worse than no PM at all — you have the illusion of rigor without the protection. Every PM in the FS365 maintenance module auto-generates a work order. That WO has to be assigned, executed, and signed off.

The result: your compliance number is honest. If it says 99%, it means 99%.

Give it 30 days

Set up your five templates, nudge the thresholds tighter than you're comfortable with, require close-outs, and then leave it alone for a month. Come back and check your dashboard. If you did this right, you'll see the kind of compliance number you used to only aspire to — and, quietly, your parts budget will thank you too. If you're still evaluating PM tools, our side-by-side comparison of FS365 against Fleetio, Samsara, Geotab and Verizon Connect goes deeper on the maintenance workflow.