I just got my first contract to maintain a full limo fleet for, Boston based chauffeured limo service. I’m used to working on one car at a time like casual work, so I’m trying to set this up the right way from day one. For those of you who have done fleet work, what’s the best approach
How can you have priced the job right if you don’t even know how much work to do?
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That’s not what I meant. I did give a price estimate upfront based on the scope we discussed. My concern is the workflow, handling too much at once can get messy. I am setting up a clear process from day one so the workload stays defined and manageable.
Please remove the name of the company, otherwise your post will be considered spam.
Lots of info missing here, how many bays does your shop have?
How many vehicles does this Limo company have and what type of services will you be providing?? Oil changes only, oil and light mechanic work, or almost everything except body work up to and including engine and transmissions repairs/replacement??
Is it set up like a one bay per overhead door, or more of an open floor plan with a wide open floor space and one or two entry/exit doors??
How many heavy lift truck racks do you have? cause most car type Limos are heavy, stretched/extra long, and or bus type that require much bigger truck racks that can handle much higher weight vehicles from the extra reinforcements…
Or are you just planning to use more portable vehicle end lifts??
How many mechanics do you have on staff??
A company that relies on it’s vehicles for income cost them money for every hour not in use (downtime), even before they bring it in for service/repairs…
One thing, you HAVE to be able to multitask and work on as many vehicles at once as you have room for… Back in the 90’s I worked for a local vehicle rental company with 250-500 higher mileage vehicles at any given time depending on how many locations we had, most of the time it was just the 2 of us mechanics and at times we worked at different locations, so worked alone and I did everything but paint and body work… I could pull in 6 or 7 vehicles (open floor plan with 1 to 3 usable racks, one door in or out) and diagnose them and or do vehicle inspections on them to know what needed to be done to each and order everything, then start tear down and repairs such as brakes, tires, steering/suspension, plugs wires (cap rotor?) basically what ever it needed at the time and just repair them as fast as possible…
Later in life I was a service manager and had lots of fleet accounts, I would have to get as much info as possible when one came in and prioritize which ones should be done 1st and which one of my mechanics could do the repairs or general service the fastest, then have to shuffle them around depending on parts availability and whatnots, again multitasking… You just have to be able to see what you have vehicle wise and figure out what you can get/have done the quickest and back to the customer on time… Always keep the fleet manager informed and between the 2 of you, you can make decisions as to what can/has to be back in service 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on… Remember, time is money…
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I removed the company name. Sorry for mentioning it. I’m new to the community and read guidelines properly, but think I should have read the guidelines more carefully. I didn’t realize it could come across as spam.
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Thanks for laying that out. You’re right, I left out a lot of the details.
This contract focuses on preventive maintenance and light mechanical work, not major engine or transmission jobs. I plan to outsource anything heavy or specialized and keep the vehicles moving with fast turnarounds on routine service.
Your point about downtime is exactly why I’m building a clear intake and priority system. I’m starting with a fleet audit, setting service intervals by vehicle type and mileage, and creating a simple triage list so the most time-sensitive cars go first. The multitasking approach you described makes sense. I’m thinking setting up a tracker so I can stage multiple vehicles at once.
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A good POS (point of sale) system is a must for keeping up with history, mileage etc etc.. Think of a multilayered spread sheet…
Who will handle any Tows, you or the fleet manager of the Limo company?? If you, then I hope you have a good working relationship with a few tow company’s that can handle larger vehicles, I used 3 or 4, with one being the main one, I could even have them move vehicles around the “yard” for free sometimes, so I did a lot of business with them…But that takes up your time from servicing the vehicles, so you will have to kinda plan ahead for when you are ordering parts and or waiting on parts to make those calls…
Also, subcontracting can be easy money sometimes if you have accounts with the shop(s) doing the work, but again, who is shuttling the vehicles, if you, then how are you getting back to your shop, or to theirs to pick up said vehicle, meaning do you drive it to them and they bring you back? or you uber back, or walk back? lot of things have to be worked out when subbing out work… When I owned my small shop in the late 90’s/early 00’s, I used to sub out some of my transmission work and I would do their differential work, depending on what I already had at the time, when busy it was costly to leave the shop, but at times it was just nice to take the break… lol
So you need to always be thinking 3, 4, 6, 10+ steps ahead so you have it all organized ahead of time…
Plus when dealing with a fleet company, normally you will have a small budget for the basics, but for the more costly repairs like the heavy stuff you will be subbing out, you will have to take timeout from working on the vehicles to talk to the subbed out shop about what the issue is, what is it going to take to repair, cost to repair and any variables with any of it, then you will have to be able to convert that info to the fleet manager, then wait for authorization, then back to the subbed shop to discuss any and all variables with them and then back to the fleet manager for final cost and time frame, then the pick up once ready, all that time is money and not working on the vehicles…
So if you are a one man show, you will be the owner, mechanic, boss, secretary, janitor, gofor, maintenance guy when stuff in the shop goes wrong…
And always expect the unexpected…
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That makes a lot of sense, especially the part about the multilayer spreadsheet being more like a POS history than a simple tracker. I can see how that keeps mileage, service notes, and patterns in one place so I don’t lose track when several vehicles hit the shop at the same time.
You also raised a point I hadn’t fully mapped out yet: the time cost of moving vehicles for towing and sublet work. I was thinking mostly about outsourcing the heavy stuff, but you’re right that the real drain can be the back and forth calls, transport and waiting on approvals. I’m going to step back and plan that workflow first before I take on too many outside jobs at once. When you handled fleet authorizations, did you find it worked better to keep everything in writing for a paper trail, or were quick calls usually the fastest way to keep things moving?
How are you going to handle the communications and payment side of the business? Will the client log into their account to make an appointment, a payment, check on status?
I keep it simple: one fleet contact handles scheduling and approvals and I send quick status updates. I invoice itemized by vehicle or unit number and bill on a set cycle, so clients don’t need to log into anything.
The Rental place had a good support staff and the owner was very involved with everything…
When a service manager, we used a POS system that logged the date, time, person talked to, phone number called or in person, amount and whatnot at the time of approval, with space for notes if/when needed, sometimes we would fax over the invoice to be signed off on, or have them signed in person depending, just make sure everything is documented incase something happens…
The fleets mainly were national accounts and paid electronically, I paid the bills on my end through the POS system electronically and then our corporate office then wrote monthly checks, I got a monthly statement showing all paid and credits from the corp level (ours and theirs/statements) that I then would match against my records, and it showed 30day, 60 days, 90 days past due (even credits owed), I kept about the best records and bills up to date district wide, vendors loved dealing with me… I either came in early to handle most of the paper work and or stayed late to take care of it, and if behind would bring the statements home to match everything up.. Any down time was rarely take it easy time, I would do paper work then also, I was always the busiest person underroof, even more so than the general manager, I didn’t need or want help…
When my own shop, paid everything weekly and expected the same, and most out sourcing was just verbal, hand shake kinda thing… Wouldn’t dream of doing that now a days…
I’ve probably missed 100 things… lol
I would want everything in writing, emails that is. Untangling mixups is hard when it was a phone call.