Forklift maintenance cost tracking
Forklift Maintenance Cost Tracking: Know What Every Truck Costs
To track forklift maintenance cost properly, every service invoice has to be tied to the truck it was for, with labor, parts and the hour meter reading broken out. FleetShield does that from the invoices you already get, so you can see cost per truck, per site and per operating hour, and spot the units that cost more than they should.
Why is forklift maintenance cost so hard to track?
- Invoices come from several dealers, each in its own format.
- They get coded to a general maintenance account, not to a truck.
- The hour meter reading sits on the invoice and never makes it into a spreadsheet.
- Rentals and repairs get mixed together.
So most companies know their total maintenance spend. What they need to know is which trucks are driving it.
What should you track for each forklift?
- Total maintenance cost, to date and over the last 12 months
- Cost per operating hour, using the hour meter on each invoice
- Planned maintenance (PM) versus unplanned repairs
- Repeat repairs on the same component
- The labor rate billed versus the rate you agreed
- Rental cost caused by that truck being down
How does FleetShield track it?
Send FleetShield your invoices as they arrive. It reads each one, matches it to the truck by serial number, and records the labor, parts, hours and total. Cost per truck and per site updates as invoices come in, and FleetShield flags the ones that look wrong: labor above your agreed rate, a dealer's rate creeping up over time, more labor hours than the job normally takes, duplicates, the same part replaced again too soon, or hour meter readings that don't add up.
When should you replace a forklift instead of repairing it?
When a truck's repair spend keeps climbing and a single repair quote gets close to what the truck is worth. Because FleetShield keeps every truck's cost history, the repair-or-replace conversation starts from numbers instead of from a guess.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate forklift maintenance cost per hour?
Divide the truck's maintenance spend over a period by the hours it ran in that period, using the hour meter readings on its invoices. FleetShield reads those readings for you.
Can FleetShield track costs from several dealers?
Yes. It reads invoices from any dealer or service provider and puts them in one place, matched to each truck.
Does FleetShield catch billing errors?
It flags labor billed above your agreed rate, labor rates that rise from one invoice to the next, more labor hours than a job normally takes, duplicate invoices, parts billed twice, and hour meter readings that go backwards or jump too far, so someone can check them before they're paid.