Predictive Maintenance: Big Savings, Better Results
(L-R), Ricky Rivera, Paul Haida, Hanna Koke and Peter Erickson. @Credit photo: Huw Evans
Geotab Connect session revealed multiple benefits from having accessible, real time data analytics.
Vehicle maintenance is a huge factor in fleet operations and how vehicles are serviced and how those services and repairs are planned can have a major impact on operational efficiency and profitability.
Hugely beneficial
Therefore, any solutions that can provided predictive analysis when it comes to maintenance and downtime are seen as hugely beneficial. That’s why the Predictive Maintenance Panel Discussion at the 2025 Geotab Connect Conference in Orlando, Fla., drew such a large interest among attendees, especially when the panel got an opportunity to discuss a case study from Sperry Rail Service.
Hosting the discussion was Ricky Rivera, Product Manager at Geotab, with the panel featuring Paul Haida, Product Manager; Hanna Koke, Senior Team Lead, Data and Analytics, and Peter Erickson, Director of North American Fleet Maintenance at Sperry Rail Service.
To underline just how importance vehicle maintenance is for fleets, Paul Maida provided some statistics that showed that of 3 million vehicles that have maintenance diagnostics, roughly 1 million will experience some form of breakdown. This translates to approximately 0.74 breakdowns per 100,000 miles (160,000 km), equivalent to 8.74 billion days of unplanned maintenance. From a cost perspective, that results in around $4.34 billion in unplanned maintenance based on $100 per day).
Safety factors
That’s a staggering amount and furthermore, vehicles that are not properly maintained also impact safety for the driver, for the fleet company and for other road users, not to mention can add to other costs including tire wear and fuel usage.
Maida noted that over the last two years, Geotab has spent a lot of time talking with its customers and to really gain an understanding about what maintenance means to them and how to prioritize decisions based on the metrics and data that’s available to them.
Hanna Koke stressed the importance of the adage that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” She also said that in the cycle of maintenance needs, breakdown is a huge factor, but so are vehicle collisions and the towing that’s required after they crash.
Towing and service analytics
Koke said that towing can prove very costly for fleets and it’s one reason why Geotab has been focusing on providing data from these situations, including when these vehicles are towed to a service centre for repairs. Today, data analysis can determine whether a vehicle is in a service center being repaired or is parked in a loading zone. And with analytics showing factors such as oil being changed, batteries being replaced and persistent trouble code faults corrected, before the vehicle is returned to service, this represents a window of opportunity for fleets to measure unplanned downtime.
Additionally, this window allows them to work at lowering the amount of unplanned downtime, since through analytics, Geotab can provide details such as breakdown frequency, breakdown trends; the types of repairs that need to be performed, how long those repairs take; which service centres are more efficient at conducting those repairs and which vendors provide the most benefit for a particular fleet in terms of cost savings and efficiencies.
Unique operating requirements
Looking at a specific case study, Peter Erickson provided a fascinating insight into how predictive maintenance and data analytics can really provide benefits for fleets that use these tools effectively. He noted that Sperry Rail Service, due to its business model, has some very unique operating requirements. Much of Sperry’s equipment is used for non-destructive testing of railroad tracks, meaning that it is highly specialized and when a vehicle breaks down or is sidelined, the team can’t pick up a replacement box truck or flatbed from a local rental or leasing company. Erickson noted that for years, Sperry struggled when it came to maintenance requirements which he described as “herding cats.”
Working with Geotab changed all that, and today, Sperry Rail has a platform where all the company’s data can be kept in a single place. No longer does it take days to find a specific report, everything is right there, in one place, all the time.
Tailored to requirements
Erickson said that partnering with Ricky Rivera and his team, allowed Sperry to develop a maintenance platform that was tailored specifically to the company’s unique needs, one that allows Sperry Rail to communicate regularly with its team of remote technicians and determine where they are; the condition of their vehicles and equipment and assign them a job based on detailed information that Geotab’s platform provides. Erickson noted that now, with this solution and data access, Sperry Rail, for the first time, has real cost controls when it comes to fleet maintenance, and can accurately determine when its vehicles and equipment will require maintenance and build a true cost of ownership for every unit it operates.
