How to See Which Units Are Costing You the Most

Week 2 · Cost per unit · Repair spend

Every fleet has a few units that always seem to be in the air or on stands. You order more parts for them, drivers complain about them, and somehow they still end up back on the road because there’s work to do. The question is: how much are those units really costing you?

Step 1: Start a simple repair log

Create a second sheet called Repair Log. Every time a truck or trailer gets worked on, capture:

• Date of repair
• Unit number
• Complaint (driver’s words)
• Cause (what we found)
• Correction (what we did)
• Parts cost
• Labor hours
• Downtime (hours or days out of service)

Step 2: Total spend by unit

Once you’ve logged a few months of repairs, sort or filter the sheet by Unit number. Add up:

• Total parts cost per unit.
• Total labor hours per unit.
• Total downtime per unit.

You’ll usually see a pattern: a handful of units rack up a lot more repairs and downtime than the rest.

Step 3: Decide what to do with “problem child” units

Once you know which units are costing you the most, you can make better decisions:

• Is it time to retire or sell a chronic problem unit?
• Is there an underlying issue (driver abuse, route conditions, spec choice)?
• Would one larger repair or component replacement stop a string of band-aid fixes?

Step 4: Use the data in your PM planning

High-cost units should get extra attention on PM days. If a trailer keeps eating tires, we’ll spend more time looking at alignment, suspension, and loading. If a truck is always in for electrical work, we’ll track down the root cause instead of just changing bulbs and fuses.

We can help you see the story in your repairs

When we work with fleets long-term, we don’t just turn wrenches—we help you read your own data. We can point out the repeat failures we’re seeing, suggest changes to PM, and help you decide when it’s time to move on from a trouble unit.