How many mechanics should your fleet have?

NRMCA survey benchmarks truck mixer, front-end-loader maintenance costs

hat fleet mainte-

W nance cost levels

should owners con-
sider “normal” for
their ready-mixed
concrete operations? What do most
producers use as a basis for PM (pre-
ventive maintenance) intervals? How
do tire costs compare from company
to company? How does the age of the
fleet affect these costs?
The National Ready Mixed Concrete
Association recently surveyed its
members to compile answers to these
and other questions. The individual
results indicate a wide difference

among producers. But, when grouped
together, the data offers managers an
idea of how their fleet maintenance
costs compare with those of other pro-
ducers.
Industry trends
Many industry fleet managers look
upon the number of truck mixers to
mechanics as a key ratio in budgeting.
The assumption is that an older fleet
Larry Evans
How many mechanics does it take to keep your fleet going? According to a National Ready Mixed
Concrete Association study, one mechanic keeps 12.3 mixers on the road.
demands more maintenance and thus modest number of mechanics. Howev-
more mechanics. While there is un- er, the chart does not indicate how
doubtedly some truth to this, the equipment downtime impacts equip-
charts below indicate that the ratio ment availability in these older fleets.
may not be a complete indicator. Sev- These same industry experts suggest
eral older fleets are getting by with a that the relationship between fleet age

Mixers per mechanic ratio for a fleet's average age Maintenance costs related to fleet's average mixer age
30 5
Mixers/mechanic ratio

25 4
Median cost
20 3 $2.49/cy
$/cy

Median ratio
12.3 mixers to
15 each mechanic 2

10 1

5 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Years Years
NRMCA’s survey results showed that fleet age has more of an effect on maintenance costs than on labor allocation.
and maintenance costs can provide an
indicator of when to purchase new
trucks. For this survey, NRMCA de-
fined total costs to include parts, shop
expense/labor, outside vendor repairs,
radio and tire expenses. While the re-
sults indicate slightly lower costs for
the newest fleets, the difference from
one end of the fleet age spectrum to
the other is not dramatic.
Since members operate their busi-
nesses in so many different ways, it’s
difficult to provide standardized an-
swers. So the results can be impacted
by a number of input variables. Some
producers with companion divisions
with different product lines often do
not separate their mechanics’ ready-
mix maintenance hours from those of
aggregates or block, etc. Some fleet
managers elect to delay purchasing
big-ticket maintenance items until the
following year, choosing to absorb
high operating costs for the current
production season. This might be the
case when one respondent’s shop ex-
penses seem particularly high.
Reading into the responses
One discussion item among me-
chanics is establishing a crankcase
drain interval. The survey suggests that
most producers use engine hours. Cal-
endar days are the second most com-
mon PM interval criteria for man-
agers. Some producers indicated that
they are evaluating oil analysis and
even fuel consumption as possible al-
ternatives to setting their PM sched-
ules.
In this initial survey, the rear-to-
front-discharge fleet cost comparisons
were quite competitive, but only five
of the reporting companies ran entire-
ly front-discharge fleets. Seven compa-
nies had mixed rear- and front-dis-
charge fleets.
The survey data found a wide oper-
ating range on front-end loader main-
tenance. Because of multiple uses of
loaders in many operations, the results
were not as complete or tightly corre-
lated as the truck data. Next year’s sur-
vey will try to address this problem.
Many producers establish loader
maintenance intervals based on engine
hours rather than cubic yards, and the
conversion may have created some
confusion.
Forty-five U.S. and two Canadian
companies participated in the NRM-
CA survey, representing fleets ranging
from 6 to nearly 800 concrete trucks.
The data was sorted by region, but not
enough data was pooled from each re-
gion to be considered statistically rep-
resentative. The results for truck mix-
ers were all within a fairly tight range.
For example, tire costs per cubic yard
averaged 32¢ overall. Broken down re-
gionally, these costs were 37¢ in the
South Central, 36¢ in the East, 34¢ in
the Southwest, 29¢ in the Southeast,
and 27¢ in the Great Lakes regions.
Data from many of the other cate-
gories fell into similar patterns.
The association will send out a
shorter version of the survey to its
members this winter. Hopefully, next
year’s report will reflect a larger pool
of participants, allowing for in-depth
regional breakdowns of the costs. ■
Greg Vickers is director of Operations
and Compliance for the National Ready
Mixed Concrete Association.

1998 NRMCA fleet cost survey results

No. of companies participating in survey ........................47
Total No. of trucks......................................................4,694
Average fleet age...................................................7.4 years
Front discharge, % of total........................................11.4%
Rear discharge, % of total.........................................88.6%
Average annual mileage per truck ............................19,638
Average haul distance, one way ..........................13.1 miles
Average load size ......................................7.73 cubic yards
Average “typical full load” size.................................9.87 cy
Fuel usage ..........................................3.86 miles per gallon
Fuel usage ...................................................0.98 gallons/cy
Fuel usage .............................................................$0.91/cy
Parts expense ........................................................$0.94/cy
Shop expense ........................................................$1.11/cy
Tires & tubes .........................................................$0.32/cy
Total maintenance cost.........................................$2.49/cya
Do you use recaps for steer tires?.........19% Yes 81% No
Do you use recaps for drive tires?...........96% Yes 4% No
Estimated average cost per road call ........................$95.93
PM drain interval, engine hrs.....350 (59% of respondents)
PM drain interval, days ................95 (27% of respondents)
PM drain interval, miles ..........4,050 (14% of respondents)
Truck-mixer-to-mechanics ratio ......................................12
Average mixer drum service life, years...........................5.4
Average mixer drum service life, cy..........................34,547
No. of front-end loaders ................................................440
Average loader age, years ..............................................9.3
Total loader maintenance,$/cy...................................$0.37a
Total loader maintenance, $/engine hr. .....................$5.08a
a
Incl. parts, shop expense, outside repairs & tire costs
Source: 1998 NRMCA Fleet Survey

Publication #J99J021
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