Ron the Sewer Rat might sound like a one-man show, but the Twin Cities-based plumbing contractor has been steadily expanding for 50 years. While there was once originally a real Ron running the show, the team has grown from a few subcontractors to a whole team of technicians, and their fleet of vans has grown with them to just under 30 total assets.
Trapped in 1972
But despite the company’s overall advancement, a lot of their internal processes stayed trapped in 1972, especially their fleet management and maintenance procedures. Owner Peter Kroening said that he and his co-owners were proud to build on the legacy and reputation of Ron the Sewer Rat, but their disorganized paper-based fleet management system needed some desperate updates if they were going to keep pushing forward.
The problem was especially prevalent in their fleet’s maintenance. Ron the Sewer Rat outsources their maintenance to a third-party mechanic, and the breakdown in their paper system became more noticeable as their technician began to notice missing inspection items that could have pointed to mechanical issues well ahead of time.
“We had created kind of an in-house maintenance checklist for when our maintenance tech showed up,” Kroening said. “[Our techs] kind of had to go through this checklist and we were noticing that they were needing repairs or maintenance issues done and not telling us until it was too late. So we were missing some items.”
Give the Technicians an Easier Route
Kroening decided it was time to put a more modern solution in place to ensure that their maintenance was being approached proactively. Ron the Sewer Rat is now in the process of transitioning their fleet maintenance management from their traditional paper forms and checklists to a modern fleet management software, which allows them to automate a lot of their maintenance processes and give their technicians an easier route to complete daily vehicle inspection reports thoroughly and accurately.
While the issues Ron the Sewer Rat was facing were detrimental to their fleet operations, Kroening says it was also understandable. Their paper trail made it difficult to keep up with inspections and reports, and didn’t exactly prioritize efficiency or ease of use, which can get in the way of any technician’s day-to-day work.
“So I think, as a technician in the field, you wanna get home and you want simplicity and you don't wanna call an office, right?” Kroening said. “They get crabby, they get frustrated, they get whatever. And you kind of take some of that too. So I think [techs] leave things out intentionally. So I think a system where they can just say, ‘Hey, I need maintenance’, and they click a button—I think that we actually stay on top of things better.”
Procurement and Disposal
Staying on top of things, as Kroening puts it, doesn’t just benefit maintenance processes. One of the trickiest parts of managing a fleet—especially for companies whose fleets are a more adjacent part of their function—is vehicle procurement and disposal, and Ron the Sewer Rat had been feeling the effects of a recent poorly managed acquisition due to a lack of service history.
“We bought a van from another company that was three years old, and [the seller] said, ‘Yeah, I did all my oil changes. I did everything. It's all good. I brought it to the dealership I bought it from,’” Kroening said. “Well, we've done our oil changes since and now they're sludged in the engine. So we're going through a warranty issue. [The manufacturer] is saying they're not gonna cover the engine, and it was like, man, see? If any vehicle we sell, we can just be like, ‘Here's all the maintenance done, no worries, everything’s taken care of,’ and not allow them to get to that point—I think those issues do come up and they do happen, but it's nice to avoid them.”
Implementation
In the past, Ron the Sewer Rat has often hit roadblocks when trying to get new software rolled out. “We've used a few different software companies now for different things,” Kroening said. By selecting a software that fits their fleet, they are able to get up and running faster than in previous implementations. “We [typically] set these goals or deadlines and when we get into it, we realize we're a lot farther away than what we thought… I walked in this morning and I asked [my office manager], ‘Hey, I think we’ve got our employee meeting coming up, are we good? And he's like, ‘Yeah, honestly, it's, it's all set up.’ It’s been a nice process.”
Ron the Sewer Rat is still in the process of fully implementing Fleetio, their fleet software, but choosing the right provider has made a huge difference, taking the intimidation factor out of new tech implementation.
Peyton Panik is a content marketing specialist for Fleetio, a fleet management software company that helps organizations track, analyze and improve their fleet operations. For more info, visit fleetio.com.