One of the many cost-saving features in the RTA Fleet Management Software is the ability to track and schedule vehicle preventive maintenance (PM) schedules. PMs allow the shop to inspect vehicles on a regular, timely basis to prevent maintenance problems.
Most shops have a standard lube, oil change, and inspection schedule for their vehicles, but many stop there. All vehicles have additional service requirements that need to be performed at scheduled intervals, such as transmission services, tune-ups, air and fuel filter replacements, and hydraulic oil/filter changes. Many of these intervals are set by the manufacturer and, if not followed, may void the warranty; therefore, scheduling additional PMs rather than "checking and changing as needed" helps to keep vehicle warranties intact. Servicing vehicles regularly and on a timely basis also reduces the number of breakdowns and corrective repairs. If a PM schedule is strongly adhered to, you can expect a 15% to 40% reduction in unscheduled repairs and costly road calls.

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Setting Up PM Schedules

PM schedules and histories are set up in vehicle records. Up to 260 PMs can be tracked per vehicle, by various methods and/or a combination of methodsby meters, alternate meters, gallons, hours, days, etc. If you wish to track PMs for equipment or other items, they must be set up as vehicles in RTA. To set up PM schedules for an individual vehicle record, follow the steps listed.

1. Select Master > Vehicle > File Maintenance from the RTA main menu (MVM).
2. Add a new vehicle record, if you haven't already done so. Add vehicle data as needed and get to the PM Schedule sub-window. Refer to "Adding a Vehicle" earlier in this chapter for instructions if necessary.

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• Vehicles > Print PMs by Vehicle (VV)
• Vehicles > Print PMs by Department (VD)
• Vehicles > Print PMs by Vehicle Link (VK) This option sorts by primarily by the vehicle number. However, if a vehicle is linked, all linked vehicles will be grouped with the parent vehicle. Refer to "Linking a Vehicle to Another Vehicle" earlier in this chapter for more information.

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1. Enter a specific vehicle location or press ENTER to print PMs for all locations (SSI, Miscellaneous I tab, switch 19). Specifying a location allows PM reporting to be grouped by the vehicle location field in the vehicle record (MVM). The location field could be used to indicate where a vehicle is parked, a specific mechanic to perform the PM, vehicle class (fork lifts, refrigeration units, etc.), or any other type of classification.
2. Select a radio button to specify whether or not to print the PM report for a specific date range. Use this option with caution! If YES is selected, the starting and ending date fields will be available to specify a date range. When dates are entered, the PM report only prints PMs that are due, due soon, or past due in the specified date range. This is beneficial when checking to see if a specific PM that is only tracked by days is due (e.g., annual inspections). PMs due, due soon, or past due outside of the specified date range will not be on the PM report!
3. Select a radio button to specify whether to print all PM information or just the information for due PMs.
4. Check the box if you would like to exclude the PM service notes from being printed on the report.
5. Check the box if you would like to send emails to drivers and department heads notifying them of PMs due. In order to email a driver, the driver must be set up in the system as an employee with an email address specified. Also, the operator field in the vehicle master record must contain the employee ID number. To email a department head, an email address must be specified in the department record of the department that the vehicle is assigned to. The user that is running the report must have an SMTP email account configured for their user login.
6. Specify PMs due within xx number of days, units, hours, or gallons. The default values come from the defaults set in Misc. Parameters I (SSI, Miscellaneous I tab, switch 11) but you may find occasions to override these as you are printing the report. For example, the shop may be rebuilding an engine or two OR a couple mechanics may be out for training; thus, you may want to lower the intervals to view only the most due PMs. On the other hand, if you have a few vacations coming up soon you may want to extend the intervals to get slightly ahead of schedule.

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This option prints a notice that can be sent to your drivers or departments informing them that PM services are due soon so the vehicle can be brought in for service. The output is formatted to print on 8.5 x 11 paper or cardstock, two PM cards per page. These notices can be hand-delivered, mailed, or emailed.
During a round-table discussion at an RTA annual user's conference, one of our customers shared with others that he resolved the problem of vehicles not being brought in for service by attaching PM due cards to paychecks. This eliminated the excuse of not being aware to bring a vehicle inhe knew that if the paycheck had been cashed, the employee was informed.
To print PM due cards, select Vehicles > Print PM Cards from the RTA main menu (VC).

1. Select a radio button to specify whether to sort the PM cards in department or vehicle order.
2. Depending on the sort selection, enter either the starting and ending department or vehicle number range or press F1 to make a selection from the lookup list.
3. Enter a specific vehicle location or press ENTER to print PMs for all locations (SSI, Miscellaneous I tab, switch 19). Specifying a location allows PM reporting to be grouped by the vehicle location field in the vehicle record (MVM). The location field could be used to indicate where a vehicle is parked, a specific mechanic to perform the PM, vehicle class (fork lifts, refrigeration units, etc.), or any other type of classification.
4. Select a radio button to specify whether or not to print the PM card for a specific date range. Use this option with caution! If YES is selected, the starting and ending date fields will be available to specify a date range. When dates are entered, the PM cards will only include PMs that are due, due soon, or past due in the specified date range. This is beneficial when checking to see if a specific PM that is only tracked by days is due (e.g., annual inspections). PMs due, due soon, or past due outside of the specified date range will not be included on the PM cards!
5. Specify PMs due within xx number of days, units, hours, or gallons. The default values come from the defaults set in Misc. Parameters I (SSI, Miscellaneous I tab, switch 11) but the values can be overridden at any time to accommodate the shop schedule.

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