A Cheat Sheet: Top 5 Tips to Spring Equipment Maintenance

John Scharffbillig, fleet manager with the Minneapolis Department of Transportation and a member-at-large for the American Public Works Association (APWA) Technical Services Committee, shares these quick tips about how to keep your equipment fleet running well and important maintenance guidelines.

1. Make equipment operators realize how important it is to keep equipment clean.

2. Make sure filters are being changed and use quality fuels and lubricants are being used.“Make sure you’re buying fuel from a reputable vendor, or have a testing program incorporated into your own in-house maintenance program to make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for,” Scharffbillig says. “Oil analysis programs can make sure you’re optimizing the most amount of fuel and pre-predict failures.”

3. Make sure you have your operators and drivers write up all the minor repairs. “Get them when they are small,” Scharffbillig says. “Don’t let a minor repair. Become a major repair get it while it’s small… It could be just a simple as tightening a bolt instead of just letting them all fall out.”

4. Shop is only able to repair equipment if it knows there is a problem.

5. Take time to do it right. “You don’t have to do it over,” Scharffbillig says. “With workforces being cut, everyone is trying to cut corners and cut costs. But you’re not going to get the job done if equipment is sitting in shop.