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The return of spring means your municipality’s utility repair work quickly increases. If your repair fleet has a few machines needing maintenance or replacement, now isn’t the best time. Winter fleet planning is more effective. It allows you to take advantage of a less busy period for this important task.
In other words, managing utility equipment maintenance during winter gets your fleet ready for spring. It ensures your team is prepared for its busiest period of spring and summer, reducing costly downtime.
Let’s examine how smart municipalities avoid spring and summer repair delays with early planning. Proactive equipment maintenance and early winter RFQ approvals improves your readiness. Let’s take a closer look!
Why Winter Fleet Planning simplifies Spring Utility Repairs
If you want a productive utility repair team come spring, ensure their equipment is ready for work. Here are some reasons detailing why proactive utility equipment maintenance makes perfect sense. It ensures your municipality provides exceptional service to residents.
Winter Downtime is the Perfect Time for Utility Fleet Analysis
Take advantage of the winter slowdown to analyze the current condition of your utility repair fleet. Managing this process during the busier spring and summer months is difficult and ultimately inefficient. You might even struggle replacing older equipment due to the longer lead times for new utility repair machines.
Determining which machines need maintenance versus a replacement is an important goal during this time. Regularly maintaining your machines keeps them fully operational longer compared to waiting until a breakdown. Don’t risk this during the busiest times of the year.
Increasing Spring Workloads require a Full Utility Maintenance Fleet
Once spring arrives, expect your team’s workload to rise as your town’s utilities increasingly need maintenance. Waiting too long to put the fleet in working order reduces team efficiency. It also highlights the importance of performing this analysis during a quieter winter.
Note that those spring workloads spike very quickly. As a result, expect less time for fleet maintenance or RFQs for new equipment. The smart municipality avoids the issue by handling equipment analysis and maintenance during winter.
Winter RFQs ensure your Fleet is Ready for Spring
Most smaller towns also manage their budgeting process during the winter. This makes it a great time for purchasing new utility maintenance equipment. It simplifies approvals, ensuring your winter RFQs get submitted in time for spring delivery.
Remember, utility equipment manufacturers typically have longer lead times during the spring and summer. Waiting too long to submit a quote means you might not receive a new build on time. This situation amplifies the importance of wintertime fleet maintenance and analysis.
Avoiding the High Costs of Emergency Purchases
Consider a scenario where an important bucket truck support machine breaks down in the summer. A sudden derecho off of Lake Erie hits your town with hurricane-force wind gusts, causing widespread power outages. Now you are forced to pay a high price on an emergency replacement for that equipment.
Proactive utility equipment maintenance provides your team with a full fleet to restore power as soon as possible. Avoiding the high costs of emergency equipment purchases is another benefit of performing winter equipment repair and maintenance. Never wait until storm season!
Choose Reliable Tight-Access Utility Equipment from Skylift
Of course, having reliable utility repair equipment is critical throughout the year. However, it especially matters during storm season, when your team is the busiest. Skylift builds top-shelf compact access equipment you can trust during a blizzard or a severe thunderstorm.
The Skylift product line includes backyard easement access machines that are best-in-class within the utility repair world. For example, the MD 6000 derrick digger is the only proportional hydraulic-controlled machine available in the market. It’s a cost-effective solution able to access those difficult-to-reach backyards and urban jobsites.
The ML 47 material handler is the perfect partner for the MD 6000 on your next jobsite. They are both capable of accessing the same backyards with ease. Its articulating telescoping boom and 1000-lb capacity jib make it perfect for transformer swaps or other light maintenance tasks.
Being Proactive avoids Spring and Summer Equipment Delays
In the end, a forward-looking strategy for utility repair fleet maintenance lets you avoid springtime equipment delays. This approach lets you take advantage of winter’s downtime for maintenance and new RFQs. Waiting until equipment breakdowns during storm season increases your downtime and expenses!
Contact the experts at Skylift to add our industry-best compact access machines to your utility repair fleet. Simply fill out this form to request a quote.
