![]() ![]() ![]() I watched a fleet of utility service trucks and supervisor transport vehicles get sold off by one T&D company. At that, every component that wasn't "up to snuff" to achieve the reliability and performance demanded by the use of the fleet was always upgraded in service and was spec'd to that level for the next fleet purchase in some cases, entire fleets of service vehicles were sold off at an early age/mileage when they failed to deliver the service expected/required. Nobody I've worked for would ever consider using standard retail quality items for service when a commercial severe service item was called for due to use or original purchase spec/fleet requirements. PS: I, too, have been involved for decades in municipal and private fleet operations where we had to make these types of decisions for the fleet cost/mile and uptime requirements. MONEY obviously was the object because there certainly were severe service batteries available at the time that would have performed far better (at higher cost, of course) in these applications. Shame on your management group for trying to cheap things out by using standard items rather than severe/commercial service spec'd components such as the batteries you cite despite your claim that "money was no object". The management groups I worked for wouldn't tolerate purchasing anything but severe service/commercial service components for wear items. not a wise decision if you require 100% uptime in commercial/severe duty/emergency service. You might just as well have posted that your Fleet management used standard line components for other service uses rather than the heavy duty/severe service items spec'd with such vehicles. as your example "sitting at idle for very long periods of time with emergency flashers" or requiring 100% uptime service was not an appropriate replacement battery for the OE batteries that were supplied new with the vehicles. The city was using standard interstate retail product batteries for an emergency fleet where severe operating conditions. You just identified the fleet problem that you experienced. We used dual batteries and special, high performance alternators, and auto switching devices to switch batteries when one was depleted, in police cars because of their tendency of sitting at idle for very long periods of time with emergency flashers sucking them dry. That isn't a good thing when you are dealing with a fleet of emergency vehicles. The first few time we thought it was a fluke, but it became a regular pattern. We purchased the best quality available for obvious reasons, they had to be dependable, money was no object. We had many instance where the battery would be operating perfectly, and the next time you turned the key, it was stone dead, not even a whimper. They would work perfectly, and be stone cold dead without warning. They gave no warning when they decided to die. I was Fleet Supervisor for a city government fleet, and we began stocking Interstate batteries because of their good reputation, but we ended up getting rid of them for one simple reason. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |