Maintenance costs

Servicing and maintenance of vehicles, the running of repair workshops and all the related activities such as body repair are treated as maintenance costs. There is need to evaluate the costs associated with recording and keeping of details of maintenance costs.

Recording and analysing maintenance costs Having accepted that every item of repair cost however small is to be recorded the next step is to determine how these costs are to be gathered, recorded and analysed.
Initially, it is useful to identify what is to be included under the general heading of maintenance costs. This is as follows:

1. Regular servicing at intervals in accordance with manufacturer's directions.
2. Regular mechanical inspections to ensure the safe operation of the vehicle as required by law.
3. All mechanical repair work carried out on the vehicle.
4. All electrical repair work.
5. All body repair work.
6. All breakdown costs incurred, including where necessary, "turn-out" and towing charges.
7. Repainting either in part or in whole during the life of the vehicle.
8. Accident repairs not recoverable from insurance or third parties.
9. All replacements including such small items as bulbs, fuses, mirror-heads, spare keys and so on.
10. The addition of driver aids such as fog and spot lamps, reversing lamps, high-intensity rear fog-warning lamps and even radios.

Costs that are attributable to the general heading of maintenance costs arise in two distinct forms:
1. Material costs 2. Labour costs

Recording material costs is simple because an invoice or receipt is inevitably provided by the supplier detailing the items, individual unit costs and total order costs. Care must, however, be taken when items are purchased with petty cash that a detailed receipt is obtained and recorded.
The latter can be difficult since reliance has to be placed on the workshop staff to keep accurate records that they are prone to forget or even deliberately ignore.
These two items will be dealt with individually for a start then combined later to give a total maintenance cost.

Maintenance - material costs

The degree of simplicity in recording material costs depends on the size of the transport operation. In a one-vehicle operation, it is clear that all vehicle spares and materials will be intended for that one vehicle. Suppliers' invoices will provide an adequate record of purchases that can readily be transferred to the vehicle cost record under the maintenance cost heading.

When two or more vehicles are operated it is still possible to identify the vehicles for which certain spare parts purchases are intended. At the time of receiving the invoice it takes only a few moments to write against each article the registration number of the vehicle for which it was purchased.

Greater difficulty results when supplies are purchased in anticipation of later use rather than for immediate use on a known vehicle. Most particularly this applies in fleet operation when fast moving consumables are held in stock in readiness for fitting as required. Examples are light bulbs, mirror heads, wiper blades and even larger, more costly items such as fuel injectors, fuel pumps, brake linings, complete lamp units, exhaust systems and so on. One of the major benefits of operating a standardized fleet is the reduction in stocks of those fast moving items that need to be held to ensure that vehicles spend as little time as possible out of operation (down-time).

Bulk purchases of spare parts for stock, in a big fleet where a separate vehicle stores complete with full-time storekeeper is employed, can be dealt with by an entry in the stock record system. Eventually, when the parts are issued to a vehicle, a stores requisition note will request the item from stock, show the date, the person making the request and the vehicle to which it will be fitted. This note will later pass into the costing system to provide the basic information needed, namely what vehicle is to be charged with the item and on what date.

There is no reason why, in a small fleet operation, a similar system should not be applied.

This could be carried out thus:

When the items are received, let us say 6 identical wiper blades, they are placed on a shelf or in appropriate storage. A small card (not greater than post card size is suitable) is made out showing, at the top, main details of the item:

1. Description - windscreen wiper blade
2. Type/serial number – 350 mm XY/12 -
3. Supplier/manufacturer - Enterprise Wiper Company
4. Price each – K250.00

Below this information the number of units in stock can be recorded and the date:

27.7.2003    6

The rest of the card can then carry entries showing issues:

Date  Number  Vehicle
1.8.2003 2   BK 3657

No other information is required in a small operation. The card can be placed on or affixed to the shelf and the stock level is easily seen usually by whoever draws the spares.
Further supplies can be added to the card against a new date and a stock check is made simply by adding the total stock recorded and deducting the number of issues. An example of this type of card is shown here:

If the card is kept with the stock there is less likelihood of entries being overlooked inadvertently and, even if no other record is kept, the operator has a note of which vehicle to allocate spares costs against.

Once a simple system has been established to ensure that material costs are identified from suppliers' invoices it is only then a matter of recording them against the vehicle. Thus:

VEHICLE RECORD - PARTS ISSUES
Vehicle	Date	Item	Cost
BK 3657	1.8.2003	2 wiper blades	K500.00
	13.8.2003	1 light bulb	K96.00
	17.8.2003	Spot light	K1,280.00
	5.10.2003	4 No. Pads	K640.00

The comment made when looking at the question of recording tyre costs, namely that some or many weeks may pass when nothing is recorded under that heading, applies equally in the case of maintenance material costs. But similarly over a longer period, say, 6 months or so a picture - of costs will build up.