Organization

kevin coppinger_4

outy there as to the best way to organize your truck so you can be efficient and look good? I saw the P& M article on award winning trucks...man am I behind the 8 ball...kpc

hr

Depends on what you do

Way back when, we had trucks geared specfically for new construction work. Lots of rack space, room for power tools and cords, ladders, etc. We switched gears in mid 90's and went service and repair.

After trying utility bodied, then vans we settled on 12' box trucks. We built our own adjustable shelving and bought bins from Graingers and other catalogs. Every tech customized their layout and inventory.

Now I do just hydronics. No need to carry disposals, faucets, WHs etc I have a flatbed with 24" custom aluminum boxes. I piled all my tools and meters, along with parts I wanted in the middle of my shop. I built under body boxes for 5 gallon buckets of copper and pex fittings.

I measured and started building shelves to fit it all in. The small flatbed allows room for a boiler and pex coils along with an uncoiler. For large commercial jobs I haul a trailer with tube and mesh. It has taken a few years to get it right. Then I go and buy some new power tools and shuffle again!

Different trade associations and best practice groups have truck layout and inventory sheets. I've found it is still best to customize to your needs.

Customers were always complimenting us on those well organized and clean box trucks. It helps when everything has a place!

Those were some beauties in PM mag!


hot rod

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kevin coppinger_4

Thanks HR...

I really do a bit of it all...more to the new side. I am really seeing an up swing in boiler replcements and heat upgrades.And of course there are always service calls just to make it interesting. kpc

kevin coppinger_4

as ans additional...

question what truck would be the best value? Extended van? Cube truck, one of those new sprinters...anyone get one of these yet? kpc

Wethead7

Truck

I Was in sevral different trucks. I really like the hicube. I also need room to stand up inside. (We had some that did not allow that to happen and all our backs where out alot.) I have been informed that my boss is replacing my truck. He was wanting something smaller.(Last time we tried that. Fuel milage went up, but so did miles traveled. The end result was higher fuel bills and more driving. The more driving also resulted in more overtime too.)The end play was I ended up in the old truck was more ecomical to operate. I was trying to get a E550 with a KUV body before I left for Iraq. The boss found the price lower for the larger van. I do not understand vehicle pricing. Anyway I was sent here and thought I would have to start over on my return. The higher up's must have found out. What I do most of the time. The only thing I am not sure of is Desiel motor. The office even sprung for a R/V A-C unit. Leave the country for 5-6 months an I get an new work truck. Go figure.

The type of work I do is everything from small resitdental plumbing repair(ie repair fuacet, open a drain or sewer) to large boiler work (the largest to date is 2500 hp)to large chilers to biotech suport for the local hospital to muncipal water and sewer system and plant work. We also repair fire apperatus for several fire departments. I should also note that we service and install scorched air and A/C. Product refrigeration is in the bag of trick too. The long list of stuff we do requires alot of tools and parts. I'am the only person that works on all the above listed stuff. I was the second on call, most of the time. Sometimes I would do the primary on-call.

This size of truck may be to large for you. We have one KUV in inventory. The person it was assigned to like's it. The shelving and compartments are good for us. We have a very large range of trucks form the 1/2 ton pick-up to 10 wheeled dumpers. Sorry no semi's. The boss has said in the past I would driving a semi for service calls, if I had my way. The new truck is all the larger I want to go. I think.

KUV is the name of a utility-van body.

Mike

Mark Eatherton1

Customized layout and inventory...

we have decided that WE will dictate layout and inventory so that if we have to send a tech out in another vehicle that everything is in the same place regardless of what vehicle he is in. Saves people groping for parts.

We LOVE our high cube vans, except when it comes to driving down driveways with lots of trees. They grow a lot of scratches...

ME

hr

If your company

is a niche contractor, specalizing in one trade ME's concept works best. Used to be we did plumbing, heating, and fire sprink work. Each tech had a strong suit, and their truck reflected their preference The guys hated jumping from truck to truck when one was in the shop.

These days I would think it would be very hard for one tech to keep up will all the techonology in multiple trades, and stock a truck to service all. Just keeping up with one manufactures line and training requires quite a commitment.

Something about a rooter machine and plunger next to a combustion analyzer seems out of place on a truck

I think specializing is the trend, and the prices charged should reflect the fact you specalize and truck stock the items for that trade. Customers expect to pay a bit more for a specialist, opposed to a jack of all trades, I feel.

hot rod

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Unknown

Hot Rod you hit on an

interesting point I have been making lately. I get a lot of contractors that come to my seminars looking to get more involved with service. They do however still want to continue to function in other aspects of the trade. The down side I often tell them is that when you do that a mix of types of services provided can cause some difficulty.

When you just finished a sewer clearing job and now have a no heat call it can get a little hairy. Most of us do not feel very technical after just cleaning a sooted up boiler or furnace. When I first stated out in the business I was classified a helper, we always got the jobs of cleaning boilers and furnaces, then we called the higher rated tech to come find out why it sooted up. The good thing was they allowed you to stay and watch what he did. Utilities back then could afford to do that.

Whether we like it or not specialization may be the way to go in the future.

I love the high end discussions and interesting experimentation some of us carry out every day. There is a real side to some of that and that is if we spent the time on every job to bring it to its maximum efficiency we better be getting paid good money. Time is money and if most of the time is spent on the labor side of installing, cleaning and repairing then the technical sometimes tends to be left behind. The so called dirty end of jobs many times can consume us and nothing is left for the finer points of tuning things to there peak of performance.

I fully agree that we need to look at specializing, the problem is can we afford to do it.

Unknown

Trucks - organize

is the name of the game. I have been involved with truck set up for years. It was a project I was handed when I worked with the gas company. Organizing them for safe and efficent operation is top priority.

It depends on what you are going to be doing as to whether you use a van or a cube truck or in some cases a pickup (not my favorite choice). In all cases if you are going to set it up then determine what you need for each type of job and set aside certain areas to satisfy the needs for that job and have everything needed on the truck. Trips to pick up materials cost more than having a good inventory.

If you have multiple trucks set them all up the same that way if someone has to switch trucks they are not lost. When you do that give each tech his own special area on the truck to store his own things that are near and dear to his heart.

Another thing to consider is fuel economy and weight disribution. Weight distribution is a safety factor and also prevents damage to the vehicle chassis and transmission. It is also not unusual for service vehicles up here in New England to get pulled over and ticketed for over weight. All the vehicles I have used while working on the road have been 6 cylinder or V-6 vehicles. They really worked very well and maintenance was minimal. In later years we went to propane operated vehicles and finally CNG. The CNG vehicles run fantastic but fuel cost is a factor and availibilty of fuel (you can get set up to fuel your own) the upside of CNG is big savings on engine maintenance. The vehicles last longer, that may not be a factor however as tax depreciations probably mean a new vehicle every 5 to 7 years anyway.

Wethead7

multiple trades

My job is to operate the service department.Most of our service tech's are trained and work on multiple trades. The service department was combined from several other department that did not respound well to service needs. We now account for eighty percent of the profit. We do the most hydronic work. The plumbers and the fitters do not want to work any retro fit or repair/replacement. Oddly we now handle the installs of all new hydronics systems and equipment.

We are trying to standardize things. Yes the rooter machine does not belong next to the cobustion annalizer,refrigerant scale,multimeter, or any other electronic deviece. But sometime we have no choice. Do to the fact we operate in the midwest. Scorced air is the most popular systems. The service personel here handle one or two rooter calls aweek. No major deal. I wish we could cut down on the number of trades our service personel work. But we are better at this than the regular trades. The worst problem is we keep making the consistant profit. The installers in the other departments are not. Any ideals??

The result has been five different trucks. The van for the quy with limited scope.(hvac/r some plumbing, plumbing & some hvac/r, electrican{no hvac/r ever}) The guys with more scope get high cube or KUV-SUV. The biotech people, hvac/r- plumber(these are the bread and butter guys), hvac/r -electrican. The guy that works at the hospital-medical center. He has a pick-up truck. This guy spends most of his time doing service work. The only guy in service that spends eight hours in one place.

We have one person that runs parts. This person has two vehicles, pick-up and a van. We found it works better this way.

The service employees are the highest paid in the firm. They stay with us for long periods of time. The new guy has been with us for eight years. This is the result of some major changes I made. Service was the first to get profit sharing. The other departments now have much higher turn over. The only department that all employees take home the truck. The on call works easier that way.

I do not want to sound like I know all. But these are the way this bussiness works. I am always looking for ways to make MY staff happier and better rounded. I have become the master of organizing caous. That term saze coined by the office staff.

Thanks for the info

Mike