Angela D. Harris
Publication date: 3/25/2019
Service and maintenance trucks are as diverse as the contractors responsible for their design and operation. Besides being a mechanically sound and clean transportation vehicle, the service truck is there to help ensure field technician success and to help protect contractors’ profit margins and bottom lines. The following lists four ways that contractors have chosen to stock their service and maintenance trucks to guarantee they keep rollin’ in the dough (pun intended).
SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT
CroppMetcalfe Services, serving Northern Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., operates 168 trucks using SAWIN, a software package from Sawin Service Automation Inc. According to Tim Cropp, president of CroppMetcalfe, this product is designed specifically for the HVAC industry and can be used not only to inventory trucks, but also to provide service for dispatch, jobs processing, and accounting, to name a few.
VENDOR-MANAGED INVENTORY
Comfort Matters Heating and Cooling Inc. in Maple Grove, Minnesota, operates 10 service trucks. When it comes to truck stock, its goal is to keep the same stock on all trucks, regularly refill inventory, and avoid running out of parts. This keeps technicians in the home working, which builds the company’s net profit, according to Corey Hickmann, president of Comfort Matters.
COMPUTERIZED INVENTORY LOCATION
Rosenberg Indoor Comfort in San Antonio operates 23 trucks. When stocking and managing the fleet, this company considers both the type of truck and the type of service the truck will be doing. If it is a service van or a pickup, there is a difference in how much storage the truck has and how many of what types of parts will fit.
MISCELLANEOUS STRATEGIES
For some contractors, there isn’t a specific tool or method used to manage inventory. Take W.A. Soefker & Son Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee, for example. This commercial company runs 40 trucks, and the nature of its commercial business means they rarely have the exact parts they need on their trucks.
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