Truck Maintenance: How to Service a Truck

Truck service is the robust backbone for a healthy and long-living truck fleet! For this reason, placing it high on your to-do list while educating yourself on the “whats” and “hows” of taking care of your fleet is a good idea.

According to a press release by the American Truck Association, the 2022 freight cost in the United States of America (USA) consisted of 80.7% trucking, or $940.8 billion in revenue, with a clear sign of trucks taking charge when it comes to providing various goods and services worldwide. 

Truck service is thus the ultimate bedrock for long-lasting vehicles and driver safety, and ignoring it can have severe consequences.

However, solutions lie around the corner – let's take a peek.

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In this article, you will:

• Discover the negative consequences of ignoring truck service

• Distinguish between truck service and maintenance

• Discover the negative consequences of ignoring truck maintenance

• Uncover the different types of truck maintenance

• Learn about what maintenance needs to be done to a truck

• Discover more about Cartrack's fleet maintenance and service solutions

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How to service a truck: a guide to minor and major services

To service a truck, you usually respond to what is wrong with your vehicle or fleet at that moment and determine what needs fixing. Service is not regular or scheduled but somewhat responsive. However, if you choose, you can receive general services, which fall under minor and major services.

Let’s find out more about the two to gain a deeper understanding.

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Minor services include:

• Oil and filter changes
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• Brake pad inspection
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• Fan belt inspection
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• Checking the clutch fluid
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• Checking tyre pressure

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Major services include:

• Full vehicle inspection
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• Replacing brake pads, or spark plugs if needed
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• Inspecting the speedometer or brake leaks if needed
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• Cleaning general components

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The cost of ignoring truck service

Each minor and major truck service is an important milestone for your fleet’s health. Here’s what happens if you don’t service your trucks when you should.

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Decreased reliability and longevity

When you service your truck, you get a healthy engine. This, in turn, increases the engine's and the truck's lifespan. Failing to do so will lead to a damaged engine with a limited lifespan. 

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Reduced Safety and security

Service focuses on all parts of a vehicle, all of which play an important role in the overall functioning of the truck system. Establishing that all these parts are in order leads to a secure truck without any unforeseen risks of failure.

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Loss of costs, business, and clients

While servicing your truck, especially on a recommended regular basis, can be costly, it is an investment that will save you significant money in the long term. Neglecting to service your truck will increase the likelihood of issues and problems, shorten the truck's lifespan, and drain your pocket.

Servicing also increases fuel efficiency, which helps save some extra cash.

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An introduction to truck maintenance 

Truck maintenance is the consistent and regular caretaking of your truck or fleet for various basic issues, such as checking oil or brakes. This goes hand in hand with service, but definite differences distinguish them from one another. 

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The difference between truck maintenance and truck service

The most straightforward way to tell the difference between maintenance and service is that maintenance is a broad approach to caring for your vehicle or truck, while service is a more specific approach to vehicle upkeep. 

While maintenance and service can include similar methods of taking care of trucks, such as checking oil and brake inspection, maintenance implements this on a more regular basis. In contrast, services occur only on an as-needed basis. 

Maintenance involves a regular schedule that consistently focuses on what vehicles need. This includes inspections, filter or oil changes, and checking tyre pressure. Service is not a consistent approach but a particular, targeted one. Service is sometimes only implemented when something is especially wrong with a truck or vehicle—fixing headlights or tending to engine damage are two examples. 

Both are incredibly important. Maintenance ensures a long vehicle lifespan. Services are always available if a vehicle or truck faces more particular problems—usually due to maintenance neglect.

In its 2014 document, “Better Truck Maintenance,” The Abu Dhabi Department of Transport stressed the importance of truck maintenance. The document stated, "A planned safety inspection and maintenance system aimed at meeting the annual test standard at all times will improve truck operating standards, reduce truck accidents, and, as a result, improve road safety." 

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The cost of ignoring truck maintenance

Truck Maintenance shares points of negative consequences when you do not approach them seriously, but they show up in completely different ways.

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Decreased reliability and longevity

Constant and planned maintenance increases truck reliability and lifespan and ensures that many of the vehicle's parts are in consistently good health. Neglecting maintenance and steering from the consistency of a schedule will cause quick deterioration and increased vehicle downtime that negatively affects your fleet's efficiency.

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Reduced Safety and security

Rules and regulations are there for a reason. From the state of your vehicle lights to flat tyres, brake problems, and many other issues, these laws ensure that your truck is roadworthy—ensuring your safety and that of other road users. 

It is easy to predict that if you do not follow these regulations and rules, you might end up in a world of trouble, having hurt yourself and, worse, others. 

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Loss of costs, business, and clients

Delays cost businesses. Companies need to implement a maintenance plan to avoid unnecessarily losing profits. Beyond profit loss, it can affect your business's productivity. This leaves customers disgruntled or no longer desire to purchase your services or products–Ouch! 

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The different types of truck maintenance

There are many types of truck maintenance, each with a different role. Learning about the “whats” and “hows” of these maintenance types will help us understand them deeply.

These factors will also influence how you, your team, or professionals approach your own “how-to” method. 

For this reason, placing them high on your to-do list while educating yourself on the “whats” and “hows” of taking care of your fleet is a good idea.

They include corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, condition-based maintenance, predictive maintenance, and proactive maintenance.

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Corrective maintenance

Corrective maintenance is implemented after an issue or breakage has already happened. It is also sometimes referred to as “reactive maintenance.” 

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Preventive maintenance

Prevention is always better than cure—this is the exact concept that preventive maintenance is based on. This well-known principle applies to maintenance as well as medicine. Preventive maintenance allows for early identification of issues so they do not snowball into unmanageable crises.

We have many solutions and systems geared toward preventive maintenance, such as risk reports. These reports on our fleet management app note harsh driver behaviour, such as speeding or harsh braking. This prevents possible future vehicle damage and threats to driver safety.

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Condition-based maintenance

Condition-based maintenance is different in that it rids the need for scheduled maintenance. Instead, using collected information, it predicts when trucks will require maintenance and what kind of maintenance they need. 

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Predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance combines data with prediction models to understand, diagnose, and tackle possible fleet-related complications awaiting on the horizon. 

Using our application's Dashboard can help you tackle future problems. Compare different data from your fleet of trucks over your chosen period–this will help you track and tackle multiple issues.

You can choose three out of these empowering seven options to source data from:

• Fleet utilisation
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• Data usage 
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• Fleet performance 
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• Trip
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• Vehicle idling
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• Fleet running costs
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• Driver behaviour and safety

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Proactive maintenance

Proactive maintenance will use information, analytics, and data to understand specific future problems. This will allow it to apply preemptive solutions that focus on fundamental issues. 

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What maintenance needs to be done on a truck?

Now that we understand the basics of maintenance and service, we can finally learn how to take care of trucks. This topic is all but simple – so here is an easy-to-reference-starter-pack list:

• A regular schedule: Businesses or truck owners should maintain a regular truck maintenance schedule. Consistency is key! 
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• Oil checking: Regular oil checks safeguard all vehicles, including truck engines. If you don’t consistently do this, engine failure lurks around the corner–no one wants that.
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• Keep on the pulse: Keeping up to date with what and when maintenance has been performed is a great way to ensure that your trucks are getting the tender care they need and deserve. 

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Using Cartrack's application, you can access the MiFleet option. Using this solution, you can keep track of and download maintenance reports over your chosen period. 

• Tyre maintenance: Regular tyre upkeep ensures that trucks run smoothly and promptly. MiFleet can also keep track of tyre operations. It sends the relevant person or business a report of these operations. These reports outline the information according to the person or company’s chosen timeframe. 
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• Inspecting brakes: Overlooking brake inspection will lead to nothing but regret, especially if they stop working mid-journey and you’re stuck in the land of nowhere. 
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• Battery health: A working and healthy battery is vital for a functioning and reliable vehicle. 
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• Air filtration: A clogged air filter reduces power, while a well-functioning one contributes to a smooth-running engine. Ensure that you schedule regular air filtration cleanings.
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• Exterior lighting: Exterior lighting secures your safety and that of other road users. Make sure to replace any exterior lighting that is not working. 
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• Clutch and gearbox: The clutch and gearbox are used regularly on the road and should be inspected. 
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• Listen to the professionals: Invest in a professional, such as a repair shop or an experienced, hands-on engineer. If this is impossible, do not stray from the owner's manual. 

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The importance of professional assistance

It is easy to look at trucks in isolation and how they affect those closely connected to them. From negative profits to driver safety, these close-to-home considerations are crucial. However, in the broader society, from shops that buy in bulk to consumers who need their vital goods and services, there is a chain reaction to companies neglecting their fleets’ health, with more reaching consequences.

This is why companies, big or small, should consider investing in professional services instead of maintaining and servicing trucks manually.  

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Get the best fleet maintenance and service solutions with Cartrack Philippines

If you're looking for professional assistance, Cartrack Philippines provides an all-in-one solution for all your maintenance needs.

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Maintenance and service solutions

Our maintenance services offer many benefits, such as automated scheduling, a reduction in waste-of-time downtime, and pre-trip inspections. They also include updated maintenance logs, service management, and less money spent on overall maintenance. 

Let’s discover the details:

• Maintenance logs: By recording digitalisation, you consistently document maintenance-related tasks for records and reference purposes, so accurate data is available whenever you need it. Service management is another type of maintenance logging that allows you to track whether your vehicles or trucks are en route to being serviced. 
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• Real-time engine diagnostics: Cartrack’s vehicle diagnostic tools are CANBus-powered. CANBus allows all your vehicle’s parts to transmit and, in a sense, “talk” with one another. These communications between parts can then diagnose engine issues, helping you to react before damage becomes too extensive and costly. 
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• Preventive maintenance: Preventative maintenance alerts let you know proactively when you need to take your vehicle in for maintenance or service. These alerts are triggered based on the vehicle’s odometer readings, which show when the next service is due based on the kilometers travelled or recent service dates provided on maintenance logs. 
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• Vehicle inspection checklists: Use our Field Service/Delivery App to create pre-trip or vehicle inspection checklists based on your fleet and business’s unique needs.  

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Keep your fleet’s health on track with Cartrack Philippines

From service and maintenance to security and driver safety, Cartrack Philippines cares about your fleet's longevity from all angles. Take control of your fleet's health—contact Cartrack Philippines today. 

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Your pressing questions answered

Q1. What maintenance needs to be done on a diesel truck?

Filters are a significant issue for the health of a diesel truck. Therefore, filthy filters are a massive maintenance no-no. Fuel filter change is paramount and highly emphasised in diesel truck maintenance. 

Frequent oil and air filter changes, as well as coolants, are also vital.

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Q2. How do you keep a diesel engine healthy?

In line with general diesel truck maintenance, dirty fuel filters should not exist, so changing fuel filters is a must. You should also clean your engine regularly, replace oil when needed, and keep an eye on your air filter. 

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Q3. What is basic maintenance for a semi-truck?

Temperature and weather are core to how you approach semi truck maintenance, with differing atmospheres calling for different specifics.  

For example, warm weather calls for inspecting the air conditioner. The electrical system should be checked for corrosion, and the wires should be secure. Keeping an eye on the tyre pressure is also very important. During the heat, it is also essential to have an annual flush, pressure test, and draining of the coolant.

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Q4. How long is the useful life of a truck?

The lifespan of trucks depends on the model and type and, of course, how well they are maintained. For the most part, the average truck will last up to or slightly over a decade. 

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With Cartrack Philippines, our various solutions will propel your truck or fleet's lifespan to its ultimate limit. Contact us today to discover your fleet’s fountain of youth.