Planned maintenance is cheaper than breakdown repair. That is not a sales position, it is arithmetic: scheduled work happens when it suits you, uses parts that are ordered rather than expedited, and prevents the cascade failures that turn a worn component into a major repair. The operations that resist it are usually the ones that have not costed a day of downtime against the price of a service visit.
Intervals Follow Hours, Not the Calendar
The most common mistake is servicing on a calendar. A truck running two shifts in a dusty environment accumulates wear several times faster than one doing a few hours a week indoors, and servicing both annually means one is over-serviced and the other is running to failure.
Intervals should be set against actual hours and duty cycle. As a rough frame:
- Light duty — a few hours a day, clean indoor environment: longer intervals, typically quarterly
- Standard duty — single shift, normal warehouse conditions: the common baseline
- Heavy duty — multi-shift, dusty, outdoor, or high-cycle work: materially shorter intervals
We set the schedule against the hour meter and revise it once we have seen how a specific truck in a specific building actually wears, rather than applying a generic figure and leaving it.
What a Service Visit Should Cover
A genuine planned maintenance visit is not an oil change. It should include:
- Mast and lift system — chain stretch measured against tolerance, chain lubrication, roller and channel wear, cylinder condition, drift under load
- Forks — thickness at the heel against the condemnation point, cracks, bend, and that both forks match
- Hydraulics — fluid level and condition, hoses for chafing and cracking, cylinder rods for scoring, leaks at fittings
- Brakes and steering — pedal travel, parking brake hold on a slope, steering play
- Tires — wear against the line, chunking, separation
- Electrical — battery condition and specific gravity on lead-acid, connector and cable condition, charger function, fault code history
- Engine (IC) — oil, filters, coolant, belts, exhaust, emissions
- Safety systems — seatbelt, horn, lights, warning devices, overhead guard integrity, data plate legibility
And it should produce a written record, because that record is what you hand to a compliance officer or an insurer.
The Daily Check Is the Real Programme
OSHA 1910.178(q)(7) requires that trucks be examined at least daily before being placed in service, and more frequently where trucks run round the clock. Defects must be reported immediately and the truck taken out of service until corrected.
This is the operator's responsibility, it takes a couple of minutes, and it catches most of what we get called out for. A realistic pre-shift check covers:
- Visible leaks under the truck and around the mast
- Tire condition and pressure where applicable
- Fork condition — cracks, bend, heel wear
- Chains for obvious slack or damage
- Fluid levels
- Battery charge, connectors and electrolyte where applicable
- Horn, lights and warning devices
- Seatbelt condition and function
- Brakes and parking brake
- Steering for excessive play
- Data plate present and legible
The failure mode is not that operators cannot do this. It is that check sheets get signed in batches at the end of a week. A sheet signed without the check is worse than no sheet — it is documentation that the hazard was formally overlooked.
Mixed Fleets Are Normal
After a few years of buying, most operations run more than one make. That is not a planning failure; it is the natural result of buying the right truck for each job rather than standardising for its own sake.
It does mean a service relationship that covers every make is worth more than a marginally cheaper rate on one brand. Our technicians work on all major makes, not only the lines we carry new, for exactly that reason — chasing three manufacturer service desks for one building is a cost nobody accounts for until they are doing it.
Battery Care Is Half the Life of an Electric Truck
On lead-acid systems, battery maintenance is where most avoidable cost sits:
- Watering — after charging, never before, and only to the indicated level. Chronic under-watering permanently reduces capacity.
- Avoid deep discharge — running below roughly 20% shortens cycle life significantly.
- Complete the charge cycle — interrupting charges on lead-acid causes sulfation. This is precisely the constraint lithium removes.
- Keep terminals clean — corrosion at connectors causes voltage drop and heat.
- Match the charger — a mismatched charger quietly destroys batteries over months.
Lithium removes watering, equalising and deep-discharge sensitivity, which is a real labour saving as well as a capacity one. It has its own requirements — thermal management, correct charging infrastructure — but they are lighter.
Signs a Truck Needs Attention Now
- Mast drifts down under load or lifts unevenly
- Visible hydraulic leaks, or fluid loss between services
- Steering play, long brake travel, or a parking brake that will not hold
- Unusual noise from the mast, drive or hydraulics
- Warning lights, fault codes, or intermittent starting
- Battery not holding charge through a shift
- Forks worn near the condemnation point, cracked or bent
Any of those is a call, not a note for the next scheduled visit.