Me And My Service Truck

A look inside these “moving warehouses”

Pete Delderfield, president of Delta Petroleum & Industrial, makes sure his service techs have everything they need in their trucks to service customers.

Something for Everyone
One-ton GMC enclosed step vans are the service vehicle of choice for Pete Delderfield, president of Delta Petroleum & Industrial (West Palm Beach, FL), who owns five of them. Everything from carrying boards to sophisticated testing equipment is kept dry and accessible inside Delta's trucks. To better accommodate 24/7 service, technicians take the trucks home after hours, though one truck is always kept at Delta. Delderfield says the trucks are good for six years and, if maintained properly, can last eight years.

Service Manager Mike Ware describes the perfect truck as much bigger than a one ton. “Right now, we can keep enough equipment, parts and material in our trucks, but we never have it all.” Service techs do a variety of tasks, and their trucks must carry a lot of different equipment so they don't have to go back to home base. “Sometimes, however, you don't know what you need until you get to the job site,” says Ware, pointing out that most fuel distributors want to be differentiated from each other with unique push/start switches or a different type of keyboard on their credit card readers, among other things. Adds Ware, “A semi might be able to handle everything we need.” But then the tech would need a CDL license, which opens up a whole different can of worms.

Power Set to 110
Eleven of the 15 service vehicles at Maryland Pump, Tank & Electric Co. (Baltimore, MD) are Dodge Sprinters. Mike Schammel, president, purchases them with a high body and 140-inch wheelbase. The trucks come hollow and Schammel upfits them in his own shop with shelves, vises and all the standard equipment needed for service, along with $45,000-$60,000 worth of inventory. The 12-volt DC is converted to 110-volt AC so techs can have power at job sites. Additional trucks are Dodge 3500 one-ton chassis cab with a utility body that holds a crane. Schammel describes the perfect vehicle as one with ample shelving for parts and tool storage and a workbench for doing repairs, along with an electrically operated crane to lift 2,000 pounds about 12 feet. He adds, “I'd have remote dispatching capabilities via either a wireless PDA, laptop or tablet PC, and the ability to print service tickets and credit card receipts.”

Glasgow one-ton truck outfitted with a crane

The front cab office

“Get It Done”
“The box truck works for us,” says Peter Ward, president, Glasgow Equipment Service (Riviera Beach, FL), who leases Mitsubishi and Isuzu one-ton trucks. “We profess to be a one-stop shop, so we don't charge for a second trip. This means we have to put the service call to bed the first time out.” Ward describes his mission to his service techs in three simple words: “Get it done.” To do that, Glasgow's trucks each carry $50,000-$60,000 worth of inventory, which is in the process of being bar coded. A GPS system has been in use for almost two years, and Ward indicates it has already saved him money. When a now former employee took his truck to a part of town he wasn't supposed to be in and left it there, GPS directed Ward to the exact spot where it was abandoned.

Ward leases his 6 service trucks and 17 additional company vehicles from Enterprise, and for $7 a month per vehicle, adds a maintenance plan to his contract. Regular emails alert him to required service. Ward is open to finding a different truck this year, and if he could change anything, wants a heavier duty chassis. Space for additional inventory would be nice, too, except that would pose problems “if one of those traveling warehouses goes down.”

The height of the Dodge Sprinter allows service techs to stand up on the inside.

Computer Tracks Parts
Biermann Services (Chicopee, MA) has 12 vehicles dedicated to petroleum equipment service, including six Dodge Sprinters and six Ford trucks in the form of 350 pickups and Windstar vans. Vehicle Maintenance Manager Kathryn Biermann likes the height of the Sprinters because you can stand up in them and put tall material into them, and the diesel is good for gas mileage. A downside to the Sprinters, according to Biermann, is that dealerships rarely have parts in stock for maintenance or repairs. “I can't have a vehicle out of service for the week it takes to get a part, so I call around to dealerships looking for the part.” All trucks have GPS, which has helped significantly with dispatch.

Biermann Services' trucks are designated for specific technicians, and stocked appropriately. Service techs download information at the beginning and end of every shift. A computer log keeps track of what is on every truck and the parts department stocks the truck with what will be needed for the day's work. Before a part leaves the shop, it is entered into the computer. Says Biermann, “If a technician at a job site needs a part he doesn't have, the computer enables us to find a truck with that part, and GPS locates the nearest truck.”

Call Ahead
R.L. Hoener Co. (Quincy, IL) has nine service trucks, all Chevrolets. Two are one-tons; the others are 3/4-ton trucks. Each is set up according to the type of work the technician does, be it service, installation, welding, etc. A 10-foot crane on the back of the truck is able to lift 3,500 pounds. Trucks carry $100,000 worth of inventory and to make sure that the needed part is on the truck, Robert L. Hoener, chairman, says, “We call ahead to see what the problem is.” Hoener describes the perfect truck as a one-ton utility body with a crane. Hoener works hard to prevent anything from happening to his trucks or his inventory, especially when the trucks have to be in Chicago overnight. “I do worry about a break-in while they are parked in the city at a job site. So far, nothing's happened.”

Looking for Gas Mileage
Cochise Petroleum Equipment Co. (Phoenix, AZ) dedicates 14 vehicles to service and 18 to construction. Service Manager Michelle E. Erdmier oversees the vehicles. Erdmier prefers a van with at least 25 mpg and particularly likes the gas mileage from diesel. “The Dodge Sprinter gas mile- age is continually improving,” she says, and several new ones were recently purchased. GPS was installed on all the trucks, mostly, according to CEO Apryl Erekson, “to service our customers more efficiently.” A Web-based program shows trucks moving and where they are located. Service trucks show up in red; construction trucks in blue. Erekson acknowledges that the company randomly checks drivers' speed, which is listed on the home office GPS program. “They may get a call on their cell phone telling them to slow down.” How do employees feel about this? Erekson says, “Besides the fact that it improves safety, they are our trucks. As a business owner, you have to protect yourself.” Cochise service techs take their trucks home at the end of the day. “We're better off if the trucks leave the lot. If one is broken into at night, all would be broken into,” Erekson explains. Service techs track the repair history of their own truck, following a company-designed system. Vehicles are fueled using the Wright Express fuel card.

Service Technician Dennis Penrod readies his truck each morning for the day's work.

One of R.L. Hoener's nine service vehicles.

To provide better and easier access for technicians, a ladder rack lowers itself at the touch of a button.

Logo-Less Trucks
Matt Scott, service manager at W.J. Scott Co. (Springfield, IL), likes his trucks to have the doors on the outside so his tools are exposed and easily accessible. “On a van, your tools end up in the doorway, and you have to step over them.” He also likes his tools to be located on the driver's side, “so I can pull right up to the pump and have my tools within easy reach.” To do service calls, W.J. Scott uses Ford and Chevrolet one-ton trucks. Three have a utility body, two have cranes for lifting heavy equipment and dispensers. An electric crane is mounted on one truck, and a smaller, manual crane on another. Scott keeps a minimal amount of inventory on his trucks. “Occasionally we don't have a part we need.” W.J. Scott service vehicles do not have logos on them. Explains Scott, “We go into some areas where we don't want people to know what we are carrying.” The perfect vehicle would have a powered lift as standard equipment, and it would be a little bit bigger, but, says Scott, “not too big, because it'd be like a big bull going down the road.”

Cochise trucks carry everything from keypad membrane switches, isolation boxes and upgrade software to hand tools and caution tape.

A lot of business takes place in the front seat of a service vehicle. Cochise Service Manager Erdmier's ideal van would add a built-in ice cooler between the up-front console, a generator and an air compressor for air tools.

Like a Rock
I've been a Chevy man for 40 years,” says Greg McCoy, president, Total Petroleum Service Co. (Washington, IL), who acknowledges that he owns only Chevrolet trucks for his service vehicles—one a cube van, the other a one-ton cutaway. Each vehicle carries approximately $30,000 in inventory. Two technicians operate from remote locations, and McCoy says, “They generally know what the problem is before they get to the site, so they bring the appropriate equipment, parts and tools with them to remedy that problem.” McCoy's perfect service vehicle has an automatic crane to remove submersible pumps.

Keeps on Going and Going
The service trucks of Goodson Service Company (Midland, TX) are what George Goodson, president, calls “plain and simple.” Goodson owns 10 Chevrolet 2500 series. These are 3/4-ton, heavy duty trucks, most with a utility bed, all with a “headache rack.” Each has a lift gate, which Goodson says is imperative. “We move refrigeration and gas tanks around. Without the lift, we'd have to have a forklift handy.” The trucks and utility beds are purchased, then Goodson's team puts them together in his shop, exactly the way he wants them to function. Goodson expects at least 200,000 miles out of his vehicles, right off the lot. His trucks average 50,000 to 60,000 miles a year, and sometimes they last 300,000 miles. “I run them until there is no trade-in value left.” To get this high mileage, regular maintenance is required, and Goodson relies on a local lube center to keep all the maintenance records. This way, he says, “I don't have to worry about my guys doing the service.”

Together Forever
Jerry Meadows, president of Petroleum Maintenance (Reno, NV), has two vans, a Ford 350 and a Chevrolet 3500. One of them was purchased when it had 200,000 miles on it, and he's already put an additional 80,000 on. “I keep them forever,” he says. He describes his perfect vehicle as the ones he has, and makes sure that the storage drawers are located on the inside. He keeps about $4,000 worth of equipment on his trucks.

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The PEI Journal • Second Quarter 2007 • Volume 1, No. 2 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved. • Nothing may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission of the publisher.