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Hi Rosario,<br><br>
There's a lot here, but I thought I'd put as much out there on the
subject that I know in case any of it's helpful to others. So, if
you're not interested in the nuts and bolts of truck purchasing and
maintenance, you can skip this response.<br><br>
In the South Central Library System (SCLS), based in Madison, WI, we
operate a delivery service for the 52 member public libraries in our 7
county system (about 10 million items per year) and serve as the
statewide delivery service for Wisconsin (about 1.7 million items per
year). In total we have 20 structured routes, of which 4 of the
local routes go out 2 times per day and 2 of the local routes go out 3
times per day, due to the large volume, for a total of 28 route runs each
week day. Our SCLS routes go out Monday through Saturday and our
statewide routes are run Monday through Friday. We have a 24
vehicle fleet which covers around 820,000 miles yearly.<br><br>
Up until about 5 years ago we had been purchasing Chevy 2500 Express
cargo vans. Many years ago we had put the vehicle purchase out to
bid, chose the Chevy cargo model and then implemented a fleet maintenance
and replacement model the previous delivery coordinator here learned when
working in the baked goods delivery business. The main idea of the
model is once you chose the vehicle make/model, future vehicle
replacements/additions should be of the same model, so we did not put
this out to bid after the Chevy choice was made. With our fleet
program we typically get about 8-10 years of service and around 400,000
miles out of our vehicles. The fleet program model and reasons are
as follows:
<ul>
<li>Religiously follow the maintenance schedule as detailed in the
service books that come with your vehicle. Have drivers perform a
pre-route vehicle inspection each day (takes 5 minutes) to include
checking fluid levels, quick visual inspection of engine compartment for
any evidence of fluid leaks, and exterior check for tire or body
problems. We also do a more detailed weekly vehicle inspection
(takes 15-20 minutes) which includes visual inspection of drive train,
tire inspections and checking that electrical components (lights, etc...)
are in working order. Catching things quickly prevents the
components down the line from suffering undue wear/damage which can
result in higher repair costs and a shorter vehicle life.
<li>Replace components as needed, unless the cost of the repair and
replacement exceeds the value of the vehicle. Typically the death
of one of our vehicles happens with the 2nd transmission
replacement. We know, because we stick with the same models, that
historically the transmissions usually fail at around 200,000
miles. A 4-5 year old vehicle with this mileage still has a higher
market value than a $2,000 transmission replacement. At 8-10 years
and 400,000 miles the vehicle worth is usually less than a new
transmission. Also, the working parts on the vehicle are worth much
more than the vehicle itself at this point.
<li>Due to our fleet size, it's more economical to have an in-house
mechanic. After we perform a last rites ceremony for a vehicle, we
remove working parts we can use to repair the other models like it still
in use (especially body parts like doors). If a door goes because
of age or damage it can cost $1,000-$1,200 to replace at a body
shop. By having the same models, we can reuse doors from old
vehicles at no cost, other than our mechanics time to switch doors, which
is much less than $1,000. Once stripped, we send the vehicle's
skeletal remains to a salvage yard.
<li>Our cost analysis for this fleet program model has been as
follows. Say it's an 8 year vehicle cycle we are planning
for. In our model, we purchase the vehicle for, say, $20,000 and
will have no trade in/sale return for the vehicle for it when it
dies. In a model where you would purchase 2 vehicles in the same 8
year cycle, the first vehicle would cost $20,000 and the second vehicle,
with inflation, costs $22,500. If these vehicles get around $5,000
each at trade in (approximate current Kelly Blue Book trade in value for
a 4 year old Chevy Express van with 200,000 miles), the net purchase cost
for those vehicles in the 8 years is $32,500. Note, if you sell as
a private seller, the value for these is $1,500-$2,000 higher than trade
in. Our dealership salesperson told us we should always sell
privately for these types of vehicles, if we ever would, because the used
buyer market for cargo vans is very strong with people in the
construction trades industry always looking for used cargo vans.
<li>With the $12,500 difference in purchase costs between the models,
this leaves the question of maintenance costs; will the maintenance costs
of the single vehicle be $12,500 more in the last 4 years of its life
than the first 4 years of maintenance costs of the 2nd vehicle purchased
in the other model? In our experience (we're on our 37th vehicle
since our service began in 1975) is it is not. While the last 4
years of the vehicle does cost more in maintenance than the first 4
years, it is usually not that much more, the largest cost being the
transmission replacement. However, it's happened we've had a
transmission go out earlier in its life (always after the warranty runs
out), so projecting maintenance costs is not an exact science.
There are two other pieces we get in cost savings, which is $2,000-$3,000
in reusable parts from a deceased van and we only have the costs of
lettering and outfitting the vehicle's cargo area once, as opposed to
twice. In the end, we calculate that when you amortize the costs of
purchase and maintenance over the 8 years, our program saves us $1,000 to
$1,500 per year, per vehicle over if we turned over vehicles more
frequently.
</ul>That's our program, which we currently employ, however, we have
adapted to purchasing different types of vehicles to handle the volume
growth. As Lori mentioned, we've moved to diesel vehicles because
the durability of the engine should give us another couple of years and a
100,000 miles of life or more. Also, diesel vehicles typically can
have a 25% or better fuel efficiency (at least the ones we've went with
do) and historically diesel has cost less at the pump, though, until the
last few months, it had been higher than unleaded since Katrina.
<br><br>
Lastly, on our vehicle reasons to switch to diesel, Wisconsin has a
growing biodiesel industry and we have moved to using a 20% blend (B20)
in 3 of our diesels and a 100% biodiesel (B100) in our other 4
diesels. 20% of our total fuel purchase is now biodiesel.
There's nothing that needs to be done to diesel vehicles to switch to
biodiesel. In fact, it's a natural lubricant for fuel lines and
seals and runs so much cleaner (our garage does at times smell a little
like popcorn or french fries, which if you're hungry in the morning can
be cruel), so it's better for the engine life. However, for those
of us in the colder climates it's recommended that you do not use more
than a 20% blend in temps under 50 degrees. Fuel efficiency and
costs have been similar to petroleum diesel with arrangements we have
made with a local biofuel coop and the U of Wisconsin-Madison, which has
a B20 pump on campus.<br><br>
The main reason we went to different trucks is to, as Lori mentioned,
increase the driver/load ratio. Though our statewide volume growth
is not as large as the growth from the patron's use of our ILS system in
SCLS, it had grown to a point that we were going to have to look at
splitting some of our statewide routes which can travel between 300-530
miles per day. After much research we began replacing our Chevy
cargos as they died with the Dodge Sprinter. They're made by
Mercedes and do cost around $6,000-$8,000 more than the standard cargo
van, but they get around 22 mpg vs. the 15-16 mpg we were getting with
the Chevys. And, their payload capacity is twice as much as the
Chevy/Fords (2,000 lbs. vs. 1,000 lbs.). This is where we get the
extra purchase pay back with in a year, by not having had to split any of
the statewide routes and pay for the costs of additional miles, and most
importantly, the labor to drive those miles. FedEx was the first to
use these in the U.S. and now I see them all over. Their routine
maintenance costs are less, only needing an oil change every
12,000-15,000 miles, but parts will be more expensive as they will come
from Germany. We haven't had a single part failure on the 3 we
have, with the 1st one having over 200,000 miles on it. <br><br>
Locally to handle our large volume within SCLS, we went to Mitsubishi
Fuso trucks with 14-16 foot boxes. We can carry 3 times to load
with these that we could with a cargo van and the fuel efficiency is only
3-4 miles less mpg than the Chevys. Not only did we not have to
split routes, we actually were able to consolidate some routes together
with the higher load capacity. In order to not break the drivers'
backs I designed a cart with a local manufacturer that enables the totes
we use to transport materials with to stay on wheels throughout the
entire delivery chain without any driver lifting. We put lift gates
on the trucks, so when the totes are filled at our central sorting hub,
they get placed on the carts and stay on them in transport and right into
the library. They stay at the libraries for them to use to move the
totes to processing areas without lifting and then are used by the
libraries to put the totes on for their outgoing delivery. We've
greatly reduced our local mileage and driver time and have been injury
free for 14 months.<br><br>
The other new thing we did in purchasing the box trucks for our local
routes is we bought used. After analyzing the used truck market,
we've found that trucks of this type are best found through truck sales
companies when they are returned to them after a leasing
arrangement. We've found them in the 3-5 year old range with
90,000-120,000 miles. Typically leasing arrangements have
maintenance plans built in to them so they come in good shape. The
best thing is we bought each of our 4 for an average of $15,000 vs. the
$38,000-$42,000 new ones were listed at. We think we'll be able to
get 6-8 years or 300,000 miles out of them.<br><br>
One last thing, the Dodge Sprinter and Mitsubushi Fuso have both
developed electric hybrid models, though they are not yet on the American
market. Dodge is testing theirs with FedEx and Mitsu is selling
them in Japan. These are the only hybrid options I'm aware of in
the commercial cargo class market.<br><br>
Good luck with your vehicle planning and please feel free to contact me
if you have any questions!<br><br>
Bruce Smith<br>
SCLS Delivery Coordinator<br><br>
At 03:43 PM 7/24/2007, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Folks:<br><br>
If you own your delivery vans, how many miles do you typically put on
your<br>
vans before you start to consider trading them in? We currently own 2
Ford<br>
Econoline vans, one purchased in Jan. 2005 and the other one acquired
in<br>
June 2006. We put about 150 miles/day on each, or about 750 miles/week
(in<br>
LA/Orange County traffic). The older van has approximately 92,000 miles
on<br>
it right now. In the past, we've started thinking new van at around
100,000<br>
miles. <br><br>
Do you keep your vans for longer mileage? Thanks for any and all
rsponses.<br><br>
Rosario Garza<br>
Executive Director<br>
MCLS<br>
3675 E. Huntington Dr., Ste 100<br>
Pasadena, CA 91107<br>
<a href="http://www.mcls.org /" eudora="autourl">
http://www.mcls.org </a> / rgarza@mcls.org<br>
626-683-8244 / FAX:
626-683-8097<br><br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
MovingMountains mailing list<br>
MovingMountains@swonlibraries.org<br>
<a href="http://www.swonlibraries.org/mailman/listinfo/movingmountains" eudora="autourl">
http://www.swonlibraries.org/mailman/listinfo/movingmountains</a>
</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Bruce Smith<br>
Delivery Coordinator<br>
South Central Library System<br>
1601 Gilson Street<br>
Madison, WI 53715-2127<br><br>
voice:
<x-tab> </x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>(608)
266-4695<br>
fax:<x-tab> </x-tab><x-tab>
</x-tab>(608)
266-4881<br>
e-mail:<x-tab> </x-tab>bsmith@scls.lib.wi.us<br>
web
site:<x-tab> </x-tab>
<a href="http://www.sclsdelivery.info/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.sclsdelivery.info<br><br>
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