Company vehicles, anybody beat on theirs?

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I work in a group home and drive an e-250 van to transport the residents. The company I work for has a dozen or so houses and nearly 20 vans of varying makes, models, and years. For the most part they get the poop beaten out of them by the staff and are frequently neglected maintenance wise. One of the nurses was driving the van shortly after we got it brand new and managed to back into someone's car and do a bit of body damage, the thing didn't even have 100 miles on it yet!
It's a nearly 100% female line of work and I've broken most of the girls' habit of leaving the van in park without setting the brake but there's still an abundance of empty cups, snack wrappers, and junk left in there. It took quite a bit of reminding on my part for them to have the oil changed when it was way overdue.
Any similar experiences? I know most people probably treat company vehicles a lot differently than they would their own.
 
I reem on mine, but i service it every 5k miles with maxlife. engine is spotless through the fill hole. Its on lease plan so it gets plenty of love. 75k on her. Ford transit.
 
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People don't take care of their own vehicles let alone someone else's.

Last company I worked for had a bunch of S-10s and Sonomas, current one has mostly Expresses and some E-150s. I do what I can to make sure the oil gets changed every 5k and rag on the guys to keep them looking clean. By 150k we need to replace them because the bodies are just covered with dents and scratches and look unprofessional. The interiors are usually filthy too, but the guys work in the trades and have grease/dirt on their hands touching everything.

I always have 1-2 guys that the vans are spotless and look new at 150k, the rest are trashed.
 
My company truck is a Peterbilt tractor, and I take very good care of it. Trailers are just what you get assigned that day. I used to get a new one every 3 years or so, but I just drive a spare not that I'm part time.
 
No, I'm hammering the gas, redlineing it, and blowing up speakers...Pretty much like I drive my own cars.....
 
Since I own my own work van, no
smile.gif
I mean I'm sure the load I carry takes its toll, but I maintain it well and keep it clean and organized on the inside, as any vehicle should be, work or otherwise.
 
Originally Posted By: donnyj08
I reem on mine, but i service it every 5k miles with maxlife. engine is spotless through the fill hole. Its on lease plan so it gets plenty of love. 75k on her. Ford transit.


I've been thinking about proposing a new position that I could fill: fleet and house maintenance. Stuff breaks around here all the time and is left for quite a while until either I fix it myself or they hire someone to do it for quite a bit more than my wage. I know they exclusively rely on iffy lube to perform oil changes and transmission and coolant service when they think to do it. The old van the house had needed a transmission replacement not too long after it was at iffy lube for a flush.
I figure between a dozen houses and a small fleet of vans I'd have plenty of work, and I wouldn't have to change diapers anymore!
 
Yes, you are exactly right and at some point a company needs a manager to look after its physical assets. My dad used to do that for a medium sized company with warehouses and field sales reps.

My mom worked for a fortune 500 company and was a sales rep a while then many years a senior sales manager. The company had strict rules about servicing it's fleet - even car washes at intervals. The cars came off lease in great shape. My mom and dad even bought three or four off-lease over the years because they were in remarkable shape for age/mileage and could be had for below market price.

So indeed you should do a little work on what the numbers here are on maintenance and future procurement savings and see how thight might work to their and your benefit.
 
Originally Posted By: Oro_O
Yes, you are exactly right and at some point a company needs a manager to look after its physical assets. My dad used to do that for a medium sized company with warehouses and field sales reps.

My mom worked for a fortune 500 company and was a sales rep a while then many years a senior sales manager. The company had strict rules about servicing it's fleet - even car washes at intervals. The cars came off lease in great shape. My mom and dad even bought three or four off-lease over the years because they were in remarkable shape for age/mileage and could be had for below market price.

So indeed you should do a little work on what the numbers here are on maintenance and future procurement savings and see how thight might work to their and your benefit.


As far as oil changes go, not sure what jiffy lube charges. Probably a bit more than the advertised $20 since the sump capacity on the vans is a bit more than 5qts I'm guessing. But stuff like brakes, transmission service, coolant flush, and repairs would come out a lot cheaper if I did it vs. a shop.
As far as house maintenance, I don't know what they pay but they had a guy come to change the furnace filter, and here's the funny part, my boss needed me to take the filter out so she knew what size to get.... I took the old one out and put it back and then they paid someone to come do the exact same thing... No wonder it's so hard to get a raise around here
 
We use to have rentals before the company issued us vehicles. What a way to travel , exchanging vehicles every 2-3 months. I recently got a 2015 Ford CMAX hybrid and this vehicle is awesome. I don't believe in using vehicles not abusing them.
 
First I put a vibration hour meter in each vehicle.
You drive it, you record the miles when checked out and checked in, and the hours on the meter. Gas receipts also get turned in.
Easy way to check mileage, and when to do service.
Every 200 hours oil and filter, full synthetic, 400 air filter, etc...
Every Friday vehicle gets inspected, cleanliness, dents, dings, etc. Vehicles needing routine service get left over weekend, mechanic works on Saturday...
Excessive dents or dings get deducted from paycheck, under $500 you pay 20%, over $500, 40%...
Don't report it, and get caught, 100% comes out of your pay, a little at a time...
When people have to cough up for repairs, they get careful about driving them.
Most of the time...
 
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When I had company vehicles, I treated them as if they were my own. Since it was my company, they were.

I did have an employee that abused the privilege.

It was his responsibility to have the vehicle maintained. He presented a bill one month, for three new tires. One day I went out and noticed only one new tire on the vehicle. So I stopped by his house one day, and noticed that he had a car that was based on the same platform as his company car, and surprise, surprise, it took the same size tire. I checked, and sure enough it had two new tires on it.

I called the mom and pop tire store, and low and behold the Owner distinctly remembered the sale, one tire on one car, and two on the other. Paid for with a company credit card.

There were also the multiple large quantity gasoline purchases, only minutes apart, at a gas station near his house. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize he was filling up all his family cars, with the company credit card.

He was fired, along with the stipulation he would repay the theft that I could prove. Or I told him I would press charges.

Bottom line: How you treat property that doesn't belong to you, is a pretty good indicator of ones character, or lack thereof.
 
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Originally Posted By: 02SE
When I had company vehicles, I treated them as if they were my own. Since it was my company, they were.

I did have an employee that abused the privilege.

It was his responsibility to have the vehicle maintained. He presented a bill one month, for three new tires. One day I went out and noticed only one new tire on the vehicle. So I stopped by his house one day, and noticed that he had a car that was based on the same platform as his company car, and surprise, surprise, it took the same size tire. I checked, and sure enough it had two new tires on it.

I called the mom and pop tire store, and low and behold the Owner distinctly remembered the sale, one tire on one car, and two on the other. Paid for with a company credit card.

There were also the multiple large quantity gasoline purchases, only minutes apart, at a gas station near his house. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize he was filling up all his family cars, with the company credit card.

He was fired, along with the stipulation he would repay the theft that I could prove. Or I told him I would press charges.

Bottom line: How you treat property that doesn't belong to you, is a pretty good indicator of ones character, or lack thereof.


All I can say is wow... sounds like he was a real gem!
 
Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
First I put a vibration hour meter in each vehicle.
You drive it, you record the miles when checked out and checked in, and the hours on the meter. Gas receipts also get turned in.
Easy way to check mileage, and when to do service.
Every 200 hours oil and filter, full synthetic, 400 air filter, etc...
Every Friday vehicle gets inspected, cleanliness, dents, dings, etc. Vehicles needing routine service get left over weekend, mechanic works on Saturday...
Excessive dents or dings get deducted from paycheck, under $500 you pay 20%, over $500, 40%...
Don't report it, and get caught, 100% comes out of your pay, a little at a time...
When people have to cough up for repairs, they get careful about driving them.
Most of the time...


Sounds like a fair policy and a good incentive to not be a maniac in a company vehicle. It's just too bad a lot of people don't respect the property of others, even if you hate your job its uncalled for.
 
Years ago I shared a company van with another employee. When I drove it it got 18mpg. When he drove it it got 10mpg. It's safe to day that he drove it much harder than was necessary. We filled up at an onsite pump and he always complained about the lousy mileage.

In later years there was an investigation at a large aerospace company where I worked concerning stolen government property that passed through the transportation department. The federal cops concentrated their first efforts on drivers that abused the vehicles and very quickly found the thief.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
My wife's Tahoe is a disaster. And its not even a company car! She ownes it!


Over the last few years, from several sources, I have read that women make better mining truck drivers than men. Here is one example:

http://life.miningpeople.com.au/we-want-women

“………...Men are found to be more susceptible to risk-taking than women and it was anticipated that an increased female participation in positions at mining sites would provide an opportunity to improve a safety culture in the organisation,” the tribunal ruled.

And this is where it gets interesting: women are safer drivers.

There has been increasing acceptance across the mining industry that women are safer.

They take less risks, inflict less wear and tear on machines and burn less fuel than their male colleagues………………"


another interesting article:
http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/features/q-and-a-with-a-dump-truck-driver
 
T5 s60 I think an 06, we drove it till it threw a rod. When we dumped the oil it was cottage cheese consistency. I don't know who (didn't) maintains their cars though.
 
I get ragged on for "taking a car home for a service"...I don't have a company car, but use one when I have to travel.

One Sunday before a 200 mile round trip, I found it 1qt low on oil, which I topped up with Delo Gold Ultra from my own stash, and 3 litres down on coolant (which I bought on my corporate CC, and put in the trunk (Subaru Forrester)...

workmates saw it in the trunk and asked what for...then came the 3 years and counting of ribbing.
 
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