Transit Fleet Maintenance

The transit fleet maintenance community is positioned to make some significant advances in the new millennium. Changes in technology offer much potential for supporting both traditional management activities and some equipment capabilities that have recently become available. However, benefits will be realized only after successfully navigating some significant challenges. Ironically, the tendency is to view the technology itself as a key challenge but, how fleet maintenance managers align their organizations in adapting to technology probably will determine the extent of any advances. One key conclusion of a recent study was that the success of a maintenance organization would depend on its ability to adapt to change (1). The fleet maintenance community views this process as a partial catalyst to discussions about the development of a fleet maintenance research agenda. In documenting challenges to the fleet maintenance community in the new millennium, we very quickly realized that they do not fall into neatly defined categories by subject or age, but frequently depend on—or directly affect—each other. Challenges include narrowing long-standing information gaps, managing maintenance costs, adapting the organization to changes in technology, and modifying preventive maintenance programs.