Benefits and Costs

Ottumwa
The Ottumwa Transit Authority in Ottumwa, Iowa, uses an MMS for demand-response vehicles garaged at drivers' homes. Vehicle condition is transmitted as a part of operators' pre-trip log-in activities. Vehicles are brought to the central maintenance facility only when major maintenance is warrented.

Preventative Maintenance
Reduced in-service breakdowns and improved fleet capability will ensure that transit systems run more smoothly. One agency had a 20%-30% reduction in the time required to identify and correct vehicle problems.

Centralized Data
Alabama DOT supports an MMS for use by transit agencies statewide. The system integrates features for tracking inventory, work-order scheduling, and costs of maintenance labor and parts costs; it also supports planning activities. Centralizing the system benefits all agencies and spreads out the full cost. It also supports uniform reporting of required maintenance statistics.

Trend Analysis
Integrated systems can capture conditions such as temperature, pressures, and fluid levels and can analyze trends to predict parts and services that will be needed.

Integration
Integrating a new MMS into existing systems can be costly and time-consuming.

Training
For an MMS to be cost-effective, fleet managers must be trained to use the information that the system collects.

Cost
A fully integrated MMS is expensive to implement throughout a fleet. Fleet managers may have to pick which technologies or vehicles to integrate into a system.