December 2007

Technology Overview

Use Maintenance Management Systems to:

Manage fluids on vehicles
Alert operations managers of underperforming vehicles and parts
Manage maintenance parts inventory
Maintain and produce maintenance records
Monitor and manage warranties
Diagnose vehicle problems remotely

On average, transit operators spend about one-fifth of their operating budgets on vehicle maintenance. With use of new monitoring technologies paired with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) systems such as Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) or Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD), transit operators can build Maintenance Management Systems (MMS) to monitor everything from fuel and other fluid levels to engine temperature and to alert operators and dispatchers of failure of a transit vehicle mechanical component, such as an out-of-tolerance reading from the engine or the exhaust system.

Advanced MMS can capture vehicle-operating conditions, such as temperature, pressures, and voltages, to support trend analysis for condition-based maintenance and to predict failure of parts. MMS can help managers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of maintenance operations and ensure the use of more reliable transit vehicles.

Maintenance Management Systems are also known as Vehicle Component Monitoriing, Automatic Vehicle Monitoring, and Maintenance Tracking.