A broken-down truck is a lost service week. A broken-down truck *during the season* is a customer-cancellation event. Preventive maintenance is one of the highest-ROI activities you do.
Truck monthly checklist. Oil, tire pressure, brake pad thickness, wiper blades, cooling system, battery condition, lights, mirrors. Many routes log 25–35k miles annually; treat the truck like a delivery vehicle, not a personal car.
Truck quarterly. Brake fluid, transmission fluid, coolant flush schedule, alignment if pulling, tire rotation. Have a relationship with one mechanic shop that knows your truck.
Trailer monthly. Hubs greased, brake controller working, tires (check sidewalls for cracking, trailers often sit and dry-rot before they wear out), lights, safety chains, hitch ball wear.
Pumps and motors. Cleaned weekly, inspected monthly. Vacuum heads, replace brushes when worn. Telepoles, check the locking collar regularly; failures lead to lost equipment in deep ends.
Test kits. Calibrate or replace reagents every 6 months. Bad test reagents lead to bad chemistry, lead to customer issues. Cheap to fix; common to ignore.
Backup equipment. A spare pump, spare vacuum hose, spare 25-foot pole, spare reagent set in the truck. Service interruptions due to broken equipment look unprofessional and are largely preventable with $150 of redundancy.
Quick check
