---
title: "Preventive maintenance on the truck and gear, Route Operations 101"
url: https://poolroutemarketplace.com/learn/route-operations-101/preventive-equipment-maintenance
description: "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 highe"
lang: en
---

# Preventive maintenance on the truck and gear

Lesson 6 of 8 · 6 min read

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

\1. Why does test-kit reagent freshness matter?

\2. Trailer-tire failure cause that's easy to miss?

\3. Best return on PM investment?

\4. Why does test-kit reagent freshness matter?

\5. Common trailer-tire failure mode?

\6. Match the equipment to its preventive interval.

Earn 63 points

Mark this lesson complete

← Previous lesson: https://poolroutemarketplace.com/learn/route-operations-101/inventory-and-purchasing
Next lesson →: https://poolroutemarketplace.com/learn/route-operations-101/service-quality-checks

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