Influence of malfunctions of the maintenance activities on the urban buses fuel consumption

Abstract

Optimization of activities with the aim to provide quality service in conditions of high profitability, is one of the main objectives chased by managers in transportation companies. As a consequence, directing the attention towards monitoring of maintenance activities of vehicles fleet, can achieve desired results. Two of the most important issues related to the maintenance activity, is the increase of reliability and reduction of fuel consumption of the vehicles fleet. Aforementioned actions represents a way forward for raising the quality and profitability of services offered. In this paper, the main ways of monitoring the fuel consumption, in order to reduce it and increase the reliability of transportation vehicles fleet, are presented. For the evaluation of the maintenance system and the degree of influence of malfunctions recorded on the fuel consumption, using the Pareto -ABC method, following case study on a fleet of buses for urban public transport has been conducted. Results obtained highlights the deficiencies of the maintenance process carried out and constitutes a solid base for the reorganization of the maintenance activity, involving preventive maintenance activities, in order to contribute decisively to the results targeted by the management of transport companies.