Controlling maintenance costs on a 20-car fleet

Maintenance is the silent profit-killer in rental fleets. Break-fix costs 20-30% more than scheduled maintenance, AND it takes cars off the road on the worst days.

The scheduled maintenance calendar that works:

• Every 5,000 km: engine oil + oil filter. Non-negotiable. A Corolla that skips oil changes is a Corolla that dies at 120K km instead of 300K.
• Every 10,000 km: air filter + tyre rotation.
• Every 20,000 km: brake pads inspection, front + rear.
• Every 40,000 km: transmission fluid (on the cars that still have serviceable boxes).
• Every year or 100K km: timing belt on interference engines. Missing this is how a ₨2L repair becomes a ₨12L engine rebuild.

Every car, every rental, the staff checks tyre pressure + washer fluid + coolant. 60 seconds. Saves a breakdown a month.

The garage relationship.

• Use one garage. Not the cheapest, the most reliable. Half the savings come from them knowing your fleet and not "discovering" problems on every visit.
• Get an itemised invoice every time. Parts + labour + VAT. Don't accept "lump sum ₨15,000". You cannot control costs you cannot see.
• Pay on a 15-day cycle, not on the spot. Builds predictable cash flow and earns you a 2-5% discount.

The three things that destroy maintenance budgets:

1. "While you're in there, can you fix this too?" Every additional job doubles labour. Schedule separately.
2. Skipping the scheduled service "just this one time". That's the service that saves the engine.
3. Changing garages to save ₨2,000. The new garage has to re-discover every quirk of every car. You pay in the re-discovery.

A structured maintenance log per car, with kilometres + date + cost per service, tells you in 30 seconds which cars are dogs. Most operators run that report in their head, which is to say they don't run it.