Impacts of COVID-19 on Maintenance Operations of Fleets and Service Providers: Results From Survey 2 (April 27,2020)
ABSTRACT
In March 2020, ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) decided to conduct a series of member surveys to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the maintenance operations of fleets and service providers. TMC’s first survey, conducted in the early phase of the event in late March 2020, investigated current and anticipated impacts on technician labor force readiness and commercial vehicle component supply chains. TMC’s second survey in the series was conducted in late April 2020 as a follow-up to the initial investigation.
The April 2020 survey found actual average impacts in both the shop labor force and parts/equipment availability areas have increased slightly but overall continue to be minor when compared to the previous survey. Shop support supplies deliveries continue to be more moderately impacted. TMC members say they expect impacts on all labor, shop support supplies and parts/equipment categories to remain or downgrade to minor concerns, with slight increases for labor only. The ability to recruit, hire and train new or replacement technicians continues to be a challenge, with moderate disruptions currently being encountered, as was reported in the first survey.
TMC intends to repeat this survey periodically during the pandemic event to measure the ongoing risk to maintenance operations and essential transportation functions.