It all started with a question in a department meeting – a question that had no answer.

“Why did we order two switches for $800, when only one failed?”

The heavy silence spoke for itself.

No one knew.

For Dan Maitland, whose job is to keep equipment running on time and on budget as the fleet manager at Ajax Paving Industries of Florida, based in North Venice, this was unacceptable.

While it’s not that big of a deal to let one duplicate order slide, the reality is these types of situations are fairly common for most heavy equipment fleet teams.

“Why were these parts ordered?”

“Who approved it? Was there a justified reason?”

“When will the parts get here?”

“What’s this invoice for?”

The questions cycle on and on.

The fact is, those $400 duplicate parts, wrong orders, and urgent requests quickly add up … until heads are scratching about why parts costs are $40K over budget at the end of the month. And if the fleet team is over budget, the ripple effects are far-reaching.

“As a fleet, we want to be predictable with our costs because we have a set budget,” Maitland says. “If we're hitting our budget, that means our estimators are hitting their margins — and can secure more jobs.”

Therefore, it’s critical that fleet teams find ways to increase equipment uptime while strategically managing costs. Maitland knew an efficient parts process sat at the complicated crossroads of reaching this goal.

But how could he lead them through what he couldn’t see?