Scratches, dents, and dings are a common problem when you’re in charge of an entire fleet of commercial trucks. In comparison to mechanical issues, body repair might not seem like a top priority. However, truck body damage shouldn’t be ignored, either. Truck body repair is essential for these four important reasons and more.
1. Maintain Your Trucks’ Value
Your company might have invested a lot of money in its fleet. When you add in the cost of maintenance and repairs and multiply it by multiple vehicles, you end up with a high price tag to own and operate a commercial fleet.
At some point, your company might choose to sell some of its commercial trucks. This might be necessary to make room for new trucks or to liquidate some assets. If this happens, you will want to get top dollar for each of the trucks in your fleet.
Naturally, there are a number of factors that go into appraising commercial trucks. The make and model, age and mechanical condition of the truck are some of the biggest factors. The appearance of it makes a big difference, too.
By making body repair a priority, you can ensure that your trucks’ value is preserved as much as possible. Plus, when you do decide to put your trucks up for sale, you’ll know that they’ll look their best, which can help you impress potential buyers.
2. Ensure Your Company Looks Professional
Your company’s name is attached to its commercial fleet. You don’t want to send your drivers out with trucks and trailers that don’t look good, because then your company doesn’t look good. In addition to having body repairs done promptly, encourage your drivers to keep their trucks clean. Then, when people see your trucks out on the highway, they will be more likely to be impressed by what they see.
3. Keep Your Drivers Safe
Of course, minor dents and scratches shouldn’t impact driver safety. However, ignoring some truck body damage can actually be dangerous for the hardworking truckers who work for your company. In some cases, others could be impacted, too.
For example, if a truck’s frame is damaged, it may not handle and stop like it is supposed to. The truck might even be hampered to the point that it may be unable to haul heavy loads. Essential parts could fail, causing an accident that could put many people at risk.
Just as is the case with passenger vehicles, a commercial truck’s bumpers are designed to absorb some of the impact in the case of a collision. If a truck has a damaged bumper and a driver runs into something, the accident could be more serious than if the bumper was in good condition at the time of the accident. Repair or replace a damaged bumper to prevent this risk.
4. Reduce Future Body Repair Costs
The longer that you wait to do something about body damage to your commercial trucks, the more money you can expect to spend when the repairs are finally taken care of.
For example, minor scratches and dings might not seem too serious, and they shouldn’t be too costly to repair. If the clear coat and paint on your commercial truck are damaged, though, there is a higher risk of rust. This can cause a simple and affordable repair to become much more serious and costly. Act quickly to keep costs down for truck body repair.
When you have an entire commercial truck fleet to worry about, you might not think that you can make truck body repair a priority. However, it is more important than you might realize. Contact us at Downtown Garage & Auto Body for help with commercial truck body repair.