Fleet service questions from owners and managers

Service and utility trucks, delivery vans, and company passenger vehicles, whether that is three plumbing vans in Sparks or a couple dozen pickups working between Carson City and Minden. There is no minimum we publish; a small contractor with two trucks and a real estate office with four cars both fit. Describe what you run on the fleet page form and the service center will say whether an account makes sense.

Send the form on the fleet page or call any service center. A manager at the service center calls you back, asks what vehicles you have, how many miles they run and which service centers your drivers are near, and the two of you agree the terms. Once the account is open, drivers identify the company at the window and the visit goes on the account.

Per account, in that conversation. We do not publish a fleet price list on the site because the right number depends on the vehicles, the oil they take and how many visits a month you bring. What we can say is that it is agreed in advance and written down, so a driver never negotiates at the counter and an invoice never surprises you.

No. Fleet vehicles use the same drive-in bay as retail customers, during the same posted hours, at whichever of the four service centers is closest to the job that day. A driver in northwest Reno uses Mae Anne Avenue in the morning and the same company's driver in Carson Valley uses Gardnerville in the afternoon, and both visits land on one account.

A service record per vehicle: date, mileage, service center, what was done, the oil grade used, and what the maintenance check found. That gives you a history you can hand to a buyer at resale, show an insurer, or use to spot the truck that is burning oil before it becomes a tow. Ask the service center how you would like the records delivered.

Everything on the menu: oil changes including diesel, transmission fluid, differential, coolant, power steering, filters, bulbs, wipers, battery checks and A/C service. Work we do not do, such as brakes, tires and engine repair, is noted on the record so your own service center or dealer can pick it up.

That is up to you, and it is one of the terms set when the account opens. Most managers authorize routine items such as a filter or wiper blades up to a limit and ask to be called for anything larger. Under Nevada's repair law a written estimate is required before work over fifty dollars, and on a fleet account that estimate goes to the person you name.

If they are registered at a Reno or Sparks address, yes, every year at renewal, and either Reno service center can test them on the same visit as the oil change. Vehicles registered in Carson City or Douglas County do not need a test. The Nevada DMV also runs a Continuous Monitoring Program for qualifying fleets that replaces the annual station test; ask the DMV's Reno emissions office whether your fleet qualifies.

No. Coupons are not valid with fleet account pricing, because the account already carries its own terms. If a driver shows a coupon on a fleet vehicle, the technician applies the account terms instead.

Billing is part of the account setup conversation. Tell the service center whether you want a single monthly statement, a card on file, or a record per visit, and the two of you settle it before the first vehicle comes in.

The same thing we tell any customer, in writing on the record: what we saw, what it usually means, and whether it can wait. If a van's transmission fluid is burnt or a pickup's coolant has gone acidic, you hear it that day, not at the next oil change. That early warning is most of the value of running a fleet through one set of service centers.

Any of the four can open one, and the account works at all four. Reno Northwest (775) 787-1000, Reno South (775) 828-6996, Carson City (775) 883-5823, Gardnerville (775) 301-5912. Or send the form and the service center you pick calls you.