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There’s no real mystery as to why otherwise intelligent fleet operators so often negotiate full-service leases using only big, round numbers. Reason No. 1 is that they simply don’t know their actual, detailed maintenance costs.

TAMPA, Fla. — The Technology & Maintenance Council gave one fleet executive and four associate members its Silver Spark Plug Award for career achievement at TMC’s annual meeting being held here this week.

The 2010 technology power plants and the new emissions systems represented such a dramatic break from the past that only technicians certified by original equipment manufacturers have been able to work on them while they are still under warranty, truck dealers said.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Maintenance directors meeting here shared techniques for combating rust and other forms of corrosion, which they said are a plague to trucks.

TAMPA — “If you’d have told me 20 years ago I’d be general chairman, I’d have told you you was crazy,” said Roy Gambrell, incoming general chairman of the Technology & Maintenance Council, who began his career repairing equipment on the family farm.

Many of the maintenance professionals who keep U.S. truck fleets running smoothly will focus their attention on wider dissemination of the motor freight industry’s recommended engineering practices at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s annual meeting in Tampa, Fla.

Let’s face it; nobody likes to make the same mistake twice. Maintenance professionals in particular always should be looking for procedures that have prevented downtime and failures in the past.

When the economy deteriorates, the use of preventive maintenance at trucking companies — including programs involving tires — sometimes follows suit, regardless of climate conditions such as the coming of winter.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Jeffrey Schlecht, a 27-year-old rookie from Nebraska, staked his claim here as the grand champion of truck maintenance, pushing aside 102 other competitors, including three former SuperTech winners.