“That's why,” he continues, “we spec our trucks to last 20 years, we maintain them to be fully reliable for at least 15 years, and we sell them after 11 or 12 years for the best resale.” Survant says FPL measures reliability in terms of mean days until failure, which currently stands at an impressive 176 days. “In a recovery operation,” says Survant, “we have to depend on an extremely reliable fleet capable of enabling our crews to expend the maximum effort.
To accomplish this and what it went through with Hurricanes Charley and Frances, FPL not only counted on its line crews, who operate 3,400 pieces of equipment, but also managed an enormous logistical operation to support its own workers, as well as those of other utilities and contractors brought in from out of state.Īccording to director of fleet services George Survant, having reliable equipment available 'round the clock is all in a day's work for FPL's truck operation. Just eight days after Category 3 Hurricane Jeanne - the fourth Atlantic storm to bash the Sunshine State - made landfall, FPL reported it had restored power to the last of 1.7-million customers without. Keeping work trucks in nothing less than tip-top, ready-to-work-under-all-conditions condition is the reason for being of the utility fleet.īut few are ever tested to the degree Florida Power & Light (FPL) was this year - when no less than three major hurricanes struck the heart of its 27,000-sq.-mi. Then there's nothing they'd rather see than a lineman's truck with its welcome flashing yellow lights. Those who don't work for public utilities don't spend much time thinking about the fleets of vocational trucks they field.
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