Maintenance Categories

Why Categories Matter

Categories turn your maintenance log into a management tool. In TrailerBase, every task is tagged with one of nine categories, and Reports > Maintenance groups spend by category so you can see where your dollars actually go.

The Nine Categories

Preventive

Scheduled work designed to stop problems before they happen: oil changes, greasing, torque checks, seal replacements, bearing repacks. If it is on a manufacturer schedule and the trailer is not broken, it is almost certainly Preventive.

Repair

Fixing something that is broken, worn out, or damaged. Use this for customer-reported issues, walk-around findings, and anything discovered during an inspection.

Inspection

Non-DOT inspections — pre-season checks, post-rental walk-arounds that you log as a task, pre-sale inspections, and incoming inspections for newly acquired trailers.

DOT/Annual

Federally required DOT inspections and other annual compliance work. Categorize this work separately so you can prove compliance and so the cost does not bleed into your preventive or repair numbers.

Tire & Wheel

Tires, rims, valve stems, TPMS sensors, balancing, rotation, and anything touching the wheel hub that is not a brake or bearing issue. Tires are a top-three expense for most fleets, so isolating them pays off.

Electrical

Lights, wiring, breakaway switches, brake controllers, 7-way plugs, solar, interior electrical, and battery work.

Structural

Frame, crossmembers, deck, walls, roof, tongue, hitch, and anything load-bearing. Structural work is often your most expensive category — keep it clean.

Hydraulic

Dump hoists, power tailgates, landing gear (if hydraulic), hydraulic brakes, and any hoses, cylinders, or pumps.

Other

A catch-all for work that does not fit cleanly elsewhere. Use sparingly — if you find yourself tagging many tasks as Other, consider whether one of the specific categories would do.

How Categories Drive Reporting

Open Reports > Maintenance to see:

1. Spend by category — a bar chart of the current and prior period, so you can spot a sudden spike in, say, Tire & Wheel.
2. Category mix per trailer — which trailers are Preventive-heavy versus Repair-heavy. A trailer with a high Repair ratio may be ready to retire.
3. Average cost per category — helps you sanity-check quotes from outside shops.
4. Preventive ratio — the share of your total spend that is Preventive. A healthy fleet usually runs 30 to 45 percent Preventive.

Choosing the Right Category

1. Start from the root cause, not the symptom. A flat tire caused by a bad bearing is a Tire & Wheel and Hydraulic? No — log the bearing work as the task and category accordingly.
2. If a task spans categories, pick the one that represents the largest share of the cost.
3. For DOT-required work, always use DOT/Annual even if the underlying work is electrical or structural. The compliance tag matters more than the trade.

Tips

• Rename with care. You can rename a category's display label under Settings > Maintenance, but the underlying slug stays the same so your reports remain consistent across time.
• Bulk recategorize. From the Maintenance list, select multiple tasks and choose Set Category to reclassify historical work in one pass.
• Use category in search. Typing category:structural overdue in the Maintenance search bar narrows fast.