Municipal and Government Fleets
Parks and Recreation Departments
The short answer
Parks fleets get repaired out of the smallest vehicle line in a city budget, so we tell you what is worth doing and what is not. Utility trucks, program shuttle vans and equipment trailers, repaired in shop at Yorba Linda on a purchase order. Summer is your peak season, so plan the work for January.
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What we see from this customer
Parks vehicles get damaged in ways that would sound invented to a highway fleet. Turf access means a truck riding over a curb edge and a sprinkler head every day, which loads the lower body and the running boards steadily rather than all at once. Backing a mower trailer through a gate opening built for a golf cart takes the fender corners off. Low branches on a park road strip the roof and the rain gutter. Almost none of that is a single event with a claim attached, which is exactly why it gets deferred until three small dents become a panel replacement.
Parks and recreation lines are usually the smallest vehicle maintenance budgets in a city, and we would rather help you spend that money well than sell you a full refinish. Sometimes the right answer is that a fifteen year old flatbed gets a rebuilt headache rack and nothing else, and we will say that out loud. The seasonal shape matters too. Summer camps, aquatics and league play put every shuttle van and utility truck on the road from June through August, so the sane window for body work is January through March.
The other thing a parks fleet carries that a public works fleet does not is close range public visibility. A shuttle van parked at a community center with a peeling department decal and a mismatched door is the vehicle residents actually stand next to while they wait for their kids. Graphics reproduction and refinish are cheap relative to what a replacement van costs. On trailers, brake, axle, bearing and coupler work is in scope, and it is the item most often deferred on a mower trailer until something lets go on a grade. All work is in shop at Yorba Linda.
Location: All work is performed at our Yorba Linda facility. We do not offer mobile, roadside, or fleet route service.
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What you are worried about, and the answer
Concern 01
Our budget line for vehicle repair is small and it competes with field maintenance.
Then we tell you which repairs protect the vehicle and which are cosmetic, and we price them on separate lines so you can authorize one and defer the other with your eyes open.
Concern 02
Every shuttle van we own is booked solid from June through August.
So book the work in January through March. A van that comes in during February is back before registration opens. A van that comes in during June is competing directly with your own program calendar.
Concern 03
Our equipment trailers have never had the bearings or the brakes touched.
Trailer brake, axle, bearing repack, hub and coupler service are all in scope. A mower trailer that has never had a hub opened is running on grease that stopped being grease several summers ago.
Concern 04
The department decals on our vans are peeling and the fleet looks neglected.
Decal edge lift is a UV failure and it accelerates once the edge opens. We reproduce the layout, and on schemes no longer available as printed vinyl we reproduce the graphics in paint instead.
Concern 05
Damage accumulates one dent at a time and nothing is ever a claim.
That is normal for a parks fleet, and it is why we look at the whole panel rather than the dent you pointed at. Three small dents in one door is a door refinish, and pricing it that way is cheaper than three separate visits.
Concern 06
We need a purchase order and an invoice our finance department can actually process.
We accept purchase orders regardless of size, put the PO number on every document, and provide a W-9, a certificate of insurance and estimates itemized by labor operation, hours, rate and part number.
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Services you need most
Service
Fleet Collision Repair and Refinish
Fleet collision repair returns a damaged commercial truck or van to service after an impact, covering cab sheet metal, box structu
Service
Dent Removal and Repair
Dent removal covers paintless dent repair, conventional pull and fill, and aluminum panel work on RVs, vans, trailers, and fleet v
Service
Body Panel Repair and Replacement
Body panel repair and replacement covers sidewall sections, compartment doors, skirting, roof caps, and sheet metal on RVs, vans,
Service
Paint and Refinish
Full paint and refinish strips, corrects, primes, and resprays the exterior of an RV, van, trailer, or fleet vehicle in single-sta
Service
Decal and Graphics Replacement
Decal and graphics replacement removes cracked or faded factory artwork, prepares the finish underneath, and installs a new printe
Service
Fleet Graphics and Vinyl Wrap
Fleet graphics and wrap covers partial and full vinyl wraps, cut lettering, spot graphics, and removal on commercial vans, trucks,
Service
Electric, Surge and Hydraulic Brake Service
Trailer brake service covers electric drum brakes, surge couplers, and electric-over-hydraulic systems including magnets, shoes, a
Service
Wheel Bearing Repack and Hub Service
Wheel bearing service covers cleaning, inspection, repacking, and seal replacement on trailer and towable hubs, plus race and bear
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Vehicles you run
Vehicle
Utility Trucks
Utility trucks carry a compartmented service body loaded with tools, parts, and frequently a crane, and the compartments are where
Vehicle
Shuttle Buses
Shuttle buses put a coach body on a cutaway van or truck chassis, and the joint between them is the weak point. Entry step damage,
Vehicle
Cargo Vans
Cargo vans on Transit, ProMaster, Express, and Sprinter platforms carry trade tools, parts inventory, and route freight. Rear door
Vehicle
Utility Trailers
A utility trailer is an open deck on a welded frame with fenders, a ramp gate, and lighting, and it fails through deck rot, frame
Vehicle
Enclosed Cargo Trailers
An enclosed cargo trailer is screwed aluminum skin over a tube frame with a one-piece roof and a rear ramp or barn doors. Roof edg
Vehicle
Flatbed Trucks
Flatbed trucks carry unprotected loads on an open deck, so the deck, headboard, rub rails, and stake pockets take the damage rathe
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Questions
Frequently asked questions
When is the best time to send parks vehicles in for body work?
January through March. Camps, aquatics, league play and community programs put every shuttle van and utility truck on the road from June through August, so a unit sent in during your peak is competing against your own calendar. Late winter is the only stretch where a parks fleet has slack in it, and it is also the stretch where a body shop is not stacked up with summer collision work from the freeways.
Can you service our equipment trailers as well as the trucks?
Yes. Trailer brake, axle, bearing repack, hub and coupler service are in scope, along with frame welding, fender repair and deck work. On a mower trailer that has never had a hub opened, the grease stopped being grease several summers ago and the bearing is running on whatever is left. That is the most commonly deferred item on a parks fleet and the one most likely to strand a crew on a grade.
Our van decals are peeling. Do we need a full wrap?
Usually not. Edge lift is a UV failure and it accelerates once the edge has opened, but the fix is reproducing the layout, not rewrapping an entire vehicle. On schemes no longer available as printed vinyl, which is most of them after a few years, we reproduce the graphics in paint. That is more labor than vinyl and it holds up considerably better under Southern California sun.
Is it worth repairing a fifteen year old utility truck at all?
Sometimes the answer is no, and we will say so rather than write an estimate. Sometimes the answer is that the headache rack and the bed floor get rebuilt and the faded paint stays faded, because paint is not what will take that truck out of service. We price structural work and cosmetic work separately so the decision belongs to you and it gets made on real numbers.
Do you take a purchase order for a small job?
Yes. We accept purchase orders regardless of size, put the PO number on every document, and provide a W-9, a certificate of insurance and an itemized estimate broken out by labor operation and part. Note that our deposit policy is 50 percent on jobs over $2,000 and 25 percent at parts arrival. How that interacts with your purchase order is worth settling at intake rather than at pickup.
Tell us what you run and what happened to it.