Fleet service by platform

Transit fleet maintenance, kept boring, at your yard

The Transit is the GTA's default work van for a reason: parts everywhere, easy to run, happy on gas. Its failure points are just as predictable, ignition wear on turbo engines, cooling that must be watched early, loaded-van brakes and hubs. I keep all of it boring, at your yard, on the published rate card.

Plugs, coolant, brakes and hubs, the four Transit money-savers, logged every visit.
The duty cycle

What actually wears on a working Transit

Turbo engines chew ignition partsHeavy

EcoBoost Transits run hot and boosted, and under load they wear spark plugs and coils faster than the sticker schedule assumes. A misfire under boost isn't just a shudder, it's unburned fuel cooking the catalytic converter. Plugs on a real severe-duty schedule are some of the best money a Transit fleet spends.

The cooling system deserves paranoiaHeavy

The known weak points on higher-mileage Transit engines are cooling-related, and the expensive failures all start as a cheap symptom: a slow coolant drop, a weep, a degas bottle that needs topping. I check coolant condition and level at every visit and treat any loss as a finding, not a footnote, that habit is what keeps a Transit fleet away from the big-ticket engine work.

Brakes and hubs carry the payloadModerate

A loaded Transit on city routes works its front brakes and hub bearings hard. Pads and rotors get measured and logged every visit; a humming hub gets caught at the yard while it's a one-hour job, not on a route while it's a tow.

Upfits quietly drain batteriesModerate

Shelving-package inverters, liftgates, telematics and chargers all pull on a battery that short urban runs never fully recharge. Every PM visit includes a battery and charging-system test per unit, the 5 a.m. no-start is almost always predictable a month early.

Recommended cadence: Evening or weekend yard days, weekly or biweekly by fleet size, severe-duty intervals, tracked per unit.
The schedule

A PM schedule built for this duty cycle

Honest, real-world intervals, the whole point of a program is that I track these per unit and just show up, so nothing slips.

ServiceTypical intervalWhy it matters on this duty
Synthetic oil & filter~8,000–10,000 km severe dutyLoaded stop-start duty is severe service on a gas turbo engine, on-time oil is the whole ballgame for turbo and timing-component life.
Coolant level & condition checkEvery PM visitThe Transit's expensive engine failures start as cheap coolant symptoms, a slow loss caught early is the best money this platform ever saves you.
Spark plugs & coil health (EcoBoost)Inspected from ~60,000 km, replaced early under loadBoosted engines under payload eat ignition parts; a misfire under boost cooks the catalytic converter, a tune-up is cheap, an exhaust job isn't.
Brake measurement (pads + rotors logged)Every PM visitPayload works the front brakes hard; logged wear turns brakes into planned pad jobs at fleet rates.
Transmission fluid exchange~60,000 km severe duty'Lifetime fluid' on a loaded van means the fluid decides the lifetime, heat is the killer and an exchange is cheap insurance.
Hub bearing & tire checkEvery PM visitA humming loaded hub is a one-hour yard job early and a tow later; tread and pressure logging keeps lease-return wear inside tolerance.

Intervals are experienced ballparks for planning, not a manufacturer warranty schedule, every fleet gets its exact plan at the free yard assessment.

How a Transit yard visit runs

  • Evening and weekend yard days, vans serviced while parked, ready for the morning roll-out
  • Full PM per unit: synthetic oil & filter, 50-point photo inspection, fluids, tires logged, battery and charging test
  • Coolant level and condition checked every visit, on a Transit, a slow loss is a finding, never a footnote
  • Plugs, coils and transmission services tracked per unit on severe-duty intervals, not on guesswork
  • Repairs found get a photo, a flat price, and your yes/no, approved work done the same visit at fleet rates
$129/gas vanFleet PM visit, oil + 50-point photo report ($169 diesel-Euro)
$45/vanSeasonal changeover on rims, torqued & logged
from $99/van/moPM program, records, priority, member rates
See the full published rate card →

The Transit's biggest strength for a fleet is that nothing about it is exotic, parts are everywhere, and almost everything it needs is standard work done on time. That's also the trap: because it never demands attention, oil stretches, plugs stay in an extra year, and the coolant nobody looked at becomes the engine job everybody remembers. The program exists so 'on time' actually happens per unit, automatically.

My honest read on the platform: watch the ignition and the cooling system, service the transmission on a real interval instead of 'lifetime' wishful thinking, and a gas Transit is about the lowest-drama way to move cargo in the GTA. All of that is yard work. When something genuinely isn't, deep internal engine or transmission surgery, you'll hear it from me straight, with the diagnosis done, before anyone's guessing at a shop counter.

Transit-heavy fleets are everywhere I work, trades, couriers, food distributors across the Pearson belt, Brampton, Etobicoke, Oakville and Milton. Evening yard days lock in weekly or biweekly, per the published rate card.

The compliance piece, straight: Ontario requires commercial operators to run a documented preventive-maintenance program with records, and most vehicles over 4,500 kg need an annual inspection that only a DriveON-licensed centre can issue. My per-unit reports are that paper trail, and I’m honest about the certificate part, details in the inspection guide and the documented-PM guide.
Straight answers

FAQ

Our Transits are EcoBoost, anything special to know?
Two things. Plugs and coils wear faster under boosted load than the maintenance guide assumes, so I put them on a severe-duty schedule per unit, a misfire under boost cooks catalytic converters, which turns a cheap tune-up into an expensive exhaust job. And the cooling system gets checked every single visit, because on these engines the expensive failures all announce themselves early as cheap symptoms.
Do you service the transmission, or is 'lifetime fluid' real?
I service them. 'Lifetime' fluid on a loaded work van means the fluid's lifetime, decided by heat. A fluid exchange on a real interval is cheap insurance on the single most expensive component after the engine, and on a fleet, transmission behaviour gets noted per unit at every visit so a flare or harsh shift gets investigated while it's still a fluid-and-filter conversation.
Can you keep records for lease returns and warranty arguments?
Yes, that's half the product. Every unit gets a per-visit digital condition report with photos, measurements and everything serviced, stamped and stored. At lease return or in a warranty dispute, a documented on-schedule history is the difference between a conversation and a bill.
Get your fleet number

Price your Transits, then send the spec to Fares

Two steps, both on this page. The estimator runs off the published per-unit rate card, you don't have to book a call to get a number.

From the published rate card

Multi-unit estimate

Per unit and fleet total, off the same card everyone else gets. Flat prices, no tax line.

$129
per unit, per PM visit
8 units · per PM visit$1032

Flat prices from the published rate card (updated 2026-07-18), no tax line, no hourly.

Free yard assessment, zero commitment Flat per-unit price in writing before any work One mechanic, not a call centre
Rather just send it? The message is already written, it lands in the app he actually reads.
Text Fares your fleet spec

Hi Fares, fleet inquiry from your Transit fleets page. We run [how many] Transits out of a yard in [city]. Need: [PM / brakes / tires]. Can you do a yard visit, and what's the per-unit price?

Text anytime, he reads them between jobs. Or call 647-450-0406.