Planned versus unplanned maintenance
Fleet360 Work Orders accommodate two kinds of maintenance work: work that was planned in advance and work that arises reactively. Understanding the distinction helps you record work accurately, keep PM interval tracking meaningful, and interpret the cost and history data that builds up over time.
Planned maintenance
Planned maintenance is scheduled in advance based on time intervals, odometer readings, engine hours, or inspection cycles. In Fleet360, planned work appears in the asset context panel before the Work Order is opened:
PM Due — preventive maintenance items that have reached or exceeded their service interval for the asset. These are triggered automatically based on the asset's meter readings and configured PM schedules.
Planned — work that has been queued for the asset but not yet assigned to a Work Order. This may include deferred items or work identified in a previous inspection.
When you open a Work Order for an asset, the asset context panel shows the PM Due and Planned lists. You can add items from either list directly to the Work Order as jobs.
Unplanned maintenance
Unplanned maintenance is reactive work — a breakdown, a defect found during inspection, a driver report, or any repair that was not scheduled in advance. Unplanned jobs are added to the Work Order on the fly as the need becomes apparent.
A common scenario: a technician begins a scheduled PM job and finds a brake issue that was not planned. The PM job is planned work; the brake repair is unplanned. Both can live on the same Work Order.
Why both types can coexist on one Work Order
Combining planned and unplanned jobs on a single Work Order is intentional. When an asset is already in the shop for a PM, adding discovered repair work to the same Work Order avoids a second shop visit and keeps all maintenance costs for that event in one record.
The job type and repair code on each individual job — not the Work Order — is how planned versus unplanned work is distinguished in reports and cost analysis. A job typed as "PM" or using a cause code like "Scheduled PM" is recognized as planned. A job typed as a repair category with a different cause code is recognized as unplanned.
How this affects PM interval tracking
Completing a PM job on a Work Order and closing the Work Order triggers the reset of the PM interval counter for that asset. If the PM job is not closed — for example, if a technician closes the Work Order without marking the PM job complete — the interval counter does not reset and the PM Due item continues to appear for the asset.
Accurate job closure is the mechanism by which Fleet360 knows the maintenance was performed.