What Is Aftercare? The Importance of a Good Ground Handling Equipment Aftercare Strategy

Many factors can cause ground handling equipment downtime on a day-to-day basis, including maintenance needs, neglecting servicing requirements and general delays in acquiring necessary replacement GSE parts. That's where ground handling equipment aftercare comes into play. What is aftercare? It's a catch-all term that describes the attention airports and ground handling operations managers must pay to equipment after purchase to keep them in good working condition. To learn more about how good aftercare can enhance your ground handling operations and prevent costly downtime, keep reading.

As mentioned, different forms of ground handling equipment will require different preventive maintenance needs based on specific recommendations from the manufacturer. Here at Tronair, all of our GSE comes complete with comprehensive maintenance schedules that help ground personnel ensure everything is working as it should. For example, it's recommended that aircraft towing and taxiing equipment be inspected at least once a week. Inspections include checking for bending, excessive wear, broken or damaged parts and more. In contrast, hydraulic servicing equipment must be separately inspected before each use, once a week and annually, checking and replacing specific components based on the inspection time.

Ground Handling Equipment Servicing

When it comes to successful ground handling operations, proper servicing of GSE is closely related to maintenance inspections. Just as an aircraft must be serviced accordingly with the right fluids that help it fly, ground handling equipment requires the same to help it run. If ground handling equipment isn't adequately serviced per manufacturer recommendations, it can quickly malfunction and lead to unnecessary downtime, maintenance and the need for replacement GSE parts.

Different types of ground handling equipment are designed to service specific fluids. As such, the aftercare varies for the type of equipment/fluid being serviced. Depending on the GSE, ground personnel may need to provide standard servicing of:

As with aftercare maintenance schedules, aftercare servicing schedules are typically provided by the manufacturer. Airports can utilize ground handling fleet telematics, like EBIS Aviation Cloud Solution, to keep track of servicing schedules and ensure ground personnel never miss a servicing date.

Replacement GSE Parts

Most ground personnel don't have any time to spare. So when breakdowns or malfunctions occur and replacement GSE parts are needed, it can throw a wrench into ground handling operations. Part of any good ground handling aftercare strategy includes understanding which GSE parts are commonly replaced and preparing accordingly to keep operations running without interruption.

GSE parts are not always readily available to airports. They first need to be sourced and shipped, which can be time-consuming depending on their availability. It's important to know whether or not your ground handling equipment manufacturer can supply the parts themselves or if you'll need to source them through other available methods. Many airports are forced to stock up on commonly replaced parts at the beginning of the year to avoid long periods of downtime when specific GSE parts malfunction.

This in and of itself can be challenging for some airports, as bulk ordering GSE parts can be an expensive process, even if it provides good returns in the long run. To avoid this headache, airports can purchase ground handling equipment from a manufacturer that offers a GSE parts commitment to their customers. The Tronair Ultimate Care plan will provide preventive maintenance GSE parts annually to help in an airport's aftercare strategy. This includes an annual delivery of GSE parts such as:

Utilizing a GSE parts commitment can help eliminate the hassle of ground handling equipment parts stocking and delays. In addition, it can give airlines and ground personnel the peace of mind that they won't need to source GSE parts when in a bind.