Project Summary
Transaid recently carried out a Fleet Maintenance Review for the Department of Health in Tete Province, Mozambique. This study allowed Transaid to follow up work undertaken in 2007. Both reviews were requested and funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).
In the original study Transaid created a fleet inventory for the province, provided an assessment of the condition of vehicles, evaluated systems used to manage transport and maintain the fleet, and reviewed the transport policies that underpin these procedures. The study found the systems to be very weak and made a series of recommendations for improvement.
In order to follow up progress made by the Department of Health, Transaid conducted the second assessment. The review was led by Mick Whelan, a senior mechanical engineer from Royal Mail.
The Problem
The Department of Health in Tete Province holds the responsibility to deliver health services across 82,625 square kilometres (equivalent in size to England and Wales, or the size to its neighbouring country, Malawi.) Around 1.6 million people live in the province, although the population is sparsely distributed. These characteristics, added to the bad quality of many rural roads, complicate the provision of health services especially when vehicles are old or badly maintained. As a result of poor fleet management and a lack of fleet maintenance policies, the number of health vehicles available is rapidly decreasing.
Transaid’s evaluation provides an overview of the transport related problems, and makes recommendations as to how these can be resolved through improved management and maintenance systems, and thereby improving health service delivery across the province.
The Process
Transaid was requested to undertake the following tasks:
• Develop a plan for the development and implementation of an overall comprehensive transport management system
• Update the fleet inventory information established by the previous Transaid study
• Assess options for the maintenance and servicing of Ministry of Health vehicles including outsourcing to a competent workshop facility.
• Create a cost-effective and prioritised refurbishment plan to for the fleet within a defined budget to ensure optimum performance.
• Identify a short-term plan to be undertaken following the study and before implementation of overall transport management system
• Translate key documents from English to Portuguese.
To complete this task the Transaid team met with senior Department of Health officials and head of administration to gain an overview of the problem. The team then spent time with the head of transport and his team discussing systems and procedures, viewing records and inspecting vehicles in for repair at the Department of Health’s workshop. The team carried out an assessment of private workshop facilities that are used or could be used for out-sourced repair and maintenance.
Transaid presented a summary report and recommendations to the Department of Health’s Board and transport team and produced a final set of recommendations for DANIDA and the Director of the Department of Health.
Partners
The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), The Department of Health for Tete Province, Royal Mail.
The Results
The final report emphasised that while some improvements had been made since Transaid’s first study in 2007, the core recommendations had been not been implemented due to a lack of technical skills and resources. In the meantime the provincial fleet had continued to deteriorate. This is having a severe impact on the department’s capacity to deliver health services.
The key recommendation for short term improvement is for the Department to reduce the fleet size by disposing of the vehicles that are in very poor condition and requiring extensive repair to keep them on the road. It was recommended that the money saved through this exercise should be invested in routine preventative maintenance procedures. Planned preventive maintenance must become the priority activity for fleet management.
In addition, for sustaining this improvement and developing the most cost efficient fleet, the Transaid team reverted to the core recommendation of the first review, which was to introduce a simple information based transport management system (TMS) that uses key performance indicators derived from the routine monitor of vehicle use. This TMS, and the training for implementing it, has had proven success in a number of countries (please read more about Transaid’s past projects in South Africa and Ghana).
The report has been well received by DANIDA who commissioned the review. We are hopeful that the Provincial Director of Health will accept the recommendations. Transaid is ready to support their implementation.
