Ryan Bethell built RDI Power by keeping other people’s fleets running, working from a service truck before he had a shop. RDI Fleet, the company’s fleet program, grew out of that work, and it still runs on the same idea: the best breakdown is the one a scheduled visit caught in the yard. For operations around Doctor Phillips, technicians come out from Brooksville and do most of that work where your trucks park.
From Doctor Phillips citrus groves to a Sand Lake Road freight corridor
Doctor Phillips is named for Dr. Philip Phillips, a citrus grower who owned thousands of acres of Central Florida groves and pioneered orange juice processing and packaging. The groves are long gone. In their place is a community of 12,328 people counted in 2020, up from 10,981 in 2010, sitting on Sand Lake Road where it begins at Apopka-Vineland Road and runs toward the attractions.
The freight side sits just east. MetroPlan Orlando identifies the area where John Young Parkway meets I-4 and Sand Lake Road as having intensive freight clusters and high truck shares. With I-4 and the Beachline both close by, a truck based in this corner of Orange County may log stop-and-go time on Sand Lake Road and highway miles in the same shift.
Building a Doctor Phillips plan around your operation
RDI Fleet plans start with how your trucks actually work. The first conversation covers:
- Units. Year, make, engine, mileage or hours, and the job each truck does.
- Duty cycle. A van making surface-road deliveries along Sand Lake Road wears differently from a tractor on the Beachline, and the intervals should show it.
- Budget. What breakdowns cost you now, and what you would rather spend on planned work.
- Calendar. When trucks can come out of service, and when each unit’s annual DOT inspection is due.
From those answers we set intervals by miles, engine hours or calendar time for each class, beginning with the factory schedule and adjusting as inspections show how each truck is holding up.
Preventive maintenance at a Doctor Phillips yard
Most routine work can happen where the trucks park. A yard visit covers the routine items: fresh oil and filters, fuel filter changes with the separator drained, the intake and air filter, coolant and the rubber around it, brakes measured and air brakes adjusted, tire condition, the front end, battery and alternator tests, aftertreatment checks and a code scan. If a repair can be done well on site, it often is. If not, it goes on the schedule for the Brooksville shop, where fleet accounts get priority.
Our preventive maintenance page explains each service item in more detail.
Mixed fleets in Doctor Phillips: vans, box trucks and tractors
If your fleet runs more than one kind of vehicle, a single plan can cover all of them. Diesel Sprinter vans and pickups get light duty intervals. Box trucks and other medium duty units get schedules that count idle hours. Tractors on the Beachline and I-4 lean on mileage, with tires and alignment watched closely. Trailers and buses fit too. For van-heavy fleets, our Sprinter van service page covers what those units need.
Starting a Doctor Phillips plan and its inspection calendar
Getting started does not require a perfect spreadsheet. We talk through your units and how they work, a technician walks the yard and records each vehicle’s details and condition, and anything that should not wait gets flagged on day 1. Intervals follow from that inventory, and you get a calendar of what is due.
Annual DOT inspections are built into that calendar. The federal threshold is 10,001 lb GVWR for vehicles in interstate commerce. Those units need an annual inspection, a copy of the report on file for 14 months, and a driver who still does a proper pre-trip. Booking the annual on the same day as PM means the truck leaves service once instead of twice. Our DOT inspections page explains what the inspector looks at.
Reports and warranty for Doctor Phillips accounts
A digital vehicle inspection follows each Doctor Phillips visit, truck by truck, with photos of the findings and notes on the work. You see a worn brake lining the way the technician saw it, before you approve anything. Over a year, those inspections turn into a service history per unit, which makes it far easier to budget and to decide when a truck should be replaced.
Fleet repairs on Doctor Phillips units are warrantied for 24,000 miles or 2 years, and roadside help is available at any hour.
Our RDI Fleet maintenance page explains how the program runs end to end. For the industrial ZIP to the east, see Oak Ridge fleet maintenance. Call (352) 433-3800 and tell us how your trucks work.