Getting started: Repairs in your shop

Axle helps you organize fleet maintenance, coordinate repairs, and keep records for your assets. This guide will help you get set up with everything you need to assign your first repair. You’ll also see how a technician records work and how you review it afterward.

The admin experience

Admins work in the "Admin" experience on Axle, where they can complete day-to-day flows for managing repair and maintenance for the fleet.

The tech experience

Technicians work in Axle's "Pocket Tech" platform, where they see their list of assigned repair orders, fill out repair orders with notes, parts, and labor lines, and submit to admins for review.

If you're an admin, you'll find your workspace already populated with demo data, to give you an idea for how things look in Axle. Click around to get a feel, then dive right in to the steps below!

1) Sign in and get familiar with Axle

Sign in

First, make sure you're signed into Axle. Visit app.axlemobility.com and enter your email and password. You may be asked to enter a one-time verification code sent to your email.

If this is your first time signing in, you'll be asked to set your password. Once you do that, you're ready to start using Axle!

Get familiar with the basics

Go to Fleet > Assets to see your list of assets at the current site. You'll be able to create work orders, create maintenance schedules, upload leases, etc. for each asset.

Go to Work > Intake to see all maintenance issues reported for assets at this site. In this guide, we'll walk you through the full flow of work on Axle, from creating a new work request to closing out the technician's repair order for that work.

2) Set up your account

Before you work on your first repair, make sure your account is set up with at least one site, one asset, and one technician. You can use the demo data already in your account, or add your real data and use that — in which case, follow the steps below!

Add your first real site to Axle

1. At the bottom of the sidebar, you'll see a gear icon.
2. Click into Settings > Sites > "Add site"  in the top right corner to add your first real site to Axle.
3. You'll fill out the site name, street address, and optionally, assign members to your site.

Once you've added the site, go to the site selector at the top of the sidebar to switch into that site.

Add your first real asset to Axle

1. Go to Fleet > Assets > "Add asset" in the top right corner to add your first real asset. When you enter the VIN, the make, model, and year will be auto-populated.
2. If applicable, add the asset ID, license plate, and nickname, and select which asset type and configuration it is.
3. Then click "Add asset"  to finish.

Add your first real technician to Axle

1. Go to Fleet > Technicians > "Add technician" to add your first real technician to Axle.
2. Fill out their first name, last name, email, and assign them to sites (including a default site).
3. They'll get an email invite to create their account and start doing work on Axle!

If you prefer to add a technician later, feel free to skip this step and use yourself as a technician. All admins have access to Pocket Tech and can work on repair orders there, just like techs.

3) Create and assign your first repair

Create a new work request

1. Go to Work > Intake > "New work request" in the top right corner.
2. Search for an existing asset from your Assets list to select it.
3. Select a state of the asset (safe, unsafe, grounded, or unknown), and then optionally, set a priority for the request.
4. Select a type for the work request — for this repair, select "Unscheduled".
5. Fill out the issue field below with a brief description, ie. "This truck has a broken marker light."
6. Click "Create work request."

You can view this work request in Intake > To action tab.

Create an internal ticket and repair order for the request

1. Open the work request you just created.
2. Click "Approve" and "Create internal ticket".
3. In the Activity tab, click on the internal ticket you just created labelled with a WT (work ticket) prefix.
4. Assign a technician (this can be yourself) and optionally, schedule the repair order. Then, click "Create repair order".

You can view this repair order in Repair orders > Open tab.

4) Complete your first repair

Find the repair order in Pocket Tech

1. In your sidebar, click on the wrench icon to open Pocket Tech, and find the repair order you were just assigned.
2. Click "Add a new section" to fill out the repair notes, and optionally, add parts used, labor lines, or photos and videos.
3. Click "Finish and review" to see a summary of the repair order, and then click "Submit repair order."

Review and close the repair order as an admin

1. Go to Work > Repair orders and search for the repair order the tech submitted (by asset, tech name, or repair note).
2. Review the repair details to ensure it looks good. You can request changes from the tech, or click the ellipses in the top right and "Edit repair order" to make any changes before closing it out.
3. Click "Complete repair order" to run VMRS analysis on the repair order.
4. Click "Close repair order" when it's ready to be closed out.

You can view this repair order in Repair orders > Closed tab.

Continue from here

Add the rest of your sites, assets, and technicians to start managing repairs on Axle. You can also create maintenance schedules for your assets to automate scheduled repairs (more in this guide).

If work needs to be done outside the shop, you can create external tickets for work requests and dispatch them to a service provider (more in this guide).

If you have any questions, feel free to email support@axlemobility.com and we'll help you out the same day!