Keeping Food Moving: Reducing Maintenance Headaches Across Your Network
Webinar Details
Thursday, July 9, 2026
2:00 – 3:00 pm ET
Webinar Description
Food distributors are under constant pressure to deliver on-time, safely, and compliantly while managing aging equipment, labor shortages, and rising maintenance costs. Refrigeration failures, trailer downtime, and inconsistent service processes don’t just impact assets, they disrupt customer relationships, menu availability, and food safety. In this informative panel discussion, PLM maintenance and operations leaders share practical insights into how food distributors can simplify maintenance management, reduce unplanned downtime, and gain better visibility across their refrigerated fleet without adding internal complexity. Rather than focusing on products, the discussion centers on real maintenance challenges faced by distributors and how a managed, data-driven approach can help teams stay ahead of breakdowns, audits, and service disruptions.
Key Takeaways:
Join this webinar to learn how food distributors can:
- Reduce unplanned trailer and refrigeration downtime.
- Improve food safety and compliance through proactive maintenance strategies.
- Gain greater visibility into fleet, reefer, and cold chain asset performance.
- Streamline vendor management, service coordination, and maintenance tracking.
- Lower maintenance costs while protecting customer service levels.
- Determine when a managed maintenance program can help reduce administrative burden and improve operational efficiency.
Speakers
Joe Fanelli
Director, Connected Services & Maintenance
Joe Fanelli, PLM Fleet Maintenance Director, has developed and led maintenance strategy and execution since 2018 for the nation’s largest refrigerated fleet. With deep hands-on experience in cold-chain asset management, Joe focuses on reducing downtime, controlling costs, and extending asset life through proactive, reliability-driven maintenance practices. Joe led the team to bring to life the PLMServiceCode, a QR code on the side of every PLM Fleet trailer that streamlines repair requests and tracking to completion. A results-oriented leader skilled at motivating across multiple functions, Joe has extensive experience in asset management, equipment remarketing and LEAN Six Sigma Quality.
George Albright
Director, Operational Excellence – Maintenance
As a transformative operations leader with 17+ years of experience in the commercial fleet industry, George Albright is an experienced leader in fleet and maintenance operations, known for driving reliability, efficiency, and continuous improvement across complex asset environments. He brings a practical, results-focused approach to solving operational challenges and keeping fleets running at peak performance.
Whether it’s developing comprehensive fleet electrification strategies, implementing data-driven decision frameworks, or leading cross-functional teams through complex transformations, George develops and implements strategies to create measurable business impact for PLM’s customer.
Don Durm
Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions
Don Durm is a 30-year veteran of the temperature-controlled supply chain and one of the industry’s most recognized authorities on refrigerated transport strategy, FSMA regulatory compliance, and supply chain technology. As Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions at PLM Fleet, the nation’s largest technology-driven refrigerated fleet, Don advises global manufacturers, distributors, logistics providers, and regulatory bodies on optimizing cold chain operations and food safety. He is a 2024 Food Logistics Lifetime Achievement Award winner and a five-time Rock Star of the Supply Chain honoree, recognized for advancing efficiency, visibility, and compliance across the global cold food chain. Don has supported national and international projects including Operation Warp Speed and has testified before the U.S. Joint House/Senate Agriculture Committee on building a more resilient food supply chain. He is a sought-after speaker known for delivering practical, high-impact insights that blend regulatory expertise, technology strategy, and real-world operational experience.