New Dealer Tools from Volvo Help Fleets Optimize Specs, Maintenance

Leveraging the connectivity now aboard most Volvo trucks, Volvo Trucks North America is now offering two new services through its dealer network that can help optimize their truck specs and minimize maintenance-related downtime: the Volvo Connected Vehicle Analytics Tool and the Volvo Blue Service Contract.

Volvo’s Connected Vehicle Analytics Tool collects real-world data from fleet operations, enabling dealers to recommend ideal configurations for customers’ future new Class 8 truck purchases. This expanded visibility allows dealers to analyze a fleet’s needs. They can gain quantitative insights into how the fleet operates and what updates and changes can be made in the specifications to improve operations and total cost of ownership.

Data is provided on a wide range of information that can affect the fuel efficiency and productivity of a vehicle. These include specific route details (e.g., latitude and longitude for some stops and average speed), vehicle attributes (e.g., truck model, axle configuration) as well as daily routes, average speed, and fuel efficiency.

“CVA is a data-driven tool that allows our dealers to compare different powertrain specifications of 143,000 trucks that are running across the U.S. today,” said Duane Teagles, Volvo Trucks’ powertrain product marketing manager. “The tool allows our dealers to look at different specifications and look at real world data such as fuel economy, time in top gear, average weekly miles run, active and inactive faults, and also where these trucks are running.”

Dealers can also access an anonymized pool of vehicles to benchmark how their customer’s fleet is performing compared to other similarly spec’d vehicles.

Fleet operators interested in using the CVA tool to evaluate fleet performance, fuel efficiency and ideal vehicle configurations can work with their local sales representatives at Volvo Trucks dealerships throughout North America.

Volvo Blue Service Contract

Another asset Volvo dealers now have to help improve their customers’ bottom line is a managed service plan, which when paired with enhanced connectivity, covers all preventive maintenance. Volvo said its Blue service contract will help keep customers’ vehicles operating at peak efficiency and performance, with a focus on maximizing uptime.

“At the appointed dealership, the fleet maintenance manager is responsible for tracking the maintenance on the truck, the health of the truck, and scheduling services to be performed based on the real-time monitoring of the covered trucks,” explained Mike Furst, VTNA’s director of contract services and leasing technology solutions. “This is all done 30 days in advance of the predicted service date so the dealership can ensure parts and service technicians are available.”

Each PM interval includes an oil analysis and a 74-point inspection to identify any additional repairs that can be performed while the truck is in the workshop. The adaptive maintenance engine built into the Connected Vehicle Analytics Tool looks at fuel efficiency information, idle time, etc., and it's tailoring the drain interval, for example, based on fuel mileage over a prescribed period.

“Instead of scheduling based on a fixed time or mileage, it’s based on application of the truck and the operating conditions of the truck,” Furst said. “Since we know the operating conditions, we might recommend extending the interval from 45,000 miles to 60,000 miles. It also looks at what other maintenance items are coming due and what can be paired around the oil drain intervals, so the truck doesn't have to come into the shop multiple times.”

Included in the Volvo Blue service contract is customer access to the over-the-air Remote Diagnostics and Remote Programming suite throughout the duration of the contract. These services proactively identify anticipated breakdowns and send the vehicle’s diagnostic data automatically to the dealership or repair center before the truck arrives for its scheduled preferred service time. Through Remote Programming, customers also have access to the full suite of remote parameter and remote software update services, improving fleet uptime and efficiency.

With the Volvo Blue service contract, fixed service fees can be spread evenly throughout the chosen contract duration of 12 to 60 months. Customers may elect to be billed via bank draft (ACH), to their preferred account, or bundle with their loan or lease from Volvo Financial Services.

There are more than 400 certified Volvo Trucks dealerships and thousands of service locations across North America that are prepared to assist their local customers with the full-service coverage of the contract.

These new service options were introduced at the American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council 2023 Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition in Orlando, Florida.