What if OEMs could stay in touch with their products over the years, checking in with a truck's onboard data collector, say, once or twice a year?

For one thing, OEMs could better administer warranty programs. For another, historic databases developed over time could help guide engineering, administration and even basic business strategies.
What if makers of components, such as engines, transmissions or suspensions, could do the same? The implications would be no less dramatic for them.
Of course, a truck owner has the most to gain from on-board performance data. That's why remote monitoring of onboard truck computers grows more popular all the time. Most mobile communications companies now offer services that monitor truck performance. Some provide scheduled data downloads; some provide instant (or close to it) notification when certain parameters are crossed -- speed or hard braking, for example.
Now, what if there were a single onboard source for all three audiences, with the expense shared as well as the data?
That's roughly what Nexiq Technologies, of Manchester, N.H., has in mind for a product it will launch at the October American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition in Nashville. The product is called eTechnician.
Nexiq is a relatively new name for the company that markets Pro-Link hand-held diagnostic tools among other fleet technology products. Pro-Link products were introduced by Nexiq's predecessor, MPSI (Micro Processor Systems Inc.), a name still attached to a number of Nexiq products -- including eTechnician.
According to Nexiq Chairman and CEO John Allard, eTechnician builds on established technology, what he calls "facilities-based" diagnostics. Nexiq, he said, is moving those facilities-based diagnostics from the shop floor to the truck.
Allard said eTechnician will consist of a module to extract data from the truck’s onboard electronics. A second module will transfer that data to whatever mobile communications system -- Qualcomm, etc. -- the customer uses. The third component is the data analysis and presentation eTechnician provides as an ASP (Application Service Provider).
“The information coming back from the truck is processed by the eTechnician server,” Allard explained. “We capture it in a database and we present it to the customer in an HTML page.”
In this case, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) refers to a web page.
Of course, other systems can retrieve data. Nexiq’s eTechnician is different, said Allard, because it can correlate data from different truck components, hundreds of data points on a vehicle’s electronic databus. The system can monitor and even reconfigure those parameters remotely, making it possible to change settings while a truck is on the road. It also makes it possible for shops to know in advance the nature of a problem coming in off the road.
And eTechnician can provide different pieces of truck performance data to different audiences, including an OEM, component manufacturer, leasing company, truck dealer and, of course, the truck’s operator.
According to Allard, eTechnician’s principle onboard component will cost approximately $500 in a new truck, but that cost could be defrayed by entities, say the OEM or component makers, who want access to certain data over a period of time. Annual, monthly and per-use fees could be similarly prorated for different audiences. Of course, participating interests would only have access to the specific data that pertained to them.
Allard said eTechnician will initially be available as an option through certain OEMs, but it will have its greatest impact on the truck industry if and when it becomes a standard item on all big trucks.