SAN DIEGO – Navistar announced several new OnCommand Connection remote diagnostics features at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exhibition.

OnCommand Connection was introduced at the ATA event a year ago. Mike Cerilli, vice president and general manager, OnCommand Connection, pointed out that there are roughly 2 billion connected devices out there, and there are expected to be 8 billion globally in five years. The telematics industry is currently a $10.5 billion industry; it's expected to be $25 billion by 2017.

"We define this in a way that is all about uptime," he said. "With our all-makes open architecture remote diagnostics solution, we're bringing connectivity to life in a results-oriented, bottom-line way.

Cerilli said a fleet customer recently experienced a 28% reduction in down days and a 31% reduction in repairs by leveraging the vehicle health reports and repair recommendation data provided by the OnCommand Connection system. "And we're just getting started with new feature development."

Beginning in November, Navistar will roll out new feature enhancements for its OnCommand Connection offering.

1. A mobile app available through Apple or Android. For larger customers, a tech might be checking a truck out in the yard and want to see fault codes on a certain unit. The could do that through the app. For a smaller customer, who may be the head of operations and the head of maintenance and doesn't have staff on call overnight, they could view fault code information at home, on the go or over the weekend.

2. Customized geo-fencing capabilities that enable customers to filter their dashboards into geographic zones. For instance, you might want a geofence drawn around each of your fleet maintenance facilities so if a truck throws a code while it's already at that terminal, you can get it in and get it fixed before it leaves.

3. Direct integration with major component suppliers, beginning with Cummins. Integration with Cummins Connected Diagnostics will provide customers with the option of viewing Cummins recommendations via the OnCommand Connection portal. "We feel the way to succeed in this space is rapid integration," Cerilli said.