NASHVILLE, TN. Volvo Trucks made a number of announcements this week at the Technology and Maintenance Council annual meeting including the announcement of agreements with Telogis and Trimble to design fleet management and location intelligence services.
The memorandums of agreement (MOA) with both companies will result in a collaborative business arrangement that will give Volvo truck owners the chance to “optimize the performance of their fleets,” Volvo said.
“Our agreements with Telogis and Trimble will enable us to continue to expand our connected vehicle services offerings,” said David Pardue, Volvo Trucks vice president of aftermarket business development. “Volvo was the first OEM to offer a telematics solution to the market, and we are now the first to work with the industry’s leading fleet management solutions providers. These agreements extend our telematics capabilities so that customers have the option to select a fleet management service that leverages Volvo’s integrated connected vehicle platform.”
The agreements will strengthen Volvo’s Connected Vehicle Services category of Volvo Trucks Support Services, the company pointed out. Volvo Trucks Support Services is a one-stop shop for service, parts and operations information.
Fleet management services offer fleet managers critical information such as location, fuel economy and vehicle and driver performance data for all trucks in a fleet. This information can be utilized by the fleets to control costs, increase safety, improve customer service and enhance operations.
As part of its continuing goal of increasing service, Volvo also announced its Volvo Uptime Protection Plan. Under the plan, a credit will be issued for qualifying repairs that cannot be completed within 24 hours.
Customers registered with Volvo Uptime Protection Plan are reimbursed $100 a day for each day up to five for each warrantable engine repair that is not completed within 24 hours from the time of diagnosis. Reimbursements will be offered to the customer on a Volvo debit card that can be used at any Volvo Trucks dealership toward the payment of service, parts or accessories.
“Our customers need their trucks up and running and our dealers need their customers to be satisfied,” said Pardue. “Both are critical to their respective bottom lines. The introduction of Volvo’s Uptime Protection Plan not only proves Volvo’s commitment to uptime, but it also shows that we unequivocally stand behind the quality of our products.”
In addition, Volvo is now leveraging geo-fence technology to improve its Remote Diagnostics service. The company is also equipping all vehicles with a Quick Response (QR) code to further streamline service and repair activities.
“Geo-fencing and QR code technologies present an exciting opportunity to build on the capabilities of the connected vehicle platform we introduced last year with Remote Diagnostics,” said Pardue. “New and innovative technologies are opening the door for us to be even more proactive and offer services to expedite the repair process.”
Geo-fencing technology enhances Remote Diagnostics, which is now a standard feature on all Volvo-powered trucks, Volvo said.
The technology will help Volvo dealers and staff at Volvo’s Uptime Center better understand the repair process, determine the most efficient way to address a repair situation and measure time to completion of repair at the service facility.
Geo-fencing entails establishing a virtual perimeter determined by GPS coordinates around each of Volvo’s North American dealer locations. Volvo trucks equipped with Remote Diagnostics communicate with the geo-fence to identify each time the vehicle enters or leaves a Volvo dealer location.
The addition of QR codes will give technicians the ability to scan the code with a QR reader and retrieve detailed service records in ASIST.
