Fleet Maintenance - 14

» This diagram shows an example of how
connected vehicles communicate with fleets.
Image courtesy of Spireon

arm of Daimler Trucks North America's (DTNA)
Detroit Diesel.
"Today's connected vehicle broadcasts a variety
of data such as engine hours, braking severity, load
factor, and transmission top gear time that helps
fleets understand how vehicles are being operated, identify trends across the fleet and determine
which serviceable parts or systems they would
like to develop a solution for," Krajewski says.
"Fleet service managers can utilize telematics
data to determine when a unit is not being operated optimally and can use that information to
help encourage good driving behaviors or identify trends that are negatively impacting service
intervals. If a service manager finds a driver is not
utilizing adaptive cruise control as much as they
could, they will also see an increase in the wear
on brake pads which will result in more frequent
brake service."
In cases such as these, the data provided by the
connected vehicle can help the fleet monitor both
driver behavior and vehicle maintenance.

Remote diagnostics

Where safety monitoring typically uses cameras
and different types of sensors, diagnostic information is largely generated by vehicle systems
themselves. System data, including any diagnostic
trouble codes (DTCs), can be constantly streamed,
depending on the fleet's desired reporting requirements. This data is transmitted via cellular
connection, with many OEMs offering communication technologies as a specification when fleets
order new vehicles.
For example, Ford's Leverton says integrated
telematics modem technology is available across
Ford's entire lineup of commercial vehicles starting with the 2020 model year.
From the vehicle, data is typically uploaded to

14 Fleet Maintenance | October 2019

» Bendix vehicles demonstrate vehicleto-vehicle connectivity and platooning
capabilities on a test track.
Photo courtesy of Bendix

the cloud where it can be accessed by the fleet.
Once the fleet has access to remote diagnostics
data from each vehicle, it can have a tremendous
impact on the fleet's maintenance operation. For
example, if a vehicle system has an issue which
generates a DTC, that data is immediately sent
back to the fleet to alert the proper authority that
the vehicle requires service.
But Bendix's Molin says that is just the beginning. Having the DTC codes available remotely
- almost instantaneously - allows for proactive maintenance. For example, if an alert comes
in that a truck has a system warning, the fleet
manager can look at past trends with that system
on other trucks in the fleet and estimate how
many miles the driver can safely continue without a system failure. If the truck can be routed to
a repair facility near its next scheduled stop, an
appointment can be made in advance. The truck
can be repaired while the driver takes a mandatory rest period, and both can be back on the road
with practically no time lost.
The type of proactive repair Molin describes can
save a truck from having to make an unscheduled stop, or worse - being stranded on the side of
the road with a system failure. But where reactive

maintenance is good and proactive maintenance
is better, predictive and prescriptive maintenance
practices are best. Over time, fleets can learn to
predict system failures before they happen and
prescribe recommended actions, eliminating
unexpected downtime.
"[We're] moving from a fix-as-fail to a fix-as-notified mentality, thus saving costly breakdowns and
increasing utilization while moving to a virtually
proactive schedule-based maintenance program,"
says Gerry Mead, executive director of innovation for Phillips Industries. "Utilizing machine
learning to provide prescriptive maintenance
solutions allows for a better upfront total cost of
ownership benchmark when making a purchasing
and specification decision."
Phillips Industries is a manufacturer of electrical and air brake system components, as well
as electronic solutions for communicating vehicle
data to fleets and their drivers for the commercial
truck and trailer industry.
For proactive, predictive, and prescriptive
maintenance to truly work, fleets must properly
manage the seemingly overwhelming amounts
of data each vehicle can provide.
"Using telematics data to evaluate a fleet's
performance might seem straightforward, but
with the amount of data collected from the vehicles it can be time-consuming to gather and sort
through all the information," Detroit Connect's
Krajewski says. "Fleets are beginning to see the

Fleet Maintenance

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