Modern Road Haulage Trucks Gain Cost Benefits from Cloud Based Telematics

US – Volvo Trucks has turned to the clouds with the latest innovation for its range of freight and heavy haulage vehicles introducing fleet management services provided by Telogis, a leading provider of cloud-based location intelligence software. The company says road haulage outfits can now avoid the costs traditionally associated with purchase and installation costs as the integrated connected vehicle hardware, is now standard on new Volvo-powered Volvo trucks, allowing motor carriers to utilise Telogis’ best-in-class Fleet, Compliance and Navigation applications.

Information delivered through the Telogis platform enables hauliers to act upon it to control costs, increase safety and hours-of-service compliance, improve customer service and enhance operations, spurring Göran Nyberg, President, Volvo Trucks North American Sales & Marketing, to comment:

“We’re pleased to collaborate with Telogis to deliver tremendous value to motor carriers seeking flexibility and the robust information needed to fine-tune their operations. Leveraging the connectivity of our vehicles to facilitate fleet management services represents a breakthrough for fleet managers, who are no longer captive to hardware. As part of our long-term strategic focus, we’ll look toward further integration of our vehicles with best-in-class fleet management solutions.”

Volvo Trucks and Telogis will offer three fleet management packages, all of which are currently available for order. Telogis Fleet for Volvo Trucks, Telogis Compliance and Navigation for Volvo Trucks and a bundled option that provides the full suite of services offered in the Fleet and Compliance and Navigation packages. Telogis services are enhanced by the addition of Volvo-specific vehicle data, providing fleet managers and operators with an inside look at driver/vehicle performance and history. The services will be available during the third quarter of 2014 for the more than 60,000 Volvo trucks already equipped with Volvo’s connected vehicle hardware. The three suites operate as follows.

For-hire and private fleets can eliminate paper logs and more easily manage and meet federal, state and local mandates with hours-of-service, Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIR) and more with Telogis Compliance. Coupled with Compliance is Telogis Navigation that delivers truck-specific, real-time road conditions and community-based navigation updates that help to maximise uptime and improve on-time arrivals. Through the built in hardware operators can activate Telogis Fleet services over the air, delivering a reliable, scalable and comprehensive fleet management solution. Fleets gain insights to help improve operations, asset utilisation and driver safety. Customers also benefit from viewing their entire fleet of vehicles and assets on one dashboard for all their trucks.

Susan Heystee, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Telogis says that the modern fleet manager needs to more effectively manage safety, productivity and costs making telematics, compliance and navigation software a ‘must have’ as opposed as just a nice option as previously. Additionally Remote Diagnostics, standard hardware on all Volvo-powered Volvo Trucks built for the US and Canada, has demonstrated a marked improvement in repair accuracy and efficiency, reducing the average diagnostic time at a service location by up to 70% and lowering the average time of repair by more than 20%.

The service also helps improve parts availability and provides technicians at the repairing dealer with easy-to-read repair instructions before the truck arrives for service. Remote Diagnostics also facilitates service case communication and documentation among Volvo Action Service, dealers and customers through ASIST, Volvo’s web-based service management tool.