Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/303000
24 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | MAY 2014 V olvo President Goran Nyberg said the company's 2014 engines are getting higher fuel economy than the com- pany originally expected, besting their 2013 counterparts by 3 percent, rather than the 2 percent Volvo predicted. At MATS, Nyberg also gave updates on the company's I-Shift automated manual transmission, Volvo's remote diag- nostics platform and alternative fuel-powered trucks. Volvo expects U.S. Class 8 orders in the year to be about 250,000 trucks, and the company will ramp up capacity at its plant in Dublin, Va., in anticipation of stronger sales, Nyberg said. The better-than-expected fuel economy of its engines should save about $650 a year per truck over comparable engines, Nyberg said. "Fuel efficiency remains top-of-mind across the indus- try, but there's no one-size-fits-all solution that will deliver massive improvements," Nyberg said. "Every drop counts. Carriers ignoring opportunities for incremental fuel efficien- cy gains are leaving money on the table." When integrated with its I-Shift transmission, even better fuel efficiency can be recognized, Nyberg said. I-Shift, he said, has "become the brains of the truck," using information about load, road conditions and more to decide how to gear itself and directing the engine on the right rpm and torque level. Nyberg said 87 percent of the trucks the company sold in 2013 were equipped with a Volvo engine, and 69 percent of its 2013 sales included the I-Shift. The company also has sold 25,000 trucks equipped with its Remote Diagnostics telematics system that so far has led to a 70 percent reduction in diagnostic time and a 22 percent reduction in repair time, Nyberg said. Volvo last year unveiled a new alt-fuel option for the North American market – dimethyl ether. Volvo's Frank Bio said the company has four test trucks operating on DME and expects to have two more in operation by the end of the year. It also has several DME-powered trucks it's testing internally. N avistar is concentrating on technologies to maximize vehicle uptime while offering customers more options and control, executives said at MATS. The offerings – OnCommand Connection, Diamond Log- ic and fully automatic and automated manual transmissions – are designed to make vehicles more fuel-efficient, safer, capable and productive. "The future is about converting unplanned downtime into scheduled maintenance and getting trucks back on the road where they are earning revenue," said Bill Kozek, president of North America Truck and Parts for Navistar. By supporting quicker repairs and controlling maintenance and repair costs, the OnCommand Connection remote diagnos- tics system is designed to increase uptime and other efficiencies. The company is using OnCommand Connection with Omnitracs, PeopleNet, Teletrac, Vnomics, Geotab, XRS Corp., CyntrX and Pedigree Technologies, which provide telematics services to a majority of truck fleet customers. A dashboard of capabilities for customers includes the ability to view action steps as well as the location of vehicles requiring attention on a map in proximity to service locations. Navistar also has the ability to monitor all vehicle makes at varying levels of detail to support fleets with a blend of makes and models. The company also is testing a mobile website and app to make diagnostics accessible to fleet managers anywhere. The OnCom- mand Connection currently supports more than 30,000 vehicles and provides access to real-time fault codes, vehicle locations and nearby dealer locations within an online portal. Volvo touts improved fuel economy, I-Shift Navistar fine-tuning its uptime technologies Navistar is using OnCommand Connection, its remote diagnostics sys- tem, with several technology vendors to provide telematics services to a majority of its fleet customers. Volvo expects U.S. Class 8 orders in 2014 to be about 250,000 trucks, and the company will ramp up capacity at its plant in Dublin, Va.