Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/936627
commercial carrier journal | february 2018 57 "Now, we get an email notification when the soot level gets to a critical level and can call the driver and get ac- tion taken before a de-rate takes place." Mages says remote diagnostics allows Dart Transit to see trends, and frequen- cy of occurrences, so the fleet can share that data with its drivers. "Before, we didn't realize that some of our drivers didn't know the procedure for a parked re-gen, but now they do," he says. at's a much deeper level of in- formation than a dash light alone can provide, Tapp says. "e older trucks will just turn on a light, and they don't give you any kind of information in a dash display to say 'is in an ABS code' or 'is is a low-pressure code,' " he says. "ey just turn on a light and say 'Hey, you've got a problem, but you never know how serious that problem is until you get it checked out." By using remote diagnostics, PacLease is able to plan for service times and repair minor issues on the road, Tapp says. "If a driver leaves his dipstick cap loose, this will turn on a 'check engine' light," he says. "By knowing the code generated, we can communicate with the driver and give the driver sev- eral things to check without having to schedule the unit into a shop and creat- ing an out-of-service incident." PacLease also has installed tire pressure monitoring systems on select rental units, giving the driver the ability to check tires at-will and secure a tire repair at a planned time. "It also speeds the unit though the PM cycle, giving more uptime for the user," Tapp says. "Having all of this information allows us to iden- tify units that could benefit from unit-specific customization of PM schedules and also identify a particu- lar customer that could benefit from additional system-specific operation- al training." Remote diagnostics – primarily the deploy- ment of Kenworth's TruckTech+ – have helped give Eagan, Minn.-based Dart Transit more insight into driver behavior.