With intelligent connectivity on the upswing in the trucking industry, Mercedes-Benz Trucks, part of Daimler Trucks and Buses Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd, has introduced another innovation in its telematics offerings. Called Mercedes-Benz Uptime, the product adds further benefit in the digitized world of efficient trucking by significantly increasing vehicle availability.
Mercedes-Benz Uptime operates via fully automatic telediagnosis which continuously checks the status of the vehicle in real time, allowing critical conditions to be detected at an early stage. If maintenance and repair requirements are identified, the customer’s Mercedes-Benz service partner will inform the customer and provide the necessary support.
What this does is reduce significantly breakdowns and other unplanned downtime. It also allows fault patterns to be pinpointed and clear recommendations to be made, designed to ensure maximum vehicle availability. Planned workshop visits can also be combined for greater efficiency, improving vehicle scheduling and fleet availability.
In many instances, a failure to carry out maintenance in a timely manner can increase wear to the vehicle and result in damage or a breakdown. To prevent this, Mercedes-Benz Uptime provides customers with timely information and concrete instructions via the customer portal on necessary repair measures for the truck which can easily be carried out by the customers themselves, thereby avoiding unnecessary workshop visits and repair costs. These include, for example, manual regeneration of the diesel particulate filter or replenishing the operating fluids such as AdBlue and coolant.
Any repair and maintenance requirements detected at an early stage are automatically reported to the customer’s selected Mercedes-Benz Service Partner. Based on this information, the Service Partner bundles the pending repair and maintenance tasks and contacts the customer to make an appointment, optimally tailored to the customer’s schedule and maintenance requirements.
Real-time transparency on the condition of a vehicle allows the workshop to prepare for the visit, ordering the required parts in good time, scheduling workshop capacity and drawing up the repair order. The workshop visit and associated downtime are minimised as a result.
If a truck is in acute danger of breaking down, the customer is immediately informed by the Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Centre (CAC). If an immediate repair is required, the CAC will help arrange a workshop appointment that is optimally tailored to the vehicle’s route and transport assignment. The CAC will first check that the resources are available at the workshop so that the vehicle can be repaired straight away. The result: the customer can avoid a potential breakdown, the truck is repaired quickly and the transport assignment can be carried out on schedule.
Mercedes-Benz Uptime works through a special customer portal. It provides a complete overview of the overall status of the vehicle in real time; all current messages from Mercedes-Benz Uptime are displayed in a clear format. If, in addition to Mercedes-Benz Uptime, a customer uses Fleetboard, relevant information is also displayed in the Fleetboard cockpit along with the current services offered by Fleetboard.
There is no doubt that eliminating your Downtime and ensuring your Uptime carries huge benefits. Ask Billy Joel. He got the Uptime Girl. CLICK HERE.