Advanced telematics
Volvo Construction Equipment helps customers greatly reduce the time commitment and data analysis associated with telematics with ActiveCare Direct, which provides 24/7/365 active machine monitoring, plus fleet utilization and machine health reporting directly from the OEM and in partnership with its dealers.
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| Volvo Construction Equipment helps customers greatly reduce the time commitment and data analysis associated with telematics with ActiveCare Direct, which provides 24/7/365 active machine monitoring, plus fleet utilization and machine health reporting directly from the OEM and in partnership with its dealers. |
ActiveCare Direct (ACD) is an advanced monitoring and reporting service overseen by a team of data analysts at the company’s Uptime Center in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. The platform provides simplified insights and actionable recommendations that can save customers time and money.
How it works
ActiveCare Direct captures thousands of machine data points through the Volvo CareTrack telematics system. With many telematics programs, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of fault codes, many of which don’t require immediate action. But ACD monitors those codes, prioritizes them, and communicates any necessary action clearly and concisely to the customer and dealer.
Remote analysis provides the opportunity to catch problems before they occur, schedule service more efficiently, make fewer trips to the job site and ultimately increase uptime and reduce costs for the customer.
The system generates a comprehensive report for the machine owner, highlighting areas of opportunity to increase productivity and reduce operating costs. It includes data such as percentage of work time versus idle time by individual machine, machine type, and month; average gallons of fuel used per hour; instances of potential machine abuse; and hours until the next service.
“One of the best opportunities for a fleet manager to positively impact their bottom line is to use insights gained from telematics reports to make more informed decisions,” says Jim Bretz, director of Service & Solutions at Volvo CE. “By offering this on an OEM level, we’re able to leverage all our technical support knowledge — our parts department and our engineering teams — which gives this program added value. And with the local support and expertise of our dealers, customers get additional peace of mind.”
Results that speak for themselves
ActiveCare Direct has made measurable improvements in Volvo’s ability to anticipate machine problems before they occur, as well as in technical response time and resolution speed. Very few ACD-monitored units ever become critical machine-down cases.
“We are committed to being the No. 1 uptime provider in the industry,” says Bretz. “That’s why, in addition to producing durable machines, we provide services that prove to our customers our relentless commitment to machine uptime.”
Volvo CE continues to find more data points that can be used to improve diagnostic times and parts availability. The team also communicates with other Volvo Group subsidiaries like Volvo Trucks to identify synergies related to connected technologies.
ActiveCare Direct is available free of charge for the first year following the purchase of an eligible machine.
AEMP 2.0
Volvo CE now offers AEMP 2.0 API for customers as well. This application programming interface (API) is an industry standard enabling customers to retrieve telematics data from their machines and integrate it into their own systems for a customized way to collect and evaluate data.
“We understand that rental customers often have unique data needs,” says Bretz. “That’s why we’re working on new APIs tailored toward our rental customers, allowing them to efficiently manage machines and share data with their renters.”
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