GLEN ALLEN, VA --(Marketwired - September 27, 2016) - Decisiv, Inc., the leading provider of Service Relationship Management (SRM) solutions for commercial assets announced today that more than 250 registered attendees for its "Going From Good To Great, Fleet Maintenance Today and Tomorrow" webinar had the opportunity to learn how OEMs, outsource providers and fleets are looking to turn maintenance operations into a competitive advantage.
"With the ongoing technician shortage and trucks becoming more complex, there are changes taking place in the types of maintenance offerings available to fleets," said Michael Riemer, VP Product & Channel Marketing at Decisiv. "No matter where an asset is serviced, fleets need to ensure that their supply chain has access to in-context information at the point of service from internal asset management systems, manufacturers, dealers and service providers, as well as telematics solutions.
"Going forward fleets must replace reactive, manual, phone and email intensive, and disconnected systems with strategic, knowledge driven, real-time communication," Riemer continued. "A service relationship management platform enables fleets to reduce TCO, improve uptime and make service and repair event management processes a competitive differentiator."
Participants at Decisiv's "Going From Good To Great, Fleet Maintenance Today and Tomorrow" webinar heard how OEMs are providing enhanced service offerings, how fleets are using a variety of technologies and provider services, and how a variety of outsourced maintenance solutions improve maintenance practices that drive uptime.
"We have found $1,000 to be an average cost of one day of downtime and that the average service event takes four days," related Dave Albert, Director, Fleet Solutions and Channel Management at Volvo Group North America. "Our research has also shown the average time for a repair involves just 3.5 hours of actual wrench turning time. This is a huge industry issue so we are taking action to eliminate this major cause of non-essential downtime."
Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks, Albert reported, are working in several ways to get ahead of potential problems, prevent unplanned stops and drive uptime for fleet customers. "With Mack GuardDog Connect and Volvo Remote Diagnostics, agents in our Uptime Center monitor key fault codes that can take a truck down," Albert said. "By knowing the severity of the fault code and where the truck is located, we can check parts availability and send repair instructions to a fleet or dealer prior to the vehicle arriving to cut down diagnostic and actual repair time."
The Uptime Center houses Mack OneCall and Volvo Action Service personnel along with experts in other disciplines all in one location. The centralized facility enables a better understanding the extent of an issue and provides transparency and visibility into service events.
"Our ASIST platform developed by Decisiv helps eliminate unproductive time that is spent on things like phone tag, listening to voice mails, etc.," Albert said. "The key benefit is it keeps everyone from the fleet's maintenance personnel to the dealer and our Uptime Center, and many times the driver, on the same page.
"The result has been a reduction in average diagnostic time of 71% and average repair time by 25%, while average uptime improved by one day per event," Albert reported. "The key is to get the truck fixed correctly and back on the road quickly so there's increased uptime for the customer, increased throughput for the dealer and increased customer satisfaction for Mack and Volvo."
Albert also provided details on Certified Uptime Centers, select dealerships that help further reduce downtime. The facilities offer "quick repair" bays to handle repairs that will take less than four hours based on Mack GuardDog Connect or Volvo Remote Diagnostics data or a rapid assessment by a trained technician.
Jason Plumlee, Director of Maintenance at Saia LTL Freight, said a major challenge for the for-hire LTL carrier is managing multiple vendor technologies and processes for over 20,000 assets based in 11 maintenance regions at more than 148 terminals in 34 states. Saia, which has 34 company shops, employs 400 maintenance personnel in its operation.
"Our initiative is to perform as much maintenance in-house as possible, but without a shop at every terminal we outsource some work," Plumlee related. "The challenge is in managing many vendors across a large network and addressing issues of inconsistent quality and pricing, estimates and invoices, and ensuring we're taking advantage of warranty opportunities.
"We also want to reduce phone calls and data entry into our TMW fleet maintenance software," Plumlee stated. "We need a solution for external service that we can use to communicate with vendors, receive documents, streamline processes and retain updated, VMRS-coded service information electronically to eliminate paper, duplicate data entry and ensure visibility."
With the Decisiv SRM platform and its custom API interfaces, Plumlee reported, Saia is reducing administrative hours. "Decisiv was already working with Ryder MMC, Volvo, TMW and FleetNet to drive external service requests through its platform," Plumlee added, "and they are looking to expand their integrations to include Freightliner and Navistar, and Vnomics, our telematics provider, so our maintenance personnel can utilize real-time dashboards in one cloud-based solution. They are fulfilling our vision to reduce the need for multiple portals, eliminate paper and get the right information to the right person at the right time."
Don Kelley, Executive Vice President Sales & Operations at VehiCare, a fleet maintenance provider with a network of over 200 locations, began with key questions fleets should be asking. Included were whether maintenance is a core competency of your company and if having your own shop perform maintenance consumes capital, management and other resources that may be better utilized in your core business. In addition, fleets should ask whether more complex regulations mean exposure that goes beyond financial penalties, and if attracting and retaining skilled fleet maintenance technicians is challenging.
National providers of outsourced maintenance services have proven consistent processes that improve asset reliability and lower TCO, Kelley noted. "Outsourcing maintenance leverages the core competency of maintenance industry specialists to lower total cost of ownership and maximize utilization of assets," he said.
As an example, Kelley related the experience of AB InBev, a distributor network with an in-house maintenance operation that first tested outsourcing with VehiCare in 2013, and has since expanded the practice to almost all of its U.S. locations.
"Using quality measures, AB InBev saw some of its highest scores at managed locations," Kelley stated. "In their case, outsourcing provided actionable KPI data to proactively manage fleet costs and freed up management time to focus on their core business by reducing their administrative burden by going from thousands of individual vendors to one provider. They also realized improved access to capital.
"Most fleets don't have a firm grasp of their maintenance costs," Kelley added. "Real time data has real value. It drives costs down so fleet maintenance can provide a competitive cost and service advantage."
At the conclusion of the "Going From Good To Great, Fleet Maintenance Today and Tomorrow" webinar, attendees received a recording, speaker contact information and copies of presentations. CLICK HERE to learn more.
About Decisiv, Inc. Founded in 2001 and based in Glen Allen, Virginia, Decisiv is the world's leading provider of Service Relationship Management (SRM) solutions for commercial assets in trucking and transportation, coach, construction, power generation, and other on- and off-highway, heavy-duty equipment markets. Decisiv's cloud-based software, mobile applications and services enable enterprises, government entities, leasing and rental companies and service providers to more effectively manage, monitor and report on service and repair event interactions independent of asset type, service provider or device. In the North American market, 1,200 fleets with 500,000 assets and more than 3,000 service providers and thousands of roadside service and tow providers are using the Decisiv SRM platform to perform more than 350,000 inspections and manage over 2 million service events per year. For additional information, visit www.decisiv.com .
