Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh): A truck driver with a logistics company, receives a message that his vehicle is nearing a breakdown failure and he should visit the nearest service station. However, he is on his way to deliver an important assignment and the vehicle is moving in fine condition. He moves on as he knows if he delays the delivery it may cause him trouble. Ultimately, in about two hours, the driver completes the delivery but his vehicle breaks down.
The message was from an Eicher truck dealership to inform him about the possible failure in the vehicle, which was gauged by domain experts at the company’s plant in Pithampur.
Eicher Trucks & Buses, a business unit of VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), offers its vehicles equipped with telematics solutions since April 2020. To maximize the fleet uptime and provide real time guidance to the technicians at its networks, Eicher established its Uptime Centre in 2020 at its oldest manufacturing facility in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The company’s entire range of trucks and buses are connected to this Centre and it offers 24X7 service support along with remote diagnostics.
Under Eicher Uptime 1.0 Services, experts at the Centre’s control room are equipped to remotely monitor vehicles being attended at Eicher’s Uptime Certified workshops across the country. With this, they can provide assistance to customers during a breakdown, support them to resolve mechanical and electrical issues, and assist them during parts and ancillary related query.
Eicher Uptime 2.0
With three years of operations, Eicher’s Uptime database has now collated vehicle data in abundance. Analysing this based on the vehicle behaviour, the domain experts are now able to arrive on probable failures for any of its trucks running on the roads or standing for repairs in the workshops. This is usually followed by suggesting service plans.
However, things didn’t flow as easy as it sounds. Such predictive diagnostics came with several false cases reported in the initial years. Over time, as the database is increasing and with machine learning (ML), the company says about 90% of its predictive diagnostics turn out to be correct now.
“Telematics is a powerful tool. We have a lot of data and the everyday use cases offer endless possibilities to improve vehicle safety and customer experience. We are focused on two things- reaching the vehicle’s location within 4 hours of its breakdown and a faster turnaround in fixing the vehicles which report to the workshops. With telematics, we have been able to improve this and deliver about 98% uptime,” Ramesh Rajagopal, EVP & Head- Customer Services & Network Strategy, VECV, said.
The system is integrated with Eicher’s dealership and workshop network, comprising over 800 touchpoints. These include sales and service outlets, on-site support locations, parts retailers, and trained technicians across all the major highways of the country.
The company said its diagnostic experts are equipped to communicate in regional languages including English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. It has also retrofitted some BS-IV vehicles with telematics solutions, but it won’t be feasible for BS-III vehicles.
The Uptime support system is in addition to the 24×7 Eicher On-Road Service (EOS) to provide highway assistance across the country.
Connectivity and control
The live telematics data is used via analytical rule engine to predict faults. Based on the time to failure and cost to repair, the company instructs the vehicle operator on the severity of the impact.
A “Stop Now” instruction is given in cases where the predictive diagnostics reveals that immediate intervention is required to prevent vehicle break down in order to avoid incremental repair costs and high downtime. this may include cases where engine is overheated, engine oil pressure is low, DPF 100% choke, or fuel injector is short.
“Visit Soon” is asked when the vehicle reflects an issue and a service intervention is required but it is not on an immediate basis. This includes SCR dosing failure, DPF soot load is about 90%, issues related to exhaust temperature or ACM actuator supply.
“DIY” is for the issues that can be rectified by the customer with assistance from experts. For instance, when DEF tank is empty, engine is overrun, giving water in fuel alert.
The automaker is working on a “Crash Alert” service, to provide timely support to the customers in case of an accident. For this, it is also looking to work with the NHAI for emergency services on highways.
According to Rajagopal, the telematics installed in the trucks, which may run in remote areas and unmapped roads, require a 2G connectivity which is easily available in most areas of the country. At places with no network zones, the data gets stored in real-time but is only available to the Uptime Centre once the vehicle is back in the network area.
“In case our database shows a vehicle is stranded for more than four hours without any connectivity with the Uptime Centre, we then contact the respective dealership for the possible cause,” he said.
The automaker has a dealership and workshop network with over 800 touchpoints including the sales and service outlets, on-site support locations, parts retailers, and trained technicians. “Based on the vehicle data available, we have mapped the highways and routes where our trucks run. Accordingly, we are planning to open new service networks in those regions. We will be expanding in the East region.”
The company has also launched the My Eicher app for easy accessibility to the vehicle data for fleet management.
