By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter This story appears in the Oct. 7 print edition of Transport Topics.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Mack Trucks introduced its GuardDog Connect service package aimed at speeding truck repairs and averting unnecessary maintenance stops by enhancing communications between drivers, fleets and dealers.
The product uses telematics to connect vehicles, fleets’ offices and dealers’ repair sites. It will be standard equipment on 2015 model year Granite, Pinnacle and Titan models that are built after Jan. 2, 2014.
Mack rolled out the product at an Oct. 3 media event at its customer center here.
“GuardDog Connect is more about a service than it is about telematics,” said David Pardue, Mack’s vice president of aftermarket business development. “It expedites the decision-making process so the right decision is made about when and where a repair is done.”
Dave Albert, director of aftermarket solutions, said the enhanced communication will enable fleets to save one day or more of downtime.
The program identifies 30 key fault codes in engine and aftertreatment systems and communicates data to Mack’s customer service center, which is available around the clock. The fault information is relayed to a fleet using e-mail, phone or text messages at the fleet’s option and to dealers so that the proper parts are available to make repairs.
Having the parts available in advance saves time for the dealer whose staff doesn’t have to run full diagnostics to fix the truck, Pardue said.
“It’s about proactively enhancing the decision process, and it’s about driver peace of mind” because the product provides both expedited and accurate information to all parties, he said.
The product is available on trucks with Mack engines at no cost for two years. It will not be available on Mack equipment powered by Cummins engines.
Pardue said the product is differentiated by multiple factors from both competing truck makers and telematics providers’ equipment.
The communications technology is designed to provide only critical information and not swamp users with an overabundance of data they do not need, he said.
The differentiation also relates to Mack’s proprietary fault codes, which provide engine and aftertreatment information that aren’t accessible to telematics providers, Pardue said.
The 30 codes are divided into categories, with the most urgent being a condition that would bring the vehicle to an unplanned stop within three hours.
Extended warranty GuardDog Connect packages will be available for one to three years at a cost of $225 to $645 in the 2015 model year.
Mack also is making a retrofit kit available for equipment that is on the road now if it is equipped with the OBD-13 onboard diagnostic system.
Pardue also said the manufacturer in the future will consider extending the new service to other parts of the truck, such as transmissions.
