Navistar Touts Its Devotion to 'Uptime,' Offers Bendix Wingman Fusion Option
Company executives obsessively hammered at the word “uptime” to demonstrate their commitment to deliver on a key objective for truck buyers.
Michael Cancelliere, a company senior vice president, said the Lisle, Illinois-based manufacturer defines uptime as maximizing the amount of time between repairs and minimizing the amount of time to make a repair.
“Regardless of the repair, we want it done quickly and efficiently,” Cancelliere said at the March 25 session.
The company’s top tool for the project is its OnCommand Connection system linking trucks, drivers, fleets and Navistar. It is an open-architecture system, meaning it can use any of 11 major telematics vendors, companies that create software to transmit data from onboard sensors to useful information for people.
.@navistartrucks discusses uptime and success of OnCommand Connection. #mats2015. @TransportTopics pic.twitter.com/D1m7vhAlor
— Neil Abt_TT (@NeilAbt) March 25, 2015
OnCommand is now standard on all new International brand trucks made by Navistar.
For fleets that do not already use telematics, Navistar is offering a telematics credit starting in July that fleets can use for either hardware purchases or a data plan.
In other developments, the company said it is offering the new Bendix Wingman Fusion system as an option. It is available for trucks ordered now and production starts in May.
Fusion was announced earlier the same day by Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems and uses data from a camera and radar to assist in safer braking.
Wingman Fusion will be available first on the International ProStar sleeper. The ProStar day cab and LoneStar models will follow later this year.
Navistar, the main operating company of Navistar International Corp., did not unveil a new truck at MATS, but it did display its ProStar ES (efficiency spec for better fuel economy), which was first released in December.
The company also said it will offer propane as an alternative fuel to be used in its IC school buses.
Bill Kozek, president of the truck and parts businesses, said he expects industrywide sales to grow sharply this year, with improvement in all major industry sectors.
