Volvo Trucks Debuts ‘Fuelwatch’ for Fleets to Chart Performance
By Howard S. Abramson, Editorial Director
This story appears in the Oct. 27 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Volvo Trucks North America has launched a program to tap into the stream of data each of its trucks creates to help fleets measure their vehicles’ fuel efficiency performance.
The Fuelwatch program will allow carriers to measure the operation of each truck and compare it with the rest of its fleet, to other fleets in similar kinds of business or to all fleets around the nation running similar equipment.
At a press briefing at Volvo’s headquarters here earlier this month, Scott Kress, the company’s senior vice president for sales and marketing, said, “The main thing on [fleet executives’] minds these days is fuel economy and what it’s doing to their fleets.”
Kress said Volvo decided to “step beyond the hard product” and offer this new way for fleets to control their costs by making better use of their equipment. “We feel we have something that the competition may not be utilizing” in the data that its vehicles create and store.
When trucks are serviced, the data stored on them is electronically copied and sent to Volvo, which analyzes it and compares it with data coming from all its other customers.
Volvo began storing this information — which it calls logged vehicle data — with the introduction of its D12 engine in 1998, said Bill Dawson, senior vice president of customer satisfaction for VTNA.
Dawson said Volvo created the first database with that information in 2001. At the suggestion of one of its executives, the company realized that it could turn the data into a powerful research tool for customers, Dawson said.
By providing accurate performance measurements, the data allow fleet operators to compare results in order to identify drivers who are performing well above or below average. The data also can be used to determine if a fleet’s trucks are spec’d appropriately for the way they are used.
Fuelwatch also would make it easy to gauge the results of changes made to trucks, such as adding wide tires, by comparing over-the-road results with historical experience.
It measures idling time and the amount of time trucks spend in the highest-gear ranges, which are usually the most economical.
Fuel efficiency has been among the top three concerns of fleet operators for at least the past four years, said Seth Gruber, Volvo’s director of business solutions marketing, citing data from the American Trucking Research Institute. “Short term, it’s all about fuel management,” he said.
The first, rollout, phase of Fuelwatch is under way now, Gruber said. That means that the company is publicizing the program and training sales representatives to encourage its dealers to enlist fleets’ participation.
In the first quarter of 2009, Volvo will begin the driver development phase: encouraging drivers to adopt best practices for safe and efficient operations. This includes training instructors at large fleets and independent trainers to assist medium-sized fleets with 50 to 250 tractors. Smaller fleets will receive assistance from Volvo’s dealerships.
The third phase of Fuelwatch, set for the second half of 2009, will activate the full fuel-management service providing the full range of data to help fleets maximize fuel-efficiency of their operations.
Gruber said the basic Fuelwatch service will be free to Volvo’s customers, while fleets will be charged for more detailed analysis.
Kress said reducing idling time and encouraging drivers to maximize their miles in high gear can have a significant effect on a fleet’s fuel efficiency.
He said the value of a program such as Fuelwatch is obvious, since every 1% gain in fuel efficiency yields $850 to $950 per truck per year to fleets.
Volvo outlined the program late in the summer, and gave journalists a full briefing at VTNA headquarters on Oct. 15.
