Truck owners pay ‘big bucks’ for their mission-critical assets to keep their fleet-driven businesses running. Therefore, uptime is of paramount importance in trucking because it directly translates to productivity and ultimately profitability.
Speaking to Quarrying Africa, Werner du Toit, senior manager Uptime and Connected Services at Volvo Trucks South Africa, says every minute a truck is not operational (downtime) represents lost revenue and increased costs, making uptime essential for truck operators across sectors.
With that in mind, Volvo Trucks South Africa has launched its Volvo Uptime Centre, highlighting the company’s commitment to increasing customer uptime and profitability. Leveraging advances in telematics and connectivity, Volvo Uptime Centre uses vehicle data to remotely monitor critical components to help predict and prevent breakdowns from happening. In addition, remote software downloads maximise uptime by allowing some software updates to be downloaded remotely to the truck, thus reducing workshop visits.
“The Volvo Uptime Centre leverages connectivity and data analysis to transition from a reactive to a proactive service model, ensuring maximum vehicle availability and profitability for customers. The service is standard for all vehicles purchased with a service/maintenance contract. However, customers without a service contract on their vehicles can still make use of the Uptime Centre at a very reasonable fee,” explains Du Toit.
Five parameters
As part of the Uptime Centre’s predictive intervention, the team uses the truck’s in-built telematics gateway to monitor a truck’s critical components. According to Du Toit, five key components are monitored.
The first one is the air filter, which acts as the engine’s ‘lungs’, keeping harmful dirt and debris out while allowing sufficient clean air in for combustion. Keeping the truck’s air filter under watch ensures optimal engine performance and prevents expensive engine damage.
The combustion process in an engine, explains Du Toit, requires a precise mixture of air and fuel. A clogged or dirty filter restricts airflow, forcing the engine to work harder. This can result in diminished horsepower and overall sluggish performance.
“In addition, filter clogging has a direct negative impact on fuel consumption. When airflow is restricted, the engine’s computer may compensate by using more fuel to generate the same power, leading to decreased fuel efficiency and higher fuel costs,” says Du Toit.
The second parameter monitored is oil change intervals/mileage. Neglecting these intervals allows the oil to degrade and accumulate debris, which can lead to severe engine damage, costly repairs and operational downtime. Managing these intervals optimises service schedules and helps plan maintenance based on actual usage, reducing unnecessary factory visits.
“The third aspect that we monitor is clutch wear. For commercial vehicles, unexpected breakdowns due to clutch failure can lead to significant operational delays and financial losses. A proactive maintenance schedule based on wear monitoring allows for planned, efficient servicing,” explains Du Toit.
Brake pads are the fourth parameter monitored. By monitoring a truck’s brake pads, the Volvo Uptime Centre team can estimate the remaining life of the pads to help with planning replacements. Replacing just the pads is far less expensive than changing the pads together with other components such as rotors and callipers, which will likely be necessary if the pads are completely worn out.
The final component monitored is the Air Production Modulator (APM), the central control unit for the vehicle’s entire compressed air system, which is essential for the brakes, suspension and auxiliary equipment. Monitoring a truck’s APM is critical for safety, maintaining optimal braking performance, and ensuring overall system reliability to prevent unexpected breakdowns.
The APM ensures the independence and proper pressure levels of various air circuits – brakes, suspension, trailer and clutch, amongst others – using overflow and safety valves. Monitoring helps detect issues such as internal leaks or stuck valves before they cause a complete system failure.
Benefits and successes
The primary goal of the Volvo Uptime Centre is to minimise unexpected stops and keep customer vehicles operating as much as possible. By preventing breakdowns, productivity is increased and operations become more profitable.
“By continuously monitoring critical components, the Uptime Centre’s specialists can detect potential issues early and schedule preventive maintenance, often combining it with existing service visits to reduce factory visits,” explains Du Toit.
With the right support, about 80% of expected breakdowns can be avoided or at least mitigated through proactive measures. “The primary benefit of the Volvo Uptime Centre is the ability to predict and prevent unplanned downtime by using real-time vehicle data and remote diagnostics. Within a short space of time, the Volvo Uptime Centre has recorded major successes. To provide context, between January and September this year, we have avoided a total of 432 breakdowns,” concludes Du Toit.
