Despite that re-subscription rates to remote diagnostic services tend to be low following their initial trial period, Truck Centers of Arkansas Director of Customer Retention Kenneth Calhoun called them a “no-brainer.”
Speaking at the CCJ Symposium in Asheville, N.C., Tuesday, Calhoun says fleets often are overwhelmed by the amount of data diagnostics provide, but notes they can, on average, speed diagnostic times by 70 percent and repair times by more than 20 percent.
In calculating the return-on-investment for remote diagnostics, Calhous says it’s important that fleets look at expenses in their maintenance department for over the road failures, including tow expenses, aftertreatment repairs and coolant problems, which account for one-third of major engine repairs.
“[Especially] with aftertreatment, the longer you wait to make the repair the more expensive it will be,” he says. “If you were warned, this failure doesn’t have to be that drastic.”
Also when calculating ROI, Calhoun says fleets should you look at lost utilization, dispatcher record, the ability to catch a simple problem before its catastrophic.
“That’s not money we have the ability to measure because we haven’t spent it,” he adds.
