Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) is expanding the capabilities of its Volvo Blue Contract service offering to leverage the company’s proprietary artificial intelligence models to create adaptive maintenance programs.
“Adaptive maintenance is really an AI model that runs in the background that optimizes every planned event, ensuring that our customers take the most advantage of our connected vehicle and reducing [the number of maintenance] stops,” said Magnus Gustafson, vice president of connected services, VTNA, at the American Trucking Associations’ 2024 Management Conference & Exhibition. “Then we optimize that model through periodic oil sampling, ensuring that the trucks keep operating within their maintenance thresholds.”
And the Blue Contract service won’t just make service recommendations based on oil sampling. When routed through the Volvo Trucks Uptime Center, it will also use the connectivity within Volvo’s trucks to monitor fuel consumption and idle time to adjust service interval recommendations as needed. This includes updating a vehicle’s upcoming service requirements if it has endured unusually demanding conditions for an extended time, helping fleet managers keep a better eye on their assets and decrease over-maintenance on vehicles.
Read more: Volvo Trucks launches maintenance service to enhance uptime
“There have been substantial improvements in service intervals in our products over the years,” Gustafson continued. “We find that many fleets are over-maintaining their trucks, which can be costly. Applying AI to optimize maintenance intervals based on truck specs, operating conditions, and actual use ensures our customers can maximize the uptime of their Volvo trucks.”
Additional changes to the Blue Service contract include increased flexibility, allowing customers to choose specific services under their contract. Some examples include fuel filter changes, valve adjustments, pickup and delivery services, truck washes, DOT inspections, additional chassis lubes, and other add-on services. These customized services can be tailored to individual trucks. Volvo is also changing its service process standards so that Blue Contract services don’t end up waiting behind long repair jobs.
“It's really about simplifying the information that's coming off these trucks and turning it into actionable information, ensuring that trucks are at peak performance, and really demystifying what's going on [inside each vehicle],” Gustafson emphasized.
