Mack Trucks continues to expand its extensive suite of uptime services with the rollout of Mack® Over The Air. Mack Over The Air enables remote software updates for powertrain components and vehicle parameters for Mack trucks equipped with Mack 2017 or newer engines.
Mack gave an update of this rollout at the American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) annual meeting March 5–8 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta.
“Mack Over The Air enables customers to ensure their trucks are operating at an optimal level without disrupting their schedules in today’s hypercompetitive just-in-time economy,” said David Pardue, vice president of connected vehicles and uptime services for Mack Trucks. “This is just the latest step in our journey to provide industry-leading uptime for our customers.”
Mack Over the Air is the newest offering in Mack Connect, an uptime and productivity solution that turns data from trucks, drivers and the service process into insights to help customers run their businesses more effectively. Mack Connect combines technology like Mack GuardDog® Connect integrated telematics and the Mack ASIST service management system with the human expertise of Mack OneCall™ uptime agents in Mack’s 24/7 Uptime Center to keep customer trucks where they should be – on the job generating revenue.
Mack Over The Air is powered by GuardDog Connect, which also provides proactive monitoring and repair planning for 65,000 in-service Mack trucks. Mack Over The Air uses GuardDog Connect, standard on all Mack models with Mack engines, to deliver software and parameter updates directly to customers’ trucks. Mack OneCall uptime agents in Mack’s 24/7 Uptime Center work with customers to schedule the updates based on when it works best for their operations.
Since going live in October 2017, 20 customers and about 3,500 vehicles have benefited from Mack Over The Air. Mack has performed more than 380 updates, saving customers more than 500 days of downtime and decreasing the time needed to do a software update from days to minutes.
Mack customer Brooklyn Ready Mix in Brooklyn, New York, updated engine and aftertreatment software on all 10 of the company’s concrete mixers during a single day. Updates were completed as the trucks were in between jobs or at the depot being refilled, allowing the concrete supplier to continue regular operations while optimizing the performance of its trucks.
“The Mack Over The Air program is fantastic because it greatly reduced the time we typically spend on software updates,” said Manny Paradiso, plant supervisor for Brooklyn Ready Mix. “Sometimes it would take us up to four days. These updates allowed us to complete them in about a half-hour’s time. That’s a huge difference and enables us to better keep our trucks onsite, doing what they need to do to get the job done.”
Mack Over The Air is provided at no charge during the initial two-year base engine warranty, with customers having the option to extend the service after two years. Mack Over The Air is also included with Mack’s extended engine coverage plans. New uptime contract subscriptions include Over The Air features, including two customer-initiated parameter updates per vehicle per year.
Mack Over The Air is just one of several recent investments Mack has made in technology, resources and services to improve uptime for customers. Those investments also include a more than 50 percent increase in Mack OneCall staffing in Mack’s Uptime Center in Greensboro, North Carolina; over $2.5 million invested in technology for improved vehicle data and analytics; monitoring triple the number of codes on trucks; and introducing mobile communication capabilities for uptime services via the app for Mack ASIST, Mack’s web-based service management system.
Another valuable part of Mack’s uptime offerings are 117 Mack Certified Uptime Centers – dealer shops that have met stringent requirements to better improve service and help keep customers’ trucks up and running. By routing vehicles needing shorter repairs to reserved “uptime bays,” Certified Uptime Centers have been able to streamline their processes, resulting in a 24 percent improvement in shop efficiency and a 21 percent reduction in repair times.
For more information, please visit your local Mack dealer or Mack booth No. 1321 at TMC.
Mack Trucks continues to expand its extensive suite of uptime services with the rollout of Mack ® Over The Air. Mack Over The Air enables emote software updates for powertrain components and vehicle parameters for Mack trucks equipped with Mack 2017 or newer engines.
Dedicated to durability, reliability and meeting the needs of customers, Mack Trucks has provided purpose-built transportation solutions for more than a century. Today, Mack is one of North America’s largest producers of heavy-duty trucks, and Mack® trucks are sold and serviced through an extensive distribution network in more than 45 countries. Mack trucks, diesel engines and transmissions sold in North America are assembled in the United States. Mack manufacturing locations are certified to the internationally recognized ISO 9001 standard for quality, ISO 14001 standard for environmental management systems and OHSAS 18001 standard for health and safety management systems. Mack is also a proud sponsor of Share the Road, an American Trucking Associations’ public information campaign aimed at enhancing the safety of our nation’s roadways.
Mack Trucks is part of the Volvo Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses, construction equipment and marine and industrial engines. The Group also provides complete solutions for financing and service. The Volvo Group, with its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, employs about 95,000 people, has production facilities in 18 countries and sells its products in more than 190 markets. In 2016, the Volvo Group’s net sales amounted to about $33 billion. The Volvo Group is a publicly-held company. Volvo shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
