Heavy Duty Trucking, April 2019

codes primarily in after the fact analysis of vehicle maintenance and performance But he believes that soon VMRS codes component sensors and telematics systems will combine to create a revolutionary world of real time edge analytic capabilities for fleet managers Lets say a fleet today says it knows based on VMRS codes that it can expect water pump failures on certain truck models in its fleet at 300000 miles says Orban But consider for a moment that a mile isnt always just a mile A mile on a flat stretch of Nebraska interstate is very different from a mile spent in heavy Chicago traffic or climbing a mountain in the hot Arizona desert And as any fleet manager knows those operational parameters matter A lot But up until now its been impossible for fleets to measure collect and crunch that information Using VMRS codes Orban says soon fleets will be able to drill down on vehicle operations to the point where cargo weight how its distributed in the trailer driver behavior weather and other critical factors will tie in with VMRS codes to create reliable data on the future health and behavior of the vehicle He says fleet managers will soon be able to spec specific vehicles for specific routes or geographic areas down to the component level while coaching drivers in real time on how to best operate in those environments while offering detailed route and application specific maintenance programs and procedures for those vehicles all based on VMRS codes This is the next level in fleet operations and maintenance Orban says Right now were seeing fleets coaching drivers on safety and fuel economy Soon theyll be talking them about how to handle vehicles correctly on specific routes Moreover Orban thinks OEMs will be the biggest proponents of using VMRS codes to collect data and use it on this level We always think about specing the perfect truck from a fleets point of view he says But OEMs dont want their trucks driven hard and failing either Because that costs them money on warranty work Soon Orban predicts fleet managers will use VMRS code data to sit down with dealers and OEM engineers to customize vehicle specs in ways that have never been possible before Specs will evolve from a VMRS CODES HDT APRIL 2019 60 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM tomize my reports Golden explains I can isolate virtually any aspect or component in our operations and get reports It helps us control our costs both from an operational point of view are the tires were running holding up the way we need them to for example But it also helps us control costs internally Is my department being charged for an accident Was that accident due to a component failure Or was the truck in good running order and the accident happened due to circumstances beyond our control I can use that data to prove thats the case and prove Im not liable for that cost internally Its a very powerful tool that saves us a lot of time and money in our operations The rise of edge analytics VMRS is going to become even more powerful in the future says Chris Orban vice president data science for Trimble Up to now most fleets have used VMRS PHOTO JIM PARK