Rod Chapman•6 Mar 2014

FEATURE

Feature: Scania Communicator gives fleets the edge

Scania's Communicator telematics unit is now a standard feature in all Scania trucks produced from February 2014

While it’s been in use in Europe for a few years now, Scania’s Communicator telematics unit has arrived Down Under – and the Swedish truck maker says it’s set to give Australian fleet operators a competitive edge.

At the intersection of telecommunications and informatics, telematics allows the transfer of information between a vehicle and a remote host. While the now ubiquitous GPS navigation system is perhaps the example of telematics that springs most readily to mind, Scania has been hard at work in recent years developing a system for its trucks that streamlines efficiency and boosts productivity, in turn improving a fleet operator’s bottom line.

SCANIA FLEET MANAGEMENT

While Scania initially adopted a unit developed by South African specialist Mix Telematics, more recently it’s produced its own in-house product, the Communicator, which is now part of its Scania Fleet Management system – advanced software that enables fleet operators to monitor numerous aspects of their fleet’s operation by computer, or even remotely via an associated Apple or Android smartphone app.

The good news for Australian fleet operators is that all Scania trucks produced from February 2014 will come fitted with a Communicator as standard, with Scania also offering a three-tier suite of packages within Scania Fleet Management to best meet individual users’ needs.

Scania says fleet operators should be able to activate their Communicator in conjunction with their chosen software package in April or May of 2014.

Scania Australia’s Managing Director, Roger McCarthy, says the Communicator is a very powerful fleet management tool.

“Scania is keen to help customers identify areas of their vehicle operations where they can improve productivity and efficiency,” he says.

“With the introduction of the Communicator telematics ‘black box’ as standard equipment in our fleet from February production, we will be allowing customers to take control of their fleet management at a new level.”

Scania Fleet Management can also harness data gleaned from the Scania Driver Support system, which examines how a driver actually performs on the road and identifies areas where improvements can be made.

“Improving driver performance can make a positive impact of up to 10 per cent in fuel use,” says McCarthy.

“This can be affected by identifying specific areas of driver activity, such as heavy braking or unnecessary idling.”

A CLOSER LOOK

So what exactly does this ‘box of tricks’ offer? Trucksales.com.au paid a visit to Scania Australia’s headquarters, in Campbellfield, Melbourne, to learn more. There we spoke with fleet management technical support specialist, Jason Grech.

The Communicator essentially records and reports on vehicle and driver performance and vehicle diagnostics, while also recording the truck’s location. It’s recording constantly but it updates the vehicle’s position at 10-minute intervals.

Grech says there is a variety of related software packages associated with the technology.

“Fleet operators who wish to take advantage of the Communicator can choose from three different packages that harness its benefits to different degrees,” he says.

“The Monitoring package is the basic one; Scania Australia is providing it free for four years and it provides fleet operators with 65 reports a year,” he says.

“It gives you a weekly report, a monthly summary report and a yearly summary report – the distance travelled, current odometer reading, fuel economy and driver scoring, where available.”

For fleet operators wanting more, the second-tier option is the Analysis package.

“This provides web-based reporting,” says Grech.

“Basically it gives you everything in the Monitoring package but you’ll also have the ability to pull your own reports out of the vehicle – performance trends, weights, and how the truck’s individual drivers have been performing if they have their individual key fobs.”

The key fob is essentially a magnetic ID tag that allows the truck to ‘recognise’ an individual driver and remember his or her details – and the truck’s performance with that particular driver behind the wheel.

“It means you can pull down the information per driver or per vehicle,” says Grech.

That leaves the full ‘bells and whistles’ tier – the Control package.

“The Control package has all the features of the Monitoring and Analysis packages, but it has additional tracking information, like fleet position, historical tracking, and geo fencing,” says Grech.

“With geo fencing, you can mark a location on the map so the vehicle’s entry and exit triggers an alert. So, if say you had a certain Bunnings site to which you were delivering, when the truck got close to that site and entered the geo-fence area an email would be sent to let the Bunnings staff know the truck was nearly there.

“You could also set up a geo fence to say that a vehicle wasn’t permitted to leave the state of Victoria – if indeed that happened, it would trigger an alert.”

AHEAD OF THE GAME

Grech says an important aspect of Scania’s system is vehicle diagnostics – the ability to highlight an issue or potential issue.

“Both the Analysis and Control packages have fault code reporting, so if the vehicle has, say, worn brake linings, low fuel, or it’s overheating – that sort of thing – it will send a message to the server that will send a message to the fleet operator’s computer screen,” he says.

“The messages come up at the fleet operator for a start, but if that fleet operator wants Scania to monitor it too then that’s something we can discuss with the client – it’s just a matter of the client giving us access to their vehicles’ data.”

In addition, Grech says Scania Australia will be adding Scania Remote Diagnostics to the Communicator’s repertoire around the end of 2014. This allows Scania Australia to remotely download a vehicle’s fault codes for detailed analysis, and it will be a feature of all three packages.

Following on from Scania Remote Diagnostics will be the introduction of Service Planning, which combines fault code reporting with planned maintenance. Already in use in Europe, Scania says this will help fleet operators keep track of maintenance and repairs.

The function allows drivers to compile their own fault report on the spot, also taking their own photos of the issue before the report is sent from the vehicle to the Scania workshop of the operator’s choice. It also helps with routine service scheduling and reduces vehicle downtime by identifying and addressing issues before they lead to in-service breakdowns.

It gives workshops an idea of the work to be carried out, too – allowing it to pre-order parts and minimise VOR (vehicle off road) time.

GROWING BASE

There are currently around 50,000 Scania trucks fitted with the Communicator in Europe – a number that’s growing week by week. The system has been trialled in prototype form here in Australia on 12 vehicles over the past year but, with it now included in each new Scania, its uptake is set to soar.

Incidentally, Grech says the Communicator can also be retro-fitted to certain pre-existing Scania models.

Scania spokesman Alexander Corne says the Communicator offers numerous benefits for wily fleet operators.

“It’s a bit different and it’s got a lot of potential,” he says of the technology.

“The fact that we’re offering it to the market at no extra cost in its basic format will, I think, also attract plenty of interest.”

Pricing for the Analysis and Control packages are yet to be announced.

Sadly, Corne says there are no plans at this stage to bring Scania’s Active Prediction technology to Australia.

“In Europe Active Prediction allows the vehicle to know or identify what sort of terrain is coming up so it can interact with the vehicle’s gearbox [to minimise fuel consumption],” he says.

“We of course have GPS here but we don’t have topographical maps, and we don’t yet know of any plans to map Australia in 3D – we don’t have enough intelligent road systems in place to even provide traffic flow information yet.”

SPREADING THE WORD

Roger McCarthy says Scania Australia must adopt a two-pronged approach to promoting the driver monitoring side of the technology in Australia.

“One of the big challenges we face here is that there are a lot of agency drivers,” he says.

“When talking with actual drivers who work for a company we’re seeing some good success, but the challenge now is to try and work with the agencies – to maybe offer a service where we can work with their drivers so they can say some of their drivers are Scania trained.”

Scania says that while some drivers may be initially wary of the unit’s ‘Big Brother’ aspect to monitoring, the European experience is that drivers actually enter into friendly ‘competition’ with their colleagues, striving to achieve the lowest overall fuel consumption – with obvious benefits for the fleet operator’s overheads, both in terms of fuel costs and reduced wear and tear.

Telematics is guiding the trucking industry into new territory and opening up new opportunities for minimising the considerable costs involved in road freight. With Scania’s Communicator and Scania Fleet Management technology, ‘Big Brother’ is also a benevolent brother, too.

See your nearest Scania dealer for more information, or visit www.scania.com.au.

Feature: Scania Communicator gives fleets the edge

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