Making a statement

Volvo Construction Equipment has announced it will fit as
standard its CareTrack remote monitoring system on most larger
(often referred to as “general purpose”) machines – along with a no charge* 36 month subscription to the service.

“This is a very significant investment toward the future of telematics and its role within the Volvo offer,” says Tomas Kuta, president of Customer Support at Volvo Construction Equipment, as he touches on the magnitude of the company’s new plan. At the start of 2010, Volvo Construction Equipment began equipping new general purpose machines, including Haulers, Loaders, Excavators and Graders with its CareTrack telematics system as standard, and throws in a no charge, a three-year customer subscription that will enable owners to enjoy the full range of benefits available with remote monitoring. Over the next three years, the standard fit initiative will be expanded to include Road Machinery and Utility
machines.

“Volvo Construction Equipment feels that the industry as a whole can do a better job of delivering the value that remote monitoring can provide,” says Mr Kuta. “This is an industry that is being driven toward an increasingly technological business approach by the combined influences of environmental and safety concerns, globalized economies and ever more sophisticated end customers. Volvo has taken the position that our customers should experience the full advantages offered by remote monitoring and we are confident that by facilitating this, customers will quickly recognize the significant benefits, and thus embrace the system and the services that are delivered through it.”

What’s all the fuss about?

Remote monitoring is one of the best ways to ensure that Volvo machines are working well, every working hour and day of the year – which is why the company is so confident about investing in the large-scale offering of CareTrack. This advanced remote monitoring system has the potential to estimate precisely the daily workloads of a fleet of machines and provide an unprecedented insight into a machine’s system health. Questions such as: ‘Where are my machines?’ ‘When is the next service due?’ ‘Are my machines being used efficiently?’, and ‘Are costs being kept to a minimum?’ can be answered quickly and precisely by CareTrack signals sent via satellite or GPRS (mobile network) from wherever the machine is, to any remote online connection.

CareTrack monitors a machine’s location, performance and productivity, identifies potential problems, and can be used to distribute resources more efficiently and plan maintenance based on actual usage. Through fault reporting and activity warnings, machine problems can be identified sooner and resolved faster. Machine operation and deployment can be optimized via functions that monitor fuel consumption, location, hours of operation, speed and approaching service intervals. “Through constant machine monitoring, CareTrack can deliver
the extra efficiencies that our customers need by ensuring machines are available for work and that they perform their work in the best way possible,” says Mr Kuta. Further useful functions of CareTrack are the machine history function or the service date reminder. It is also
possible to have information on the frequency of replacing worn parts, which can be useful for drawing up maintenance plans for the entire machine fleet. Should the machine be operated outside of a predefined area or ‘virtual fence’, the Geo-Fencing function immediately raises the alarm by sending an alert via email or mobile phone message.

Change for the better

Until now, CareTrack has been available upon purchase of the machine hardware and paid via a monthly subscription. By removing the burden of cost from the customer’s evaluation process, Volvo can achieve the population mass needed to support viability of more enhanced services. Three years not only gives Volvo’s dealers time to tailor benefits packages more effectively, it provides sufficient time for CareTrack’s benefits to be realized and gives dealers and customers time to entrench optimizing practices within their businesses. “Telematics have come a long distance in a short time,” says Mr Kuta. “Previously customers have had to make a purchase decision about CareTrack installation and we feel at times the potential benefits available with its use in their particular application have not been clear to them. Further, it was not available on as many machine models as we will now equip.

Clever investment

As CareTrack continues to evolve, many new services will be launched. By fitting its larger machines with CareTrack now, Volvo wants to eliminate the ‘wait for the next feature’ mentality that can slow progress in the adoption of newer technologies. Once customers experience the value that CareTrack brings to their business through the no charge threeyear
subscription, Volvo is confident they will see the value in continuing with the service. “This move is a statement to our customers that telematics are becoming a ‘must have’ for ongoing competitiveness in their business – and we are committed to their success,” says Mr Kuta. “Soon, the value of CareTrack will be as self-evident as other industry technologies like GPS grade control – and our customers will be among the first to wonder how they ever managed without it!”

* Standard fit and no charge subscription valid in markets where CareTrack is available. For further details consult your authorized Volvo Construction Equipment dealer.