Capital Equipment News July 2018

TALKING POINT

Since Q4 2014, every new vehicle from Scania South Africa’s assembly plant has come out fitted standard with the truck maker’s telematics portal, Fleet Management System.

“One major factor that affects fuel consumption is driver behaviour. By utilising Driver Evaluation reports, fleet managers can identify areas where their drivers can improve. This is an ongoing process, and the bigger the fleet, the bigger the savings.”

Theunes van der Westhuizen, GM Retail at Scania South Africa

To date, Scania South Africa has close to 10 000 vehicles connected to FMS since Q4 2014, operating across southern Africa – including South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, as well as Tanzania. About 40% of these vehicles are connected to the Control Package, which allows for the full FMS functionality to be utilised.

information for analysis and presentation on the FMS portal and in the Monitoring Report. The Monitoring Package is an easy-to-use service that puts fleet owners on the right track to improving their fleet economy – even for small fleets. It gives fleet owners weekly email summaries covering all of their vehicles. From these you can see at a glance how each vehicle is performing and which ones need special attention. Weekly information from the Monitoring Report can quickly help fleet managers reduce operating costs, by being able to spot potential problems early, as well as being able to guide drivers into adopting more economical driving habits and improve service planning. “With the Monitoring Package, customers also receive monthly summary reports and a summary at the end of the year, allowing them to identify and act upon trends and patterns that cover longer periods of time,” explains Van der Westhuizen. “Since the reports do not track individual drivers but rather individual vehicles, the service is particularly suitable for smaller fleets. Trends are indicated with arrows: green for improvement and red for degradation.” Fleet managers can also access the Scania FMS portal to manage their service planning. Service Planning provides an overview of all the equipment in the fleet, along with their maintenance plans, including a calendar for keeping track of maintenance and repairs. With the free Scania Fleet Management App, fleet managers get access to the defect reporting function and drivers can instantly report problems and supply photographs directly from the site of the incident. Defect reports are also automatically reported from the vehicle. In the driving seat Van der Westhuizen says the Control Package, as the name suggests, puts fleet owners in the “driving seat” of the vehicle, allowing them, at any given time,

Understanding Scania FMS To start using any of the Scania FMS

services – either the Monitoring Package or Control Package – one will need a Scania Communicator telematics unit installed in their vehicle. The pre-installed unit, which comes as standard in every new vehicle, regularly collects, saves, sends and receives

QUICK TAKE

Managing a fleet is a huge challenge, but the incorporation of a fleet management system can make the entire process very simple and efficient

Every new vehicle that has rolled off Scania South Africa’s assembly plant since Q4 2014 has come out fitted standard with Scania’s FMS

Scania’s FMS is available locally in two packages, Monitoring Package and Control Package

Scania South Africa has about 10 000 vehicles connected to FMS since Q4 2014, and about 40% of these vehicles are on the Control Package

Cl os e to 1 0 00 0 ve hi cl es c o n ne ct e d to F MS

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JULY 2018 21