ORLANDO, Florida—Velociti Inc. has expanded its proactive VeloCare technology health monitoring to not only keep track of telematics hardware, sensors, and other connected devices, but also manage inventory, financials, and tech support to foster uptime and reduce the administrative burden on management.
These new offerings include:
- Added programs around operational support, such as enterprise desk services, inventory management, a tech support call center, expanded field services and Velogic add-ons.
- A contract and subscription management app
- A “build-your-own-bundle” solution that allows users to select the options that fit their business structure and support their technology maintenance and operational needs.
VeloCare has been around since 2013 and tracks 600,000 assets. As fleets embed more technology on the truck and trailer, they will need solutions to manage and support them.
“The future of transportation will be increasingly smart, connected, and autonomous,” said Deryk Powell, president of Velociti, which unveiled the updates at American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council 2022 Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition. “And in this tech-driven world, the importance of comprehensive platforms for technology management, and programs for technology support, will expand dramatically. We’re making significant investments to ensure that we can provide our customers and partners the complete solutions that they need.”
The need for technology health monitoring
Powell said anything from hardware failures to accidental damage and driver tampering can impact the operation of onboard technology such as forward-looking cameras.
“If I have an accident, and I desperately want to see the video evidence as an example of that accident, I can't get it because the camera wasn't working,” Powell hypothesized.
He also added that VeloCare data found one in five of the assets (19.2%) the company tracks “had to be physically touched for repair or replacement last year.”
“With electronic logging devices (ELDs), where you have an eight-day repair mandate, you have to get it repaired or otherwise, you're in serious risk and fine,” Powell noted.
The executive also focused on the financial impact of having almost 20% of a fleet possibly down for hours or days at a time to repair these devices. “Now in a compressed supply chain situation, with a driver shortage, that only gets more challenging,” he said.
To ease the burden, the new features and services have been added.
“System health monitoring that's been in place for some time,” Powell said. “What really hasn't been in place is the ability to integrate technology maintenance with core fleet maintenance. So now we're talking about tires, brakes, insurance, road breakdown stuff, as well as [preventive maintenance].”
VeloCare is factoring all of this into the maintenance equation now. Here are some more details as described by Powell.
Enterprise Desk Services:
This is a turnkey, supplemental administrative solution to support any user interface or software program. Users gain access to outsourced experts suitable to their schedule. They also receive access to professional program management, a train-the-trainer program, and dedicated support for remote device service calls for initial device diagnosis.
Powell said this lessens the amount of administrative work.
He said if a fleet has 1,000 tractors and/or trailers, each with three connected systems on them, the administrators will be able to sort out which of the 3,000 systems are on those 1,000 assets.
“Today, there's been no real integration between the 3,000 connected systems, but if 714 of them are not connected and healthy, that's a huge problem,” Powell said.
Subscription and contract management app:
Powell called this “a first of its kind,” and with one click fleets can manage complex SaaS subscriptions and contract terms through one dashboard. Basically this consolidates how a fleet deals with all the various SaaS providers.
Powell noted just as consumers must manage half a dozen or more entertainment streaming services, fleet managers must manage and reconcile bills, often manually, for that many or as many as 15 different software subscriptions.
“Now do that times 10,000 or 100,000 assets,” he challenged. No one would want to, so Velociti has streamlined the process through automation. The company first performs an audit and can recoup fees paid inadvertently for assets that were out of service, just as one may forget to turn off a streaming service after they no longer use it.
“We go back six months, look at all your bills, and figure out what could have been avoided had we compared asset masters to billing records when they came in,” said Powell, who added Velociti has recovered 10% of what fleets had previously paid
The next step is to integrate the billing with the asset monitoring. This normalizes the billing and manage mistaken bills.
A “build your own bundle” solution that allows users to select the options that fit their business structure and support their technology maintenance and operational needs.
And when repairs are needed, Velociti has 500 field service technicians at the ready. VeloCare can facilitate onsite assistance to provide installs, removals, upgrades and repairs. Technical support is also provided 24/7 to assist with questions and troubleshooting.
