Mack Trucks continues to expand its suite of uptime services with the rollout of Mack Over The Air. Mack Over The Air enables remote software updates for powertrain components and vehicle parameters for Mack trucks equipped with Mack 2017 or newer engines.
Mack gave an update of this rollout at the American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) annual meeting March 5-8 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta.
“Mack Over The Air enables customers to ensure their trucks are operating at an optimal level without disrupting their schedules in today’s hypercompetitive just-in-time economy,” said David Pardue, vice president of connected vehicles and uptime services for Mack Trucks. “This is just the latest step in our journey to provide industry-leading uptime for our customers.”
Mack Over the Air is the newest offering in Mack Connect, an uptime and productivity solution that turns data from trucks, drivers and the service process into insights to help customers run their businesses more effectively. Mack Connect combines technology like Mack GuardDog Connect integrated telematics and the Mack ASIST service management system with the human expertise of Mack OneCall uptime agents in Mack’s 24/7 Uptime Center to keep customer trucks on the job generating revenue.
Mack Over The Air uses GuardDog Connect, standard on all Mack models with Mack engines, to deliver software and parameter updates directly to customers’ trucks. Mack OneCall uptime agents in Mack’s 24/7 Uptime Center work with customers to schedule the updates based on when it works best for their operations.
Since going live in October 2017, 20 customers and about 3,500 vehicles have benefited from Mack Over The Air. Mack has performed more than 380 updates, saving customers more than 500 days of downtime and decreasing the time needed to do a software update from days to minutes.
Mack customer Brooklyn Ready Mix in Brooklyn, New York, updated engine and aftertreatment software on all 10 of the company’s concrete mixers during a single day. Updates were completed as the trucks were in between jobs or at the depot being refilled, allowing the concrete supplier to continue regular operations while optimizing the performance of its trucks.
“The Mack Over The Air program is fantastic because it greatly reduced the time we typically spend on software updates,” said Manny Paradiso, plant supervisor for Brooklyn Ready Mix. “Sometimes it would take us up to four days. These updates allowed us to complete them in about a half-hour’s time. That’s a huge difference and enables us to better keep our trucks onsite, doing what they need to do to get the job done.”
Mack Over The Air is provided at no charge during the initial two-year base engine warranty, with customers having the option to extend the service after two years. It is also included with Mack’s extended engine coverage plans. New uptime contract subscriptions include Over The Air features, including two customer-initiated parameter updates per vehicle per year.
