For many heavy equipment OEMs and dealers, maintenance and repair contracts constitute an important and potentially lucrative revenue stream. Performing service is also an important way to stay in front of customers and drive more future business.
Leveraging real-time telematics data unlocks more efficient, effective heavy equipment maintenance to help OEM/dealers provide a better service experience, save customers money and build a relationship based on trust.
Automation equals greater efficiency
Regular heavy equipment maintenance is a win-win: OEMs/dealers make money in parts and labor, and customers enjoy the benefit of reliable, longer-lasting equipment that is ready when needed.
Just-in-time maintenance based on miles or hours of use captured by telematics devices can help prevent over-maintenance, which racks up unnecessary costs and takes equipment out of service more often than necessary, as well as under-maintenance, which can lead to equipment breakdowns and shorter lifecycles.
For OEMs/dealers who use their own fleet maintenance application, a third-party software as a service (SaaS) telematics solution can automate the collection of data needed to drive just-in-time maintenance schedules. The Maintenance Scheduler within CalAmp's application, for example, serves up mileage and hours of use through an application programming interface (API) that allows the maintenance software to seamlessly ingest it.
To streamline the maintenance process, CalAmp's application can send an alert when it’s time for preventive maintenance and automatically create a work order. It can even locate the vehicle or asset via GPS, making it easier for the technician to retrieve it or service it onsite. To facilitate reactive maintenance, the application can also send an alert when an engine fault code is detected.
Alerts can be sent to any number of recipients, including the end customer. This actionable information helps OEMs, dealers and their customers make better maintenance decisions, reduce the total cost of maintenance and preserve equipment uptime.
One-stop fleet maintenance and management
For OEMs and dealers who aren’t using a dedicated fleet maintenance application, data from factory-installed or after-market telematics devices can be read into CalAmp's application, allowing the OEM/dealer to schedule maintenance of customer-owned equipment within the Maintenance Scheduler.
Each customer can be configured as a subgroup. Select a subgroup to schedule or generate reports for that customer. As with alerts, reports can be sent to any number of recipients, including the customer.
OEMs/dealers who use CalAmp's application for customer fleet maintenance can also use it to maintain their own rental fleets and locate and manage their own fleet inventory — and then sell the solution through to customers to help them maintain and manage their fleet.
Asset lifecycle management increases revenue
Even a well-maintained piece of heavy equipment will eventually come to the end of its useful life. Equipment sellers can sit back and wait to fulfill customers’ orders for a new wheel loader or excavator, or they can offer lifecycle management services that help customers reduce total cost of ownership and maximize the ROI of their equipment while providing additional revenue for the OEM/dealer.
Mileage and hours-of-use data, along with fuel usage and maintenance history, help them answer “the repair vs. replace” question for customers and create optimal replacement schedules that get customers the best resale value for their equipment.
In the process of providing asset lifecycle management, an OEM/dealer has an opportunity to also examine utilization. If a grader is in use 80% or 90% of the time, the customer may need another one, which presents a sales opportunity. If a trencher is being underutilized, that’s an opportunity to initiate a conversation about trading it in for a piece of equipment that would be more useful.
With the insights into a customer’s fleet that a SaaS-based telematics solution provides, an OEM or dealer can take on the role of trusted advisor and become a more valuable resource while benefiting from ongoing revenue streams.
Book a demo of CalAmp and the Maintenance Scheduler feature today.