Volvo dealers aftermarket team focus on uptime at biennial event
Volvo Trucks' ongoing commitment to uptime was recently highlighted during UPTIME 2015 – a three-day event focused on the latest developments in aftermarket issues, trends and operations. Every two years, Volvo's aftermarket team, North American dealer principals, parts and service managers, key suppliers and vendors convene to focus efforts on keeping customers' trucks moving.
"Nothing is more important to our customers' bottom line than uptime, and Volvo Trucks and its dealers are intensely focused on continual improvement," said Gӧran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North America. "Even a single day of downtime can affect a trucking company's reputation and relationship with its customer, so we strive to continue to develop new products and services to keep customers' trucks on the road."
Technology is key to Volvo's success with customer uptime. Volvo Remote Diagnostics, standard on all Volvo-powered vehicles, is a proactive diagnostic and repair planning system that monitors critical fault codes. Using Volvo's ASIST web-based service management platform, Remote Diagnostics identifies the necessary parts and provides straightforward repair instructions to technicians, even before the truck arrives for service. ASIST also documents all estimates, repair approvals, purchase orders and communications among customers, dealers and Volvo to ensure everyone knows exactly where a case stands at any moment.
Volvo believes that even with market-leading technology, expert human intervention is essential to maximizing uptime for customers. Volvo's Uptime Center consolidates under one roof the people and systems needed to monitor and respond to vehicle issues in real time, including 24/7 support through Volvo Action Service and ASIST experts.
Volvo Trucks dealers, which offer more than 360 Class 8 locations throughout North America, are critical to Volvo's uptime services. Since 2010, Volvo dealers have invested $435 million in facilities and personnel, resulting in a 37 percent increase in bay capacity and 89 percent more technicians.
The biennial UPTIME event is another important tool in improving customer uptime, according to James Chenier, vice president, aftermarket sales and marketing for Volvo Trucks North America.
"Our UPTIME conference brings together North American Volvo dealers, personnel and suppliers to share best practices in aftermarket support," Chenier said. "Everyone comes to the event with the attitude that by listening and learning we can always make our uptime services even better."
James Chenier, Volvo Trucks
The UPTIME 2015 event featured workshops and presentations – such as this one from James Chenier, vice president, aftermarket sales and marketing for Volvo Trucks North America – and workshops on Volvo's resources and strategies to maximize customer uptime. In addition to education in formal sessions, participants in UPTIME 2015 learned about the latest in aftermarket support in discussions during the exhibition.