Idle Smart announced Battery Protect—a new feature that continuously monitors battery voltage levels and will start and run a vehicle’s engine to recharge batteries, helping ensure fleet uptime and starting. Battery Protect was introduced at the American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) 2014 Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition in Nashville, Tenn.

“With Battery Protect, fleets have the ability to customize voltage thresholds and recharge run times,” said Ryan Bennett, vice president of product and marketing at Idle Smart. “Idle Smart constantly monitors truck battery voltage, automatically starts the engine when it drops to a pre-set level and runs it for a pre-determined amount of time, eliminating the need for electric shore power-based systems or someone to go out and manually start the truck.

“Battery drain is an issue for fleets at parking facilities where drivers require hotel loads for comfort and convenience items, especially during 34-hour rest periods required by new hours of service regulations,” Bennett added. “Battery Protect can intelligently monitor and help eliminate battery drain so trucks are ready to meet operational needs and avoid the high cost of a service call and possible downtime.”

Battery Protect is pre-programmed to start the truck at a default setting of 12.2 volts and run the engine for a recommended 20 minutes. Using Idle Smart’s fully customizable and password protected intuitive display and menu driven format, fleets can change voltage and time settings to meet specific preferences.

The Idle Smart solution will include Battery Protect as a standard feature with all new shipments.