The only thing worse than starting your vehicle and seeing warning lights appear on your dash is finding out about the problem while you’re on the road. As inconvenient as they are, these lit up symbols act as warnings that if things remain overlooked, the next destination for your truck will be the repair shop.
Just like the cover of a book, however, these dashboard warning lights won’t provide you with substantial information and a proper diagnosis should be conducted as soon as possible. The detailed information on a telematics dashboard will help ensure the correct repair and prevent further damage, but running the test on outdated software could cause more problems than they solve.
To avoid sidelining your trucks on the road, having up-to-date software versioning is a critical point for any fleet manager or owner. The outdated software could cause an engine derate due to the quality of sensor reading and this means a slow and time-consuming crawl to the nearest shop all thanks to a false confidence.
Don’t forget to consider the downtime that will come with the repair. Due to the microchip shortage, it’s harder to obtain the components needed to put your trucks back on the road. In the hot months especially, it’s important to make sure that the information you’re receiving from software regarding sensor operations remains accurate as this is the most likely time a sensor will fail due to the increase in temperature.
The ongoing effort towards preventative maintenance goes not only for the truck, but also the software and telematics dashboard collecting its data. Ensuring data is collected on up-to-date systems could mean the difference between a productive day and a not so productive day.
Fleet Equipment’s Data Center is sponsored by Noregon. Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every episode as we’ll be diving into use cases, talking with the data pros and making data usage approachable.
