Future Logistical Services from Connected Vehicles : A Case Study at Scania CV AB

Abstract: The road based transportation operations are growing rapidly, but the current infrastructure cannot sustain the entire growth. At the same time vehicle utilisation and fill rates are low. Improved efficiency of the operations is a necessary way forward for road based transportation. Parallel to this, heavy vehicle producers are currently improving the efficiency with services accompanying the product that are focused on the driver and the vehicle performance. However, the data from connected vehicles required for these services only entail a small amount of the operational data generated by connected vehicles. The case study aims to answer how to use connected vehicle operational data in order to suggest value adding services in a dynamic road distribution system. The applied methodology is an inductive study with an explanatory approach to map the current and future service offerings of the case company. This knowledge is combined with an exploratory approach with interviews of transport planners and theories of Lean and fleet management. Primarily, it is concluded that the perspective of operational data requires widening. Considering not only driver and vehicle operations but rather the entire transport operation of a company. It is also concluded that value creation with operational data is possible during three phases of fleet management. First, if knowledge about order data is accessible, the planning of transportations can be improved using route optimisation and operations research. Secondly, it is possible to create value during the execution phase, throughless manual supervision and communication by transport planners. Lastly, both the currently used operational data and further data usage can contribute to a better understanding of the performance of a fleet operation and facilitate for continuous improvements during an evaluation phase.