ARI, a leading global fleet services provider specializing in complex car and truck fleets, has developed a technology that can precisely measure how long a vehicle is out of service and provide data to proactively manage the reduction of a fleet's total downtime, a universally recognized challenge for many fleet managers.

Historically, vehicle downtime has been measured using arbitrary data points that estimated when a vehicle entered the shop, when a repair was finished and when vehicle was returned to driver. Lacking a better alternative, this method has been the standard practice for years. Still, fleet managers have found it difficult to measure how long the vehicle is waiting to be serviced or how long it sits at the shop after service is complete.

ARI VehicleDowntimeView uses GPS monitoring and telematics data to pinpoint the exact moment a vehicle arrives at and departs from a shop. ARI has geo-fenced more than 68,000 shops in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom so that a fleet manager is notified when any vehicle with a telematics device crosses a virtual border surrounding the shop property.

"If a vehicle is down for a few hours, that means your employee isn't in the field serving customers or generating revenue for your company," said Tony Candeloro, vice president, customer information systems and product innovation. "And if a driver requires a rental vehicle for a more complex repair, that expense negatively impacts that fleet's total cost of ownership. ARI VehicleDowntimeView can help fleet managers get vehicles back to work, servicing customers and contributing to the revenue-generating activities they support more quickly."

Fleet personnel can search for and view the exact location of vehicles via Bing maps and set parameters to be notified when vehicles are down for maintenance past a certain timeframe. They can also view other important details about the repair being done on the vehicle.

The data collected through ARI VehicleDowntimeView can be used for important business decisions, providing a fleet manager with insights into replacement models, fleet reliability, or the selection of repair shops for future repairs.

ARI VehicleDowntimeView, featuring maintenance downtime tracking, is provided as an ancillary benefit to clients who currently use ARI's maintenance management and telematics programs. Current clients interested in the functionality can contact the Customer Information System (CIS) department at 844-274-4435 or cis@arifleet.com.  

To learn more about the ARI insights system, visit www.arifleet.com.