40 / 88
Truck and Track
Spring 2019
www.truckandtrack.com40
BATTERY MANAGEMENT
In the current dynamic political environment, most businesses
are keeping a keen eye on their budgets and avoiding
unnecessaryexpenditure. One sector that has seena shift in this
area is battery management and Truck and Track has teamed
up with industry leaders, Rotronics, to look at the reasons why
this is the case and what fleet owners and managers are doing
to improve their operational costs.
Ken Clark, Managing Director at Rotronics, says: “We have
noticed heightened activity to improve expenditure with battery
management and operational practices, to ensure that budgets
are being controlled more prudently with proactive battery
management.
“In the current uncertainty that has hit the UK, we would urge
fleet owners to be aware of the impact on vehicle batteries that
potential increased waiting times will bring due to altered border
checks. It will obviously take some time for the situation to become
clearer but preparing for additional non-starts within distribution
fleets would be wise; vehicles will be susceptible to additional non-
starts because of increased stop-starts and considerable drains on
the battery systemwhilst the engine is idling.”
Rotronics has developed ROBIS, the industry-first data collection
dashboard, to ensure that fleet owners and managers can access
battery performance data from multiple workshops at any given
time, to ensure that their fleet batteries are operating at optimal
levels. ROBIS provides an under-the-microscope view which has
considerable benefits in the event of a warranty claim
Ken continues: “Ensuring that all the correct test and charge
practices are in placewithin theworkshops will helpwith avoidable
non-starts; if we control what we can control, thenwe are in amore
positive position to keep providing good customer service.”
The Truck and Track editorial team asked Rotronics to outline what
a successful Battery Management Programme looks like.
Battery management
The Rotronics team knows that workshops experiencing the most
improvements using their Battery Management Programme, are
the ones that keep chargers and trolleys in every pit. They charge
the vehicles at every opportunity and batteries are tested at least at
every planned maintenance inspection (typically every 4-6weeks).
These workshops see remarkable improvements and have cut non-
starts by up to 75%.
A bespoke battery management programme is developed for each
customer:
■■
Batteries are tested pro-actively, at the point of service and
routine inspection.
■■
Imbalanced batteries are identified and charged accordingly.
■■
Batteries are maintained to optimum levels.
■■
Defective batteries are identified and replaced before they affect
vehicle reliability.
■■
Return-on-investment can be proved, and each workshop will
have the expertise and knowledge to maximise fault diagnosis,
increase productivity and customer service.
■■
A full auditable record is available to monitor and track a fleet’s
battery performance.
ROBIS
Rotronics has recently developed ROBIS, the industry-first web-
based dashboard and reporting system that collects battery and
electrical data from several national/regional workshop sources to
update software across the fleet. The Rotronics team is currently
working with major national commercial and fleet operators.
A workshop that invests in battery maintenance equipment is
making a great start to improve vehicle performance and increase
Prevention is
better than cure