WABCO Forms Strategic Alliance With SmartDrive Systems

BRUSSELS, Belgium and LOUISVILLE, Ky. – WABCO Holdings Inc. has formed a strategic alliance with SmartDrive Systems, a provider of performance management solutions that help fleets to lower fuel consumption and reduce collisions. This new alliance enables WABCO to expand its fleet management solutions to commercial vehicle fleets in North America.
 
WABCO made the announcement leading up to the 2014 Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS), one of the largest heavy-duty trucking industry events in the world, held from March 27-29, 2014, in Louisville, Ky.
 
WABCO and SmartDrive Systems will integrate their products and services to enhance the safety and efficiency of commercial vehicle fleet operators in North America. For example, SmartDrive Systems fleet customers have reported collision cost reductions of up to 70 percent after the first year and fuel savings of up to 10 percent, while WABCO’s OnGuard collision mitigation system so far has been protecting customers collectively for more than 6 billion miles in North America.
 
This new alliance will promote WABCO’s award-winning SmartTrac stability control and OnGuard collision mitigation systems among other innovations proven to help fleets meet increasingly stringent safety requirements in an economically challenged industry. SmartDrive Systems’ first of its kind open and extensible platform integrates information from data-rich vehicle systems such as WABCO’s advanced braking and stability control technologies into its offerings in real-time. By leveraging this information, it offers fleet operators valued insights into driving events to determine what happened, when and why vehicle safety systems engaged, and the potential root causes of safety-related incidents.
 
The two companies say new products and fleet management services arising from the strategic alliance are expected to unlock the untapped value of information gained from vehicle safety technologies, providing fleet customers with a greater return on their vehicles’ safety and efficiency investments. Anticipated benefits include administrative time-savings, fewer cargo compensation claims, lower accident repair costs, better insurance rates and lower fuel bills.
 
Catch WABCO at MATS 2014 in booth No. 32805 in the South Wing Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, Ky., March 27-29, 2014. There will be an OnGuard collision mitigation system “Ride-N-Drive,” March 26-28, 2014 (sign up at WABCO booth 32805).