Ford is launching a free fleet management tool for commercial vehicle fleet customers that it says could cut downtime by as much as 60%.

Ford Telematics Essentials is a complimentary fleet management tool that allows operators of connected Ford vehicles to view real-time health data and maximise their uptime

Ford Telematics Essentials is available with all Ford commercial vehicles fitted with the FordPass Connect modem, which has been fitted as standard to all Ford’s core commercial vehicle range since mid-2019. This includes Transit, Transit Custom and Ranger. But it also includes a multi-make option to include other manufacturers’ vehicles.

Ford describes Telematics Essentials as a dedicated fleet vehicle health management tool. It presents FORDLive’s usage-based smart maintenance alerts using detailed dashboards that can be viewed on a PC or tablet. Information shown includes oil life, service alerts and engine hours information for each vehicle. In total the software can securely share more than 4,000 alerts.

An overview gives a breakdown of which Ford models the fleet operates as well as how many. The information could help fleet operators to schedule preventative maintenance, thereby eliminating the cost and inconvenience of unplanned downtime caused by avoidable breakdowns and repairs.

Smart maintenance alerts show actions needed and permits fleet managers to click through to a service booking with a Ford Transit Centre. Ford Telematics Essentials shows fleet vehicles listed by their current status. This includes ‘Up to date’, ‘Action soon’, ‘Action Now’, ‘Overdue’ and ‘Off the Road’.

Where permission has been given by fleet customers, Transit Service dealers can view vehicle health check information from the past 60 days. This helps the dealer to diagnose issues before vehicles arrive at the workshop as well as order parts and make the necessary technical preparations to minimise service downtime.

Ford is sufficiently confident in its remote diagnosis that the 30-minute annual inspection requirement is being removed from new Transit, Transit Custom and Ranger models later this year. Over 500,000 vehicles on the road can already access the system.

Customers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain with appropriately equipped vehicles will be able to access Ford Telematics Essentials using a contact form on the Ford Commercial Solutions website.

To open up the complete range of capabilities of the Ford Telematics system, customers will need to pay a subscription. This could provide access to a range of information on vehicle use and driver behaviour.