CVWorkshop.ie visits Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre

Last Friday (9th August), CVWorkshop.ie visited Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre just outside London to learn more about FORDLiive, a complimentary connected uptime service which helps keep vehicles operational and on the road. The visit coincided with ‘Transit Day’, a global tribute marking the Transit van’s 59th birthday.

With FORDLiive, Ford told us that eligible customers can maximise uptime by viewing vehicle health information through FordPass, Ford Telematics or Ford Telematics Essentials, while Transit service dealers can use the same smart information.

This means that before a Transit van reaches the workshop, the dealer involved may be able to identify the required work, plus any upcoming work that might be best bundled together. This can then be agreed with the fleet manager to keep their business moving. In addition, the dealer can best plan the parts and technical support needed for the appointment to ensure the work can be completed without unnecessary delays.

According to a representative from Ford Pro, the commercial vehicle arm of the blue oval, there are currently just over 190,000 Ford Transit vans fully connected to the FORDLiive system, with two per cent of those overdue a service by less than three months, while another 1.58 per cent are in need of some sort of repair.

Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre boasts a large number of dedicated FORDLiive agents on site. They connect with Ford’s Transit centre dealers directly to ensure that any assistance needed to secure technical advice, or the parts required is met swiftly. Ford says that if a dealer can not secure the required part(s), it will then work with them to have that part shipped to them as soon as possible from anywhere in the world.

We were also told how Ford uses connected vehicle health data to monitor vehicle health trends to identify and address quality issues sooner, meaning it helps to maximise uptime for its customers. The Ford Pro representative emphasised that while the company can monitor a van’s health at any time, the location of the van is not tracked, creating an additional line of trust between fleet managers and small business owners.