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Penske Truck Leasing customers get access to an artificial intelligence platform called Catalyst AI, the company told Trucking Dive.
The platform provides metrics for fleets to evaluate their performance, comparing data with similar fleets to optimize and better understand operations, according the company. With the platform, AI models can improve the trucks’ MPG and utilization, Penske said.
The value add-on is available through Penske’s Fleet Insight digital tool.
The platform leverages advanced machine learning algorithms and Penske’s live data collection that includes hundreds of thousands of vehicles, the company said on its website and a press release. The platform can also provide customized KPI benchmarks.
“Catalyst AI runs 300+ models simultaneously to calculate the rating or ‘DNA’ of the fleet,” Penske said in a statement to Trucking Dive. “Features are weighted. As the platform continues to run the models and learn from the data — the weights on the features will shift. That’s one of the ways the AI platform continues to learn.”
The company has been developing the project for a little more than a year based on Penske seeking to help customers better understand their performance, SVP of Digital and Customer Data Ann Walsh said in an interview with Trucking Dive. The platform learns from data and curates comparison groups on the fly, he said.
“What’s out there today are pretty standard industry benchmarks,” Walsh said. “However, to come up with a similar fleet composition to come up with how your fleet operates, where you run your fleet, all of that makes your fleet unique.”
A typical set of benchmarks can limit visibility, but Catalyst AI can quickly generate — in contrast to the slower reality of human computation — information for fleets to absorb, Walsh said.
“He does things that no human could do,” Walsh said. “Or if a man could do that, it would take him quite some time. It wouldn’t be on the move.”
An early access program has allowed customers on the platform and “they’re already actively making decisions, based on the information we’ve provided, starting to formulate some policies around idling, starting to evaluate how they use their equipment.” Penske Vice President of Customer Success & Fleet Telematics Samantha Thompson said. For example, Thompson said the platform can help fleets better answer questions like:
- What is good idle vs. bad idle?
- Do we count all idles equally?
- How do these dynamics affect our operation?
Sherry Sanger, executive vice president of strategy and marketing for Penske, said in the press release that the technology “allows businesses to unlock new efficiencies, reduce costs and ultimately set a new standard for fleet performance.”