‘Uptime‘ appears to be one of the major buzzwords of the 2026 IAA Transportation show in Hannover, with several of the major commercial vehicle manufacturers rushing to introduce full suites of connected support services to their vehicle buyers.
And the evidence of why such services could be so important and appealing to the customer was evident at Ford, which launched its Ford Uptime service in Germany at the show after proving it on the UK market over the past year.
Ford Uptime began its development in 2023, on the basis that any downtime – the period that a vehicle spends off the road undergoing servicing, maintenance or repair and therefore not earning money for its user – is lost revenue for that customer.
The concept was to employ the connectivity available in today’s vehicles to make better use of the data they produce, turning it into an intelligent system to better inform fleet managers and allow them to maximise the productivity of their vehicle fleets.
The Ford system makes use of more than 3,000 separate data alerts that can be triggered by a connected vehicle. This is now instantly analysed by software developed specifically for the purpose, and automated reports sent out on a weekly or even daily basis.
Not only can the fleet managers better plan their future vehicle usage based on when the reports indicate it will need to come off the road, Ford’s central FordLive division can use the same remote diagnostics to book such aspects as maintenance instead of waiting for the operators to contact their dealer and potential small issues develop into large ones as a result.
Ford’s trialling of its Uptime Services programme has produced some impressive results among UK users. L&Q Services, a residential developer and housing association with more than 600 Ford vehicles on its UK fleet, slashed its average monthly overall downtime of 58 days to just 23 days, a 60% reduction saving the company on average £17,000.
Prism Medical, which works with hospices and care homes, using more than 100 Ford vehicles to deliver beds and specialist equipment, cut its lost working days per month from 43 to six.
The benefits of such connected services were clear to see at the IAA event with presentation after presentation focusing as much on connected services as new vehicles. Among the major launches Mercedes Benz announced its five-prong Pro programme, and Stellantis Group its Pro One Next programme – both focused on maximising fleet uptime.
Stellantis summed up the trend in the industry by describing its Pro One Next programme as “moving from just selling vehicles, to operating fleets together with its customers.”
“A core pillar of the Stellantis Pro One ecosystem, it delivers on the promise of ensuring maximum vehicle uptime through customer proximity, specialized know-how and fast intervention,” a Stellantis spokesman added, proving that for the light-commercial vehicle operator, the days of physical service books and warning lights on the dashboard are now firmly in the past.
