Trucks handle 73% of American freight. Behind every delivery are fleet managers using data to maintain safe, efficient, and profitable operations. Managers often use telematic platforms to monitor vehicle health, such as Volvo Connect. Volvo Connect was facing severely low adoption rates from companies who already own their trucks. We unearthed that most small transportation businesses don’t have the specialized staff to be able to understand the complex data being presented, leaving 90% of the industry underserved. To address this, we ended up designing an AI conversational tool that simplifies complex data into actionable insights.
To better understand the low rates of adoption and retention we conducted 8 exploratory interviews, 4 contextual inquiries, literature review, and competitive analysis. From these methods we came across several pain points.
From these methods we came across several pain points:
1) Small Fleets Lack Time to Turn Data Into Action
2) Small Fleets Need Access and Support
3) Small Fleets Juggle Multiple Tasks
Our prelimirary research really showed us how underserved small fleets were at the moment.
Our solution ideation started with a broad exploration of ideas, which we gradually narrowed based on what we saw would most effectively answer user pain points and the time constraints of the project. We started with drafting design recommendations. This led us to explore several concepts including a more refined way to present data, automating repetitive tasks, a conversational tool to help reach decisions faster, and improve sharing of data with one another. We narrowed down to 2 initial concepts: a dashboard redesign and a conversational AI tool.
Rapid Concept Testing
We spoke to industry professionals to get a quick gauge of which concept did they find more useful as well as ran both concepts with our sponsor panel at Volvo Group. This informed us to choose to build a conversational AI. Not only were experts finding value in it, this was most feasible for the tight time constraint we faced, strategically addressed the core objectives we sarted off with, and would have the most impact for transportation companies.
To address the problem of small fleets lacking time and staff to interpret and act on data, we introduced Fleet Assist, a conversational AI tool as an update to Volvo Connect.
Fleet Assist builds on Volvo Trucks’ existing telematics by translating complex data within Volvo Connect into clear, actionable guidance. Fleet managers can now ask Fleet Assist to retrieve the information they need, and perform tasks such as decoding faults and monitoring fleet performance all within the same Volvo Connect system they already use.
Now users have a have a decision-making partner, that helps them act faster and better perform.
Core Offering 1: Advanced Analytics
As a fleet manager, you’re constantly working to improve margins and optimize fleet performance. One effective way to do this is by analyzing fuel efficiency over time. So, let’s say a manager wants to view fuel efficiency for the last 20 days. Volvo Fleet Assist can instantly generate a table of key fuel-efficiency metrics, including fuel economy, daily fuel average, and mileage from the past 20 days. Fleet Assist gives our fleet manager an insightful analysis on factors that caused this inefficiency, like unscheduled maintenance or unplanned downtime. Our fleet manager can continue this conversation and dive deep into those unplanned events such that they can optimize their fleet and improve important KPIs.
Core Offering 2: Direct Data Inquiry
Another reoccurring problem we came across was fleet managers needing to consult manuals and dealerships to understand complex data points like fault codes. With the send to Fleet Assist button, users can directly inquire about specific pieces of data points and they can get immediate answers instead of having to parse through large manuals or spend time finding help at dealerships.
We used rapid prototyping for our usability tests to make the most out of feedback from each session. Each week as we were running usability tests we would improve our prototype in time for the next user test. We conducted a total of 8 usability tests and collaborated with our Volvo sponsor panel on Figjam to analyze the to analyze the emerging themes that led to our final design.
From usability testing we understood that our tool should offer:
1) Guidance on how to navigate situations & respond
2) Offer a streamlined way to access information
3) Accessibility for data, regardless of expertise & level
These takeaways informed us to craft our 2 core offerings that ended up with in Fleet Assist.
Looking ahead, we’re eager to see how our solution performs in real small-fleet environments by tracking user and operational metrics. By tracking action rate, feature adoption, how long users are arriving to insights, and monitor uptime and efficiency indicators, we will be able to determine whether our design has truly created the value we intended. We really do believe that this product will perform as we say a 90% satisfaction rate amongst our user tests.
