Friedrichshafen (Germany). A large vehicle fleet is an interplay of many moving parts: vehicles, drivers, electric power, combustion engines. Routes, fuel consumption, regulations and legal requirements must work together in harmony for smooth and efficient operation.
ZF Bus Connect is a new product that caters to the needs of bus fleet operators. As an advanced fleet management tool, ZF Bus Connect enables public transport or private bus operators to enhance and improve the efficiency and performance of their fleets:

• Safety: Geofencing and monitoring of driver’s behaviour to detect dangerous bus driving situations to prevent accidents and to protect against theft.
• Efficiency: Live data evaluation on a per-bus basis allows optimization of driving and route plans and improves fuel consumption.
• Uptime: Predictive remote detection of damages or wear and tear of consumable items compatible with real-world bus configurations as well as diagnosis and secure “over the air” updates to reduce downtime.

ZF Bus Connect is developed for city buses and coaches with both electric and combustion engines or hybrid systems also in a mixed fleet. The user can check every aspect of the vehicle, including a live view of vehicle locations in real-time, observe current energy or fuel consumption, check the status of battery charge or maintain the status of the vehicles parts, brake wear and other system messages.

“With ZF Bus Connect we are helping the bus operators with their difficult change to all-electric fleets,“ explained Florian Freund, responsible for the ZF Bus Connect development. “With the power of data-analytics of in-vehicle data we are helping operators to manage their fleet efficiently by reducing the energy or fuel consumption whilst giving a clear overview to the CO2 footprint of the fleet.”

All in one package: one system, three areas
ZF Bus Connect digital solution covers three areas: The On-Board Unit in the vehicle, the cloud, and the web-based portal for data analytics. Fleet operators have the possibility to purchase this all-in-one solution from ZF as a package or to connect to the cloud solution with their own compatible On-Board Unit and access the information via the portal as a third-party solution.

Established technologies for new markets
Based on the know-how of ZF’s current bus connectivity solution supporting over 10,000 buses worldwide, ZF has developed the ZF Bus Connect digital solution. To date, five fleets have converted to the new generation of solutions. The solution was developed in the ZF Group’s Data Venture Accelerator, which is a worldwide hub for digital business within ZF’s global research and development. It was set up to support and accelerate product developments whose ideas and concepts have successfully proven their added value and technological feasibility – from initial realizations to mature digital products and services.

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