• Intelligent driving aims to reduce operational costs
• People-enablement is based on motivating drivers to improve their driving style
• Offers real-time feedback about driving behavior
• Increase in fuel efficiency based on transparent insights
• Captures and analyzes data on a comprehensive platform

The increasing demand to reduce fuel consumption through intelligent driving behaviors is one of the challenges managers in local public transport are facing. In the past, bus fleet managers relied on the capabilities of their drivers. As smart driving is a significant contributor to limiting fuel consumption, lowering emissions and improved travel safety, the emendation of intelligent driving techniques has become even more important. To address this need, Voith developed a tool that supports drivers’ efforts to reduce fuel consumption by advising and motivating them over the short and long term.

Reduction of operational costs and motivation of Drivers
The Voith OnEfficiency solutions for mobility applications increase fuel efficiency in two ways. On the one hand by technical enablement based on advanced configuration of the transmission; on the other hand by people enablement based on motivating the drivers to improve their driving behavior.
“During intensive and extensive real-life trials, Voith developed OnEfficiency.DriverAssist, the latest tool in our Smart Services portfolio. It is a tool that presents drivers with a mission. Their goal is to drive in the most efficient way and they are rewarded when they do”, says Johannes Ilg, Vice President Service Product Management at Voith Turbo.

Real-time feedback about driving behavior to improve driving style
The tool captures multiple driving parameters from the vehicle. The generated data is collected by the Voith SmartBox 2.0 and displayed to the driver for real-time feedback on acceleration, deceleration and idling. During their route – at every bus stop and at the end of every trip – the driver receives a summary feedback, which informs the driver about his or her daily performance regarding multiple aspects of their performance. Furthermore, OnEfficiency.DriverAssist provides clear aggregated management reports that help identify areas where drivers could benefit from more training and reveal potential areas of improvement. The service further offers an environment that recognizes and rewards success, and then motivates the drivers to optimize their driving style over the long term.

Increase in fuel efficiency based on transparent insights
The drivers’ visualization is done by a special Voith application. It is easy to install, and it runs on common Android devices. The drivers are assisted by an intuitive user interface with an appropriate hint how the driver’s actual behavior affects the vehicle’s current fuel consumption. At the same time the operations manager receives data relevant for managing the fleet. For example, fuel consumption and overall performance are available – not only for the current route but also for those in the past. The German public transportation company Reutlinger Stadtverkehr (RSV) was one of the first to test the new Voith platform. “The drivers are interested in this technology,” says Mark Hogenmüller, managing director of RSV. The goal is to utilize OnEfficiency.DriverAssist to achieve a driving style that promotes gentler handling of the vehicle and reduce fuel consumption, meaning that it increases the overall operational economy of the bus. The measured savings are significant: so far, a 10 percent reduction in fuel consumption has been achieved for the buses.

Capturing and analyzing data on a comprehensive platform
Intelligent monitoring helps to improve driving skills and performance, which also reduces fuel consumption. The data analysis goes even further than creating maintenance schedules, too. Using intelligent data algorithms for performance calculation, OnEfficiency.DriverAssist collects all relevant data from the vehicles and has a secure data connection to the IIoT platform OnCumulus. Voith has also implemented an avatar system that anonymizes the data of all drivers, thereby protecting the privacy of each user. “Utilizing Voith’s domain knowledge in drive technology and local public transport, this solution provides not only the drivers with real-time information about driving style, but also offers the fleet manager the opportunity to make use of valuable insights in order to improve energy efficiency”, says Dr. Roland Münch, CEO Voith Digital Solutions.

This new efficiency solution will be available at the end of 2018.

About the Company
Voith Digital Solutions bundles Voith’s long-standing automation and IT expertise with its know-how in the fields of water power, paper machines and drive engineering. This new Group Division works with new and existing customers to develop innovative products and services by driving IIoT innovations and decisively shaping the digitalization process in the field of machine and plant engineering.

Voith Turbo, a Group Division of Voith, is a specialist for intelligent drive solutions, systems and comprehensive services. Customers from highly diverse industries such as oil and gas, energy, rail and commercial vehicles, ship technology, mining and mechanical engineering rely on the advanced technologies and solutions-driven expertise of Voith Turbo.

Voith is a global technology group. With its wide range of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith sets standards in the markets for energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive. Founded in 1867, Voith today has more than 19,000 employees and earns 4.2 billion euros in sales. It has locations in over 60 countries and is one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe.