A Powerful and Affordable Diagnostic Tool
Learn about the Diesel Decoder diagnostic tool, and how it is changing the industry.
Episode 177: We are at the Technology and Maintenance Council Annual Meeting in beautiful Orlando, Florida. The theme of the show is Electrifying Performance in Maintenance Management. In this episode, we talk about the Diesel Decoder, a powerful diagnostic tool that connects to your smartphone or tablet for easy diagnostics.
On our show today, we had special guests Dave Jerman of RoadWarrior, and Andy Turnbull of Diesel Laptops to talk to us about the Diesel Decoder.
Guest Websites: ROADWARRIOR, Diesel Laptops
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Sponsors of this Episode:
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Transcript of Episode:
Jamie Irvine:
You are listening to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. I’m your host, Jamie Irvine. And this is the show where you get expert advice about heavy-duty parts that keeps trucks and trailers on the road longer while lowering cost-per-mile. We’re at TMC and it has been a great show. I’m so happy to be here at the Diesel Laptop booth. We’ve got an exciting announcement to talk about that was made by these two great companies that have come together. So, first of all, let me introduce who I’m standing here with. We’re in the Diesel Laptops booth. We’re here with Andy Andy. Welcome to The Heavy-Duty Parts Report.
Andy Turnbull:
Good to be here, Jamie. Appreciate it, man.
Jamie Irvine:
Great. And a returning guest on The Heavy-Duty Parts Report when we get to do this live this time, Dave Jerman from Road Warrior.
Dave Jerman:
Thanks for having me back.
Jamie Irvine:
Yeah. Glad to have you back. So Diesel Laptops and Road Warrior made a little bit of news in the industry by coming together. So first of all, I want to talk about what was the motivation Dave of coming together with Diesel Laptops and what was the product that you ended up releasing?
Dave Jerman:
Yeah, absolutely. We are proud to partner up with Diesel Laptops diagnostic and information, and trouble shootings as trucks become more complicated and sophisticated. So partnering with Diesel Laptops to give a handheld tool, basically turn a smartphone or a tablet into a diagnostic tool was pretty exciting for us to help end users being able to troubleshoot and fix things the right the first time. Information and troubleshooting tips that we’re always striving to help our customers understand the technology and how to diagnostic fix it. Right. The first time when it comes to our aftertreatment system, people always blame the DPF and maybe it’s the DOC or some upstream issue. By looking at fault codes and understanding what has to be taken care of right now, what can maybe wave a little bit is pretty exciting for us to be able to help our customers be able to determine that within the palm of their hand.
Jamie Irvine:
And the trucking industry has been dealing with the challenges related to diesel emission systems and the aftertreatment system. So Andy, tell us a little bit about the development of the product itself. Diesel Laptops has been integral in bringing this product forward. What is it and how does exactly work?
Andy Turnbull:
Sure. So the product that we have is Diesel Decoder and the Diesel Decoder product is really that bottom tier of kind of the widest tier of diagnostic tools. So really at the top, you’ve got more of a dealer level tool. You kind of work your way down into the mid-tier where it’s fleets and you’ve got an independent shops and this is really putting the power in the hand of an individual, being able to hook up, hold the fault code, find out what it is, you know, and if it’s DPF related, then that really is the type of data that’ll be right at their fingertips. And then really the discussion that we’re having is to go from diagnostic DTC code, you know, right in your fingertips, all the way to part number. And then ultimately, you know, that’s a great partnership that we have with Road Warrior specific to that.
Jamie Irvine:
Fantastic. And so Dave, now that you’ve got the product available and you’ve gotten it to some of your customers, what has been their reaction, now that they’ve had a chance to use the product?
Dave Jerman:
Well, they’re very excited to be able to, like very simply, with a free app, be able to view the codes, clear the codes and with some bidirectional commands being available, being released shortly, doing simple things like a forced region that they could do on their own. So again, to buy themselves some more time potentially, and have a clear understanding of what the problem is, and then they can make a decision. Do I have to address this right now? Can I wait till I finish my run in California, come back home or do I have to pull over and get to a dealer right away because this is something that’s serious? So this could really maintain their uptime and make them and make some critical decisions right at the moment, which is pretty exciting.
Jamie Irvine:
Right. And at the end of the day uptime and utilization, these are words that we keep hearing at this conference today here at TMC. And so I’m excited to hear that how you guys have come together and collaborated. We’re gonna take a quick break. We’ll be right back. Don’t have a heavy-duty part number and need to look up a part? Go to parts.diesellaptops.com or download the app on Apple or Android to create your free account. Looking for high quality fuel injections for heavy-duty applications? Having one supplier for fuel injection allows you to better serve customers by providing them with a complete line, which increases your sales and profitability. Learn more at ambacinternational.com/aftermarket. Andy, when you’re thinking about lowering total cost of operation, how big of a role does diagnostics play in that for fleets regardless of whether they are operate at the regional or the national level?
Andy Turnbull:
Well, I mean, it’s massive, knowing what the problem is and just knowing if that needs to be repowered is a huge question that gets asked every single day, you know, can that load make its final journey? Is the driver gonna run out of hours? All of these conversations have been at TMC for, I don’t know how long since at least I’ve been attending for the past 20 years, right? So uptime is critical, the ability and the efficiency of a technician to be able to make quick decisions and even the driver to make quick decisions and ultimately the ownership to make quick decisions on what to do and efficiencies where it’s at making that entire chain as smooth as possible.
Jamie Irvine:
So Road Warrior has been selling after treatment products for some time. And you have distribution, you have different ways for people to get your products. Dave, what’s the best way for someone who’s interested in buying this product from road warrior to actually get their hands on it?
Dave Jerman:
The best way is they could go to our website roadwarrior-inc.com, and they can look up the part, punch it in, and then they can call our toll free number (877) 897-9759 hit extension zero and connect directly with our customer service team. And then we can either put you in the hands of one of our authorized distributors and give you some information about where the product is. And, you know, we can ship it from one of our 12 warehouses same day.
Jamie Irvine:
All right. So we’ll have all that contact information in the show notes, you’ll be able to just click one click through or dial that number and press zero, and actually talk to a real person. Dave, is that what I heard?
Dave Jerman:
Absolutely. We pride ourselves that people still want some answers so they can speak to our customer service team, which is second to none.
Jamie Irvine:
My name is Jamie Irvine. I’m the host of The Heavy-Duty Parts Report. We’re here at TMC and really talking to two great organizations, Road Warrior and Diesel Laptops. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being on the show. Dave, welcome back. It’s nice to be here in person with you.
Dave Jerman:
It’s great. Being able to get back out there and meet and greet and see people face to face. Andy and I have been talking for quite some time virtually, so it’s nice to be able to shake his hand and meet him in person.
Jamie Irvine:
Yeah, it was the same way. Andy and I, we hadn’t met until yesterday, so we get to meet today and yeah, that’s great. So thanks again for being on the show.
