How Brakebush got a glimpse into the future of its fleet.
Nine breakdowns and costly repairs avoided and $26,517 returned in the first seven weeks, with no new hardware.
- Fleet
- About 110 over-the-road tractors
- Operating range
- All lower 48 states
- Makes
- Kenworth, Volvo, Freightliner
- Telematics
- Samsara
- Maintenance software
- Alpine
- Starting focus
- Exhaust and aftertreatment
Results, first seven weeks.
early-warning alerts acted on by the shop
of vehicle downtime avoided on the road
in repair cost and downtime avoided
to recover the full annual program cost
Source: Brakebush Transportation, Wisconsin
Payback inside the first 2 of 12 months.
Tensor Planet’s early warnings delivered a return of $26,517, combining repair cost and downtime avoided. That recovered the full annual program cost in under two months. The figures were built on Brakebush’s own repair history and agreed jointly with the fleet team.
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- Annual program cost recovered
- Rest of the program year
How Brakebush prevents roadside breakdowns.
The Brakebush Transportation customer story
The challenge
Brakebush Brothers is a 100-year-old, family-owned company in Westfield, Wisconsin, processing chicken products. Its products reach customers on its own fleet through Brakebush Transportation, a privately owned fleet of about 110 over-the-road tractors running all of the lower 48 states. The fleet is mixed by design, across makes such as Kenworth, Volvo and Freightliner, with model years spanning more than a decade.
It is a well-run fleet. An experienced maintenance team runs a strong preventive maintenance program, keeps telematics on every vehicle and codes every repair order to a standard. The team is also forward-looking, constantly exploring new technology to improve fleet operations and uptime.
For a private fleet feeding production lines and customer delivery windows, a vehicle that goes down a thousand miles from the shop is a business problem first, even before it is a repair bill.
When a truck goes down on the road, given that we run all of the lower 48, it turns into a big problem that involves operations, dispatch and safety. There are times when a breakdown takes us most of the day to figure out what we’re doing.
Four things made these breakdowns hard to get ahead of, even for a strong shop.
The repair is a fraction of the cost
Aftertreatment repairs keep a vehicle down for 19 to 33 hours. On the road, add a tow, a third-party shop, a rental or spare, and a load at risk.
Fault codes were not actionable
The fleet already reported fault codes, far more than anyone could review. On their own, many of those codes are noisy or hard to act on.
A high bar for any new software
The team had heard plenty of pitches that did not add up. Any new tool had to prove itself on the fleet’s own vehicles to earn the shop’s trust.
Breakdowns cost drivers as well
A failure a thousand miles out strands a driver and adds hours they did not plan for. Every roadside breakdown is a retention risk as well.
We’re in the business of on-time delivery. Partnering with Tensor Planet gave us the ability to have a little glimpse into the future.
The approach
Brakebush went live with Tensor Planet, starting with exhaust and aftertreatment, the area where failures were most frequent and most disruptive. The setup used the systems already in place: an online data connection to Samsara, the fleet’s telematics, and to Alpine, its maintenance software.
Failures rarely arrive without warning. A sensor drifts, soot builds faster than it burns off, a pattern of codes repeats. The system reads fault codes along with soot load, exhaust pressure and temperatures, and regeneration activity, and flags these early patterns days or weeks before they turn into a derate or a breakdown.
How it works at Brakebush
Connect
01A data connection to Samsara and Alpine. No new hardware needed.
Watch
02Reads fault codes and sensor signals against vehicle history.
Alert
03Names the vehicle, the likely issue and a recommended action.
Plan
04Dispatch is told, parts are ordered, repair is done in home time.
We did not have to install any new hardware to get Tensor Planet set up. They were able to use everything that we already had in place. Curtis Cutsforth, Fleet Maintenance Support Supervisor, Brakebush Transportation
Adoption in the shop
Alerts go out only at high confidence, so every one is worth a technician’s time. Each comes with in-line repair history and PM details. For Brakebush, the biggest change was in planning: an alert now starts a conversation with dispatch, instead of a roadside scramble.
- Road breakdown
- A tow called
- Third-party shop
- Rental or spare
- Load at risk
- Early alert
- Dispatch told
- Parts ordered
- Home-time repair
- No breakdown
Two early alerts, in the shop
A brand-new tractor
- The alert. A likely NOx sensor failure, flagged on a brand-new tractor.
- The first read. On a new unit, it looked like a software setup issue.
- The outcome. The shop acted on it and found the new sensor was faulty.
An exact call on a cooler
- The alert. An inefficient EGR cooler, with a possible coolant leak.
- The action. Inspect the cooler and check the full coolant system.
- The outcome. The shop confirmed it and closed the repair on schedule.
Once we get an alert from Tensor Planet, we let dispatch know that we are going to need time to work on that unit. Most of the time now, we can fix the problem before it ever becomes a road breakdown.
With the insights we are sent daily, we are able to diagnose the issue before the truck is even home. So we are able to make sure we have the parts here, or get them here in a timely manner.
Hear it straight from the fleet.
I am a maintenance manager who is very skeptical about new technology… Tensor Planet has done exactly what it claimed it would do. In my 24 years in this role, it is hands down the best software we have ever bought.
There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors. What Tensor Planet said the product would do, it does.
Chris Armstrong Fleet Manager, Brakebush Transportation
Drivers hate changing trucks, and they hate it when trucks break down. With Tensor Planet, avoiding that is a nice little driver retention piece.
Chris Armstrong Fleet Manager, Brakebush Transportation
From a security standpoint, I was a little hesitant about giving access to our information. But after talking with the Tensor Planet team, I could definitely tell they were very professional and were going to use it in a way that benefits us.
Curtis Cutsforth Fleet Maintenance Support Supervisor, Brakebush Transportation
What he would tell skeptics of predictive maintenance.
Mark Borud, Fleet Maintenance Manager, Brakebush Transportation
The benefit beyond ROI: driver retention.
Chris Armstrong, Fleet Manager, Brakebush Transportation
How Tensor Planet handled data security.
Curtis Cutsforth, Fleet Maintenance Support Supervisor, Brakebush Transportation
Looking ahead
The Brakebush and Tensor Planet teams meet regularly to track adoption and ROI. The AI models keep learning from the shop’s actions and from vehicle performance. With a robust foundation in place, two opportunities are on the horizon.
