With the company’s duty cycle programming, Lloyd’s technicians hook up to a truck’s ECM and change the aftertreatment settings from the factory settings to better suit the application for which the truck is used. Aaron Bird, who is in charge of business development for Lloyd, says when a truck rolls out of the factory, the aftertreatment systems are tuned more as a one-size-fits-all, rather than for the application a truck runs.
“We look at the readouts and analytics, as well as asking information from the driver on how he drives the truck, to see how the truck is being used, then we make adjustments to allow the aftertreatment system to work the way it’s designed to work,” Bird says.
James Trott, duty cycle engineer for Lloyd, says if a driver brings his truck to the company for optimization, the technicians teach the drivers how they can properly maintain the aftertreatment system themselves through just a visual inspection. With an investment of a couple thousand dollars, truck owners can also get the software from their engine OEM to check the ECM themselves. Trott says he has seen the return on such investment beginning within 90 days with full ROI depending on the truck’s application.
“An over-the-road driver will see the ROI in fuel efficiency savings, while a vocational driver will see it in less downtime and lower maintenance costs,” Trott says.
Additionally, the system can be used as a maintenance predictor, Bird says.
“We can predict if you’ll have an issue instead of you waiting for something to break,” Bird says.
With more than 1,000 trucks using Lloyd’s system to date, Trott adds the company has seen a zero failure rate when the truck owners act on the maintenance.
Currently, Lloyd has locations in Dallas, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif. In the future, Bird says the company plans to expand into new locations across the U.S. More on the company can be found at their website.
