The Ford stand once again dominated the Commercial Vehicle Show in May, seemingly even bigger than usual this year.
And all over the stand, the phrase ‘Ford Pro’ stood out. It’s the tag line for a ‘productivity solution’ for commercial vehicle fleets launched earlier in the year, but also a phrase that seems to very quickly have become synonymous with everything the blue oval brand does in the LCV market.
The official description of Ford Pro is as a productivity accelerator, Ford stating that it delivers “end-to-end solutions for customers that combine world-class vehicles with software and connected services to help improve uptime, cost of ownership and sustainability.” But what does all that actually mean?
Is Ford Pro really as big a boon to the ever-harassed manager of a van fleet as Ford is claiming? To answer this we’ve taken a deep dive into the programme, with the help of Ford’s commercial aftersales manager, Andy Paton.
The programme comprises five elements and incorporates the FORDLiive suite of connected services launched in 2021, but Paton agrees at the start that a major driving factor behind Ford Pro is the launch of the E-Transit electric van and the very different challenges that face drivers and their fleet managers in going electric.
“The E-Transit will be suitable for many operators but not for everyone – it demands a different driver behaviour, you need to do stuff whilst the vehicle is charging to prep it for the day, because if you don’t you are going to waste range. And you have to do stuff whilst driving so that you drive in a way to maximise the range to fit into your day.” Paton says.
“But it also requires a different fleet management behaviour and with the whole concept of charging, ensuring you have the correct vehicle,” he adds.
According to Paton, ensuring fleets that are considering changing to E-Transit are suitable to do so, and then ensuring they make the most effective use of the vehicle for their needs, is at least half of what Ford Pro is all about.
The other half builds on what Paton describes the “richness of data” now being provided by the thousands of vehicles signed up to FORDLiive, the information uploaded on such aspects as vehicle health and driver behaviour enabling much more effective fleet management, especially in terms of servicing.
Equally, the driver data FORDLiive provides helps with any plans even the smallest fleets may have to switch to electric; “the behaviour of the driver in a diesel-engined vehicle can be rigorously interrogated from an eTransit point of view.”
Interrogating such data also enables comparison between different fleets to help everyone improve their effectiveness. “If one operator is getting three times the range of another, it’s not a criticism of the latter, simply that their driving style isn’t reflecting the EV, so let’s go and learn what the first is doing well and pass that on.”
The Ford Pro concept is divided into five elements…
Vehicles
First and foremost, Ford Pro aims to ensure that customers go for the right vehicle from the Ford range, whether electric or combustion, to suit their needs, making use of the data from thousands of customer insights provided by FORDLiive, and also having access to a wide range of conversion specialists.
“The customer must select the correct vehicle for their needs and get it upfitted to the right level for their business. Choosing the right vehicle is very important,” Paton says.
Servicing
Paton rates correct servicing as the second most important element of Ford Pro, to ensure the minimum downtime for customer vehicles. “You must make sure the servicing is right, and we can make that work for the customer through such things as mobile service plans and our service centres offering such things as later opening hours so that we can fit in with the operator’s needs.”
He adds, however, that this element is no longer driven by reactivity, reacting to needs and issues that occur, but pro-activity, anticipating the operator’s requirements before they ask. The third software element of the programme, which flows vehicle data uptime to both the operator and Ford, allows servicing requirements to be much more closely predicted and the service network alerted – whether at one of Ford’s specialist Transit Centres or a growing network of mobile service operators.
Software
The software element of Ford Pro has been incorporated from the FORDLiive programme. It is an integrated digital system that keeps all vehicles in a fleet, whether just a couple of vans or many hundreds, connected with both their operator and Ford dealers, passing information on vehicle statistics and help, driver behaviour and more. This enables much more effective fleet management.
Paton admits to being particularly impressed with this aspect of the programme. “Just last week I picked up a new vehicle and driving along the M25 I had a warning light appear on the dash. I phoned the dealership and said ‘should I pull over?’ but they were able to look online and say no it’s only a sensor that’s fallen off, I could continue and the problem would be sorted next time the van was available.
“For a van driver/operator that’s amazing – it adds to one’s feeling of safety with the knowledge it’s not going to lead to a catastrophic failure. The third element of software plays such a big role in servicing and maintenance of the vans.”
Charging
Information on how the vehicle is used, provided by the vehicle software, also plays a major role in the fourth element of Ford Pro – charging the vehicles.
The aim is to provide end-to-end bespoke charging solutions for operators, whether at the depot, maybe at a driver’s home, or through public charging points. Paton says that this data is vital to help operators choose charging solutions that will ensure their vans are available when they need them and able to complete the job expected of them.
“Getting this right is absolutely critical. Operators can make lots and lots of wrong decisions based on going for the wrong charging solutions. For example, a charging box might cost the operator £600 or more but be completely the wrong box for what they require.”
He adds that operators need to consider not just what they need now, but what they may require in the future. “In a fleet you may have ten spaces for charging but if next year you want to buy another 100 vehicles, ten spaces will not be enough. And then you will need to phone up the Grid to help you meet your needs.”
Such investment will be significant, he argues, and Ford is working with partners to ensure operators will be connected to the right partner to get the correct investment in place.
Financing
The final element of the programme is financing, to ensure operators can obtain the vans and support programme in the most soct-efficient manner. This is achieved through a range of finance options to help source the best vehicles and elements of the Ford Pro programme for the customer’s specific fleet.
So is Ford Pro worth investing in for those operators who currently have no specific plans to go electric – does it offer much for combustion-engined vehicles? Parton argues that it does, firstly with the FORDLiive element which while launched last year “is still in its infancy” but being constantly developed under the Ford Pro umbrella.
“Such aspects as fleet telematics, driver behaviour and learning and vehicle health work really well bundled into Ford Pro,” he says, adding that this enables more effective fleet management. One of the major gains is combining the knowledge of many fleet operators who may be experienced in perhaps one or two of the various elements that form the programme; “For example they watch Formula One so they know about using software to monitor vehicle health. It’s the bringing it together to improve productivity that makes Ford Pro unique.”
The crucial question – how much does all this cost? Not as much as one might think, Paton argues, with the major potential cost elements being in the software choice. “There are five software solutions and the first three are free of charge, whether for an ICE or electric vehicle.
“Two of them on an ICE vehicle are chargeable – one provides a full telematics suite, not only the vehicle health element but also the driver behaviour data and the other is a data feed, which the mega companies with multi-brands run their own anyway.”
He adds that customers buying an E-Transit will get all of the software solutions free-of-charge for the first year. “All of the charging, software and servicing information costs nothing for a year and you can choose which elements to opt into.”
Charging infrastructure could for most fleets prove the most major cost, but Paton argues this is where Ford Pro can very much prove its worth, because “the investment they must make must be the right investment.”
And will there be scope for further expansion? Paton believes so. “Ford Pro will be the umbrella for our commercial vehicles now, and as various new solutions are developed to enable what are becoming ‘iPhones on wheels’ to drive along, they will be brought to market under the Ford Pro umbrella.
“We make no apologies for Pro meaning productivity,” he concludes. “We are driving efficiency, productivity, uptime into our solutions. That’s the important thing – we are and have always been a motor manufacturer but we are so much more than that now, it’s that IT solution that has to fit, and Ford Pro is our enabler.”
