Penske Truck Leasing this week unveiled Catalyst AI, an industry first AI platform the company says it set to revolutionize fleet management and deliver real-time insight into fleet performance.
The company says Catalyst AI marks a pivotal shift away from traditional industry benchmarks, empowering fleet managers with actionable intelligence to optimize fleet performance using dynamic comparative data.
“Catalyst AI was born from our vision to harness the power of AI to meet the needs of today’s fleet managers,” says Ann Walsh, senior vice president of digital and customer data at Penske. “By integrating over 57 billion data points with AI, our patent-pending algorithm and industry expertise enables fleet managers to better optimize their operations using leading-edge technology.”
The Catalyst AI platform compares a fleet’s performance to similar fleets across Penske’s live database of hundreds of thousands of vehicles in real-time. This platform enables leaders to benchmark their fleets using apples-to-apples comparisons, unlock fuel efficiency opportunities, optimize utilization, and business performance using targeted insights, the company says.
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Additionally, Penske says new industry research found 77% of transportation professionals tend to rely on historical, annual forecasting and industry benchmark reports to inform their fleet planning and procurement decisions. For fleet managers, this process is often manual, time consuming and relies on data that may not holistically compare to their specific fleets, the company says.
And at the heart of Catalyst AI lies its patent-pending algorithm that identifies the most-similar fleets by evaluating key dimensions of fleet operations and composition. This process creates a unique "fleet DNA," enabling highly customized operational KPI benchmarks tailored to each fleet's specific performance needs, the company adds.
“With innovation at our core, Penske is committed to developing solutions that drive efficiency and performance for our customers. Catalyst AI addresses the critical need for comparative, real-time insights in fleet management,” says Sherry Sanger, executive vice president of strategy and marketing for Penske. “This cutting-edge technology enables businesses to unlock new efficiencies, reduce costs, and ultimately, sets a new standard for fleet performance.”