Karmak has joined the Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA) as an Associate Member.
Karmak is the first dealer management system provider serving the heavy-duty trucking industry to join COVESA, extending the alliance's connected-vehicle data standards into the service, repair and fleet operations that keep commercial assets on the road.
COVESA develops open, vendor-neutral standards, including the Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS), to enable interoperable vehicle data across the mobility ecosystem. While COVESA’s membership has historically concentrated on passenger vehicles and light-duty applications, Karmak’s participation brings commercial vehicle service and operations expertise to the alliance, addressing the distinct operational requirements of Class 6–8 trucks and trailers where unplanned downtime directly impacts freight economics.
“Karmak brings an important commercial vehicle operations perspective to COVESA,” says Steve Crumb, executive director at COVESA. “Their expertise will help ensure that open common approaches and technologies like VSS translate into real operational value, reducing downtime, improving service efficiency and strengthening data interoperability across the industry.”
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Karmak’s focus within COVESA centers on what the company calls “First-to-Last Mile” ecosystem, connecting vehicle health data to the complete service lifecycle, from initial fault detection through scheduling, diagnosis, parts procurement, repair authorization and final invoice.
Today, significant efficiency is lost in translating telematics signals into funded repair orders. Karmak says service providers and fleets remain disconnected from each other and from the data that should drive faster action. Fault codes require too much manual interpretation before action can be taken. Logistics insights, service location bay availability, technician capacity and parts proximity are often invisible. Data is re-keyed across disconnected systems. The result: extended dwell time and inflated repair costs.
“Connected vehicle standards create value when they reduce friction in actual service operations,” says John Cowan, senior vice president of Business Solutions at Karmak. “We joined COVESA to help ensure that VSS translates directly into business logic, automating the path from a fault code to a funded repair order, eliminating manual data re-entry and compressing the time between when an asset signals a problem and when it's back on the road, generating revenue.”
Through its ecosystem of dealer management platforms, including Fusion and Blaze, certified integrations and OEM partnerships with Paccar, Daimler Truck North America, International, Mack/Volvo, Great Dane and other technology partners, Karmak connects the data layer to the transactional layer where uptime decisions are executed and revenue is captured, the company says.
