Navistar’s comprehensive OnCommand telematics service is now free on all International trucks

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Navistar’s OnCommand Connection remote diagnostics system will now be free and standard on all 2007 and newer model International trucks, the company announced this week at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville.

It no longer will be charging a monthly fee for the service, the company announced, and it will be giving new OnCommand subscribers what they call a “telematics credit”—a stipend of sorts that truck buyers can use to buy hardware and data service for telematics systems.

Navistar calls OnCommand, “an all-makes remote diagnostic portal,” that uses, “the connection of virtually any telematics provider,” to give owners and fleet managers a real-time look at the health of their entire fleet.

The credit can be used on base model telematics hardware and two years of data service on International vehicles upon activiation of OnCommand, starting July 2015. Navistar does not yet have a firm dollar amount on how much it will provide, but will have more details in the coming months, the company said.

The OnCommand fee waiver and the telematics credit are part of the company’s recent “Uptime” efforts, announced earlier this year. Navistar says its focus now, from manufacturing throughout a vehicle’s life, is to limit downtime with two basic tenets: Keep trucks out of the shop through quality builds, but also to limit dwell time when trucks do need repairs.