Preteckt AI to be used by Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority to maintain bus fleet

April 27, 2023
The agreement is a step toward Preteckt’s plan to expand into transit authorities across North America.

Preteckt signed an agreement with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) to help maintain the Florida authority’s fleet. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) company’s AI-powered predictive maintenance can catch problems before they cause breakdowns and provides technicians with the insights needed to make these early repairs.

The agreement will see Preteckt’s technology used by PSTA’s bus maintenance team after a pilot project. The technology helps mechanics quickly locate potential problems in bus engines before they cause catastrophic failure. This also allowed them to see this technology saves time and labor costs while ensuring safer, more reliable vehicles.

“PSTA’s maintenance department experienced an increase in vehicle up-time and reliability with the vehicles involved in the pilot program,” said Joe Cheney, deputy director of fleet operations for PSTA. “By identifying problems before they cause performance issues, we were able to correct them without negative operational impact. For this reason, Preteckt’s technology has been rolled out to more than 50 percent of the bus fleet with the expectation to continue further implementation in the future.”

Preteckt is focused on delivering value to vehicle maintenance teams. Its platform offers engine and after-treatment repair plans to public transit maintainers. Preteckt was conceived to support fleet maintenance teams who were spending millions of dollars each year trying to keep up with repairs that had been detected too late or managed with scarce vehicle technician resources. Preteckt helps mitigate these costs, empowers technicians with a tool to keep up with rapidly changing technology and reduces the environmental impacts of these repairs.

“We are thrilled the PSTA recognized the benefits of having Preteckt’s AI powered predictive maintenance in its bus fleet, and we are excited about a potential further expansion.” said Krish Inbarajan, CEO of Preteckt. “PSTA is a leader in transit for adopting innovation that ensures its riders get where they need to go on time and safely and significantly helps its maintenance employees look after its fleet. We are delighted to have them be the first agency in Florida to sign a commercial contract with Preteckt.”

This commercial agreement is part of Preteckt’s expansion into transit authorities across North America. After adapting its AI innovation from the trucking industry and applying it to transit fleets, Preteckt now supports several commercial contracts and numerous pilots across North America.

Memphis Area Transit Authority was the first transit agency to implement this technology after seeing it being used with heavy-duty trucks. Preteckt’s AI was most recently adopted by New York City Transit’s bus maintenance after successfully being selected from an innovation challenge posed by the Transit Tech Lab.