Driving the future: How AI and Hitachi Digital Services keep Penske’s fleet on the road

Penske is a US-based diversified transportation services company and a leading supply chain management and logistics provider. With a vast fleet of over 430,000 trucks, ensuring vehicle reliability has been critical for Penske to sustain supply chain operations across the US. Penske recognized that the future of fleet management lies in predictive maintenance and AI-driven insights to enhance vehicle uptime, efficiency, and customer experience.

In collaboration with Hitachi Digital Services, Penske embarked on a transformation initiative to integrate AI-powered Proactive Diagnostics and Guided Repair solutions into its fleet operations. This initiative has significantly enhanced vehicle uptime, reduced operational costs, and optimized technician efficiency, establishing Penske as an industry front-runner in digital fleet management.

Revolutionizing fleet management: The need for a data-infused approach

Like many fleet operators, Penske faced mounting challenges due to increasing vehicle complexity, technician shortages, and rising maintenance costs. Traditional diagnostic methods were often reactive, leading to unplanned downtime, costly repairs, and inefficient service operations. The company realized it needed an intelligent, data-driven approach to tackle these hurdles while ensuring seamless customer service.

Key objectives included:

• Minimizing downtime: Predicting vehicle failures before they occur to enhance uptime
• Optimizing repair processes: Providing real-time guidance to technicians to ensure fast and accurate servicing
• Enhancing operational efficiency: Leveraging AI to analyze vast maintenance datasets and uncover actionable insights

To achieve these objectives, Penske partnered with Hitachi Digital Services to create an AI-driven predictive maintenance platform.

The digital overhaul: AI-powered guided repair and predictive maintenance

Penske and Hitachi Digital Services collaborated across multiple phases to transform fleet maintenance through AI and IoT-driven innovations:

1. Guided repair: Empowering technicians with real-time AI insights

The Guided Repair solution integrates AI-driven diagnostics into Penske’s ServiceNet , its technicians’ primary platform. Sensor data are instantly analyzed whenever trucks arrive at any Penske service center, and AI-driven recommendations are provided in real time. This helps even less experienced technicians quickly identify and execute necessary repairs, enhancing efficiency. The Guided Repair solution is used by nearly 11,500 Penske fleet maintenance technicians across 990+ locations.

The impact: 117,000+ Guided Repair sessions in the past year alone, saving significant labor hours per service call.

2. Proactive diagnostics: Predicting failures before they happen

Building on the success of Guided Repair, Penske and Hitachi Digital Services introduced Proactive Diagnostics, an AI-powered engine that predicts potential vehicle failures. By analyzing sensor data from Penske’s IoT-connected fleet, the system determines the likelihood of a failure within 24 hours to a week, enabling proactive maintenance.

The impact: The service is estimated to have helped prevent 90,000+ truck failures over the last year, reducing breakdowns and emergency repairs.

3. AI-powered data science collaboration

Hitachi’s data science expertise was instrumental in integrating predictive analytics with Penske’s deep domain knowledge. Together, they developed robust AI models trained on decades of fleet maintenance data, ensuring accurate diagnostics and continuous model improvements.

The impact: Advanced AI models fine-tuned with Penske’s historical maintenance records, enhancing diagnostic precision.

Last year alone, we prevented over 90,000 trucks from failing on the side of the road. These were real trucks, driven by real drivers, and transporting real goods. This isn’t hype—this is the reality of AI at work.

—Sarvant Singh, VP of Data & Emerging Digital Solutions, Penske

Driving real-world impact: The results of AI-driven fleet management

The collaboration between Penske and Hitachi Digital Services has yielded highly credible business outcomes, helping Penske reinforce its position as a technology front-runner in the fleet management space:

• Enhanced vehicle uptime: Predictive maintenance has drastically reduced unplanned downtime, keeping trucks on the road and supply chains moving.
• Technician efficiency boost: AI-driven repair recommendations have streamlined servicing, allowing technicians to complete jobs faster and more accurately.
• Cost savings: Reducing unnecessary repairs and emergency breakdowns has significantly reduced fleet operations costs.
• AI at scale: Penske has expanded its AI initiatives, including computer vision solutions and a proprietary GenAI platform, further transforming business processes.

Hitachi really works as if they’re part of Penske. Some days, it’s hard to tell who’s from Penske and who’s from Hitachi—that’s the mark of a great partnership.

—Sarvant Singh, VP of Data & Emerging Digital Solutions, Penske

A roadmap for the future: Expanding AI innovations

Looking ahead, Penske and Hitachi Digital Services are focused on scaling AI-driven automation, AI governance, and enterprise-wide adoption of machine learning (ML). As MLOps and AIOps capabilities continue to evolve, the partnership remains committed to building cutting-edge solutions that will redefine the future of fleet management:

• Expanding AI to other fleet operations, including computer vision and real-time automation
• Strengthening AI-driven analytics for deeper business intelligence
• Enhancing AI governance and ethical AI practices to ensure transparency and compliance

The Penske and Hitachi Digital Services initiative to transform fleet management is another industry example demonstrating that AI is not a futuristic vision but a present-day reality. As Penske continues its AI-first strategy, it remains committed to leveraging digital innovation to drive operational excellence and customer satisfaction.

We’re not doing AI for AI’s sake. We’re solving real-world problems—preventing breakdowns, enhancing uptime, delivering great customer experience, and making a tangible impact on our industry.

—Sarvant Singh, VP of Data & Emerging Digital Solutions, Penske

The Bottom Line: Having the right data foundation is the key to AI-powered success.

For organizations looking to harness AI for predictive maintenance, fleet optimization, or industrial transformation, Penske’s partnership with Hitachi Digital Services is a reference for a successful partnership equation. It proves that the right combination of AI, domain expertise, and collaboration can drive real business impact.

This case study also highlights the need for a robust data foundation to drive successful AI initiatives. According to HFS research, nearly 60% of enterprises face significant challenges with data accessibility and management. To achieve true AI scalability, enterprises must go beyond viewing AI as just an analytics tool and instead adopt a holistic approach—making strategic investments in data engineering, governance, and MLOps, i.e., paying their data debts.