Spanish Company Teams With WheelTime To Crack OEM Diagnostic Repair Codes
This story appears in the Oct. 7 print edition of Transport Topics.
CAMPO de CRIPTANA, Spain — Here in a part of south-central Spain known more as the stomping ground of Don Quixote and for its wine growing than high-tech ventures, a company is trying to loosen the tight grip North American truck makers have exerted on the repair of their vehicles.
Cojali Group, an aftermarket products company formed in 1991, is looking to change the way independent repair shops in North America work on modern trucks by offering a single testing product that reads most of the diagnostic codes contained in those vehicles.
The company has established a subsidiary in Florida and has an agreement with the WheelTime network of 179 repair shops to use and distribute the diagnostic tool, known as the Jaltest, in North America.
Jill Gingrich, director of client support for WheelTime, which is based in Greensboro, N.C., said Jaltest is “a bumper-to-bumper, all-brands diagnostic tool.”
Up to now, repair shops have had to purchase diagnostic software from each manufacturer to work on modern trucks, which all contain a large number of electronic control units that monitor the performance of components.
The probe data are encrypted and up to now could be read only through the use of propriety software purchased from each OEM for up to $15,000 and up to $5,000 a year in update fees.
Gingrich said her company sells the Jaltest for $5,200 and charges around $1,000 a year for three major software updates.
There are about 1,200 active licenses for Jaltest in the United States today, said Jose Ramon Serrano, director of sales and business development for Cojali, including all of WheelTime’s locations.
The tool was developed for the European market, where it is “normal” for repair shops to use multibrand devices because the law requires that truck manufacturers assist independent garages in fixing their vehicles, said Venancio Alberca, Cojali’s general manager.
“Between 85% and 90% of everyday repairs” are covered by the Jaltest, Gingrich said.
Cojali officials said they were hopeful that the Jaltest would appeal to independent shops that don’t want to pay the higher fees to the OEMS, and could prevent many of these garages from using pirated software.
The diagnostic tool “is designed to break up the monopoly that the OEMs’ have had” on repair software, said Emiliano Morales, director of sales and business development for Cojali USA, the Florida-based subsidiary.
The agreement between Cojali and WheelTime, which was first announced this spring at the annual meeting of the Technology & Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations, runs through 2015. Officials said they expected the agreement would be extended.
Cojali, which hosted a press visit of its facilities here Sept. 26-27, also produces and sells in 80 countries cooling systems for heavy-duty trucks as well as slack adjusters, spring brakes and an anti-lock braking system for trailers.
It expects to introduce its re-placement fan drives in the United States by 2015.
