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The heavy truck industry, during the 1990's faces increasing numbers of electronically controlled component systems; two factors have been recognized and are being addressed by SAE and The Maintenance Council (TMC) of the ATA: (a) the on-board electronic based component modules must communicate in an efficient manner; (b) off-board diagnostic tools, most likely computerized, must be developed and offered to the industry to insure efficient maintenance of these on-board components. This paper provides the background and the current status of the effort, primarily chartered by TMC, to recommend a more standard or universal environment for diagnostic technology.

The migration of electronically controlled components to the heavy truck necessitates equally as sophisticated computers in the service area to diagnose and isolate the faults identified by the component and posted via the SAE Recommended data link (currently J1708). To date our industry's component manufacturers have taken a direction of developing unique “manufacturer specific” computerized diagnostic technologies. This paper: (a) outlines an alternative uniform technical environment, referred to as the Universal Diagnostic Platform for the Heavy Truck Industry, (b) covers the background leading up to this recommendation, (c) states the current status of industry wide activity related to this topic and (d) makes recommendations to the industry.