Penske Trucks Enhances AI Platform for Smarter Fleet Management
Penske Truck Leasing has upgraded its proprietary AI platform, Catalyst AI, to improve commercial fleet management. Developed internally, the system now leverages over 100 billion data points and more than 300 real-time models. This allows for faster, more precise insights covering everything from individual vehicles to entire hub operations.
Art Vallely, Penske’s president, described the update as a new phase for Catalyst AI that makes complex data easier to use, scale, and act on. The platform now better identifies trends, benchmarks vehicle performance, and spots outliers across fleets and facilities.
New Features Driving Fleet Performance
- Fantasy Fleet: This feature lets users compare their vehicles against a group of top performers similar to their own. It helps pinpoint performance gaps and areas for improvement.
- Vehicle-level Comparison: Users can compare individual vehicles to uncover differences in performance, highlighting where upgrades will be most effective.
- Hub-level Comparison: This tool evaluates fleet performance by location, revealing operational variations and efficiency opportunities at the local level.
- Impacting Metrics: Fleet managers can focus on specific KPIs such as fuel efficiency, maintenance costs, and utilization to make better-informed decisions.
These features reinforce Penske’s commitment to providing AI-powered tools that help managers make faster, smarter decisions across all operations. Brian Harper, fleet operations lead at Darigold, praised the platform for delivering real-time market comparisons and actionable data that have already helped reduce costs and revisit success metrics.
Addressing Industry Needs with AI
The upgrade responds to growing demands for fleet resilience and operational efficiency. According to Penske’s 2025 Transportation Leaders Survey, 93% of industry leaders see AI as essential for building resilience. Over half believe that comparing fleet performance to the market improves efficiency and decision-making. Early AI adopters report fuel, cost, and routing improvements exceeding 50%.
Sherry Sanger, executive vice president of strategy and marketing at Penske Transportation Solutions, emphasized that Catalyst AI is more than just a visibility tool—it empowers smarter decisions across the entire network using real-world technology.
Catalyst AI is part of Penske’s Fleet Insight platform, embedded within the Comparative Insights feature. While fleet-level insights remain free, the new Comparative Insights Premium offers expanded comparison tools, including Fantasy Fleet, and comes with a 30-day free trial.
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