Leading
the way
TOM STONE, IVT INTERNATIONAL
VOLVO CE PRESIDENT MELKER JERNBERG IS LEADING THE OEM
THROUGH ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE PERIODS IN
ITS ENTIRE HISTORY. IVT CAUGHT UP WITH THE OFFHIGHWAY
KINGPIN TO GET HIS TAKE ON THE NEW TECHNOLOGY AND
THE DRIVING FORCES BEHIND THIS ERA OF UNPRECEDENTED CHANGE
Eskilstuna may not be a key
destination for the average
world traveller, but in the offhighway
vehicle world it is
legendary, because this Swedish city
is the birthplace of the business that
has become Volvo Construction
Equipment. It is here that a young
engineer Johan Theofron Muntkell
established his first mechanical
workshop in 1832, a humble
beginning that has led directly,
through decades of evolution, to the
multinational OEM we now know.
Today, Eskilstuna is still Volvo CE’s
spiritual home and the location of
many key company assets.
Off-highway vehicle fans
regularly make pilgrimages to
Eskilstuna’s Muntkell Museum,
which holds much of Volvo CE’s
history in machine form. Meanwhile
the OEM’s customers are often
invited to the nearby Customer
Centre to experience new vehicles
first hand. But it is behind the closed
14 iVTInternational.com November 2019
gates of Volvo CE’s Technical
Centre, also in Eskilstuna, that rival
engineers and designers would most
like to peek. They rarely get that
chance. But recently information has
been released about a new project
underway there to deploy and test
a robust 5G cellular data network for
industrial vehicles.
And so, when iVT sat down with
Volvo CE president Melker Jernberg
recently, we couldn’t resist first
asking him to reveal a little more
about what’s going on with the top
secret project. As ever, Jernberg was
friendly and open.
“With our partners Telia and
Ericsson we have built the world’s
first 5G network for industrial use,”
says Jernberg. “One thing we are
looking at using it for is the remote
control of wheel loaders. This could
be of great value. For example, in a
mining context, if you do a blast you
need to ventilate for number of
hours. With remote control you can
send a wheel loader in after five
minutes instead of three hours – so
you gain three hours productivity!”
Jernberg has now been at the helm
of Volvo CE for nearly two years.
During this time he has proved
himself as a hands-on chief. Always
keen to get behind the wheel (or
joystick) of the latest vehicles – and
even organising events for executive
management team to do the same. So,
of course, when the new prototype
5G remote control system was
complete, it was easy to guess where
Jernberg might be found…
“I actually drove a remote-control
wheel loader,” he says. And getting
to grips with the controls helped
him to focus on one of the key
benefits of 5G. “You can build
remote systems with 4G and wi-fi.
But in some areas, 5G will be much
better,” he continues. “When you
drive remote, and you have cameras,
the problem is it’s not exactly real
time – there is some latency – but
/iVTInternational.com
