New steps in data-driven damage prevention

Most damage to trucks/vans occur in the so-called last mile. This is annoying for drivers and costs transport companies a lot of money. But there is good news: the integration between Simacan and the damage claim app Bumper, handling incidents becomes much more efficient, and more importantly: through smart use of data, much damage can be prevented.

Damages are an everyday occurance in road transport and are quite irritating for several reasons. First of all, the driver, who often feels terrible about it - even though the damage is not always his fault - has to carry out all kinds of administrative tasks. Which he has absolutely no desire to do. In many cases, this also means that the rest of the trip will be out of schedule. Perhaps a replacement vehicle will have to be arranged. In short, it's a lot of hassle, and the driver already knows that he will be coming home late and might even miss out on his extracurricular activities.

Planners are busy

But damages are also annoying for the company the driver works for. If the incident takes place at a customer's premises and the driver is blamed, it will not only cause physical damage but can also cause reputational damage. Especially if this jeopardises the agreed time slots at other locations and receiving parties have to be informed that their goods will arrive later. And then, of course, there is the damage itself, which also needs to be resolved. The truck in question will have to be assessed and possibly scheduled for repair. As a result, it will be temporarily unavailable and the planning will have to be adjusted. The resource planners, fleet managers and asset managers of this world are very busy.

Truck damages are expensive

Besides being annoying, damage is also expensive. Damage to a bumper, mirror or load can easily cost a few thousand euros to repair. That is a lot of money when you consider that a truck may need to be on the road for six months to earn that amount back. Of course, many transport companies have taken out insurance for this, but that costs money too, in the form of premiums. And you still have to get your damage paid out. Claiming damages from an insurer is quite time-consuming and causes a lot of administrative hassle for drivers and office staff.

Reducing adverse effects

What can we do? How can we minimise the negative consequences of transport damage? As far as Simacan is concerned, this can be done in two ways: a) by preventing damage and b) by making damage handling more efficient. For both, we have built in useful features in our Control Tower. New is the integration with the Dutch damage claim app Bumper of transport insurance company TVM. We briefly explain how a transport company can benefit from this integration.

Last Mile Guidance

There are many ways to prevent damage, such as coaching drivers in their driving style or investing in special tools and safety systems on trucks. By far the most damage occurs in the last mile, during manoeuvring at an unloading location, docking at a warehouse or parking in a residential area. A tool that can prevent these damages is the Simacans Last Mile Guidance. This is a kind of navigation system 2.0 that 'coaches' a driver to his destination up to the last metres and warns him of all obstacles (bollards, walls, etc.) and risky situations. This tool is fed with real-time information and takes into account the current traffic situation such as traffic jams or local events.

More about Simacan Last Mile Guidance >

Bumper integration

Forewarned is forearmed, but even so, accidents will always happen. In order to make the handling of these incidents easier and more efficient, Simacan has set up an integration with Bumper, a Dutch app that allows drivers to report an incident claim via their smartphone. Thanks to this link, unfortunate truckers no longer have to enter all the details about the trip, location, registration number, etc., but these are automatically entered from the Simacan platform. This saves the driver a lot of time and prevents errors when reporting. Another advantage is that the planner can also create the claim - or finish! - and the only task left for the driver is to take the photos of the situation and have the counterparty initialled them.

Data is worth its weight in gold

Transport companies record all their incident claims in the Bumper app and, if desired, can forward them to the insurer. Within Simacan, each claim is linked to a trip that is monitored by the platform in real time, and for which the current traffic and trip conditions are also known. This combination of damage and contextual data is worth its weight in gold from a prevention point of view. It provides the perfect insight into where, how and by whom damage occurred, and so you can predict exactly where the risks lie. By using alternative routes, these can perhaps be avoided or improvement programmes can be started in order to remove the causes. Drivers can also be instructed and warned even more precisely during their trip.

Data-driven damage prevention

The cooperation between Simacan and Bumper is an important step towards data-driven damage prevention, from which transport companies can immediately benefit. It will significantly reduce the cost of damages (and associated reputation loss) and it will make the handling more efficient. The latter is something that will certainly be applauded by drivers as well…

Read our news article about the cooperation with Bumper >