5 Key Challenges Impacting the Roads Industry and How Forcelink Can Resolve Them

Global road infrastructure faces several significant pain points that affect both urban and rural areas, ranging from maintenance issues to safety concerns and operational inefficiencies. Forcelink is designed to empower organisations by streamlining field operations, enhancing customer satisfaction and driving profitability. It offers the flexibility to tailor services to meet the unique requirements of the road industries. Below are 5 key issues and how Forcelink can resolve them:

1. Poor Road Maintenance & Potholes

Possibly the biggest issue facing the majority of roads organisations, not only in South Africa but around the world. Many roads suffer from severe neglect. Potholes are a major problem, leading to vehicle damage and accidents. In the UK, on average, potholes cause approximately £460 worth of damages per vehicle. In South Africa, Santam stated that the average pothole-related insurance claim is between R20 000-R25 000. Budget constraints and inefficient service delivery often hinders timely repairs. Master Builders SA estimated that pothole repair costs range between R700 and R1,500 per square metre.

Forcelink integrates with municipalities providing customer portals, such as My Smart City, which enables citizens to easily log potholes and road damage via the app. Each report sent to the city includes the GPS location of the issue logged, and citizens can upload images. Through the citizen platform, Forcelink provides a clear point of communication for real-time feedback aiding the resolution process.

Work orders are automatically assigned to relevant maintenance teams using Forcelink’s AI Scheduling and Dispatch models, – taking into consideration factors such as proximity, skills & experience and availability, ensuring quicker response times and improving customer satisfaction.

Forcelink can also be used to schedule and track routine road inspections, ensuring maintenance is preventative rather than reactive. Identifying issues before they become severe also helps reduce maintenance costs.

With Forcelink’s new AIoT module, robust IoT devices can be retrofitted onto fleet vehicles for live inspections, triggering preventative maintenance calls, automatically closing repaired issues and saving municipalities millions in routine inspection costs, repair costs, insurance damage claims and overall road maintenance costs.

2. Traffic Congestion

Major cities, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Bristol and London experience heavy traffic congestion. Poor road planning and outdated infrastructures struggle to keep up with population growth and the demands this creates for road infrastructure. Traffic light outages further add to this congestion.

Forcelink can be integrated with traffic monitoring systems to detect congestion hotspots and automate the dispatching of traffic officers or repair teams through real-time traffic and incident management. The live GPS tracking of technicians enables the deployment of the closest available technician and optimises the route taken—leading to reduced downtime. If a repair delay is expected, Forcelink notifies relevant personnel to make adjustments accordingly.

3. Truck Overload & Damage to Roads

Logistic companies can often overload trucks, leading to excessive wear and tear on roads, particularly on major freight routes. Weigh stations are frequently non-operational or bypassed altogether.

Forcelink can connect to weigh stations and monitor compliance in real-time, generating alerts when overloaded trucks are detected. Automated inspection and compliance tracking enables digital record-keeping of roadworthy certifications.

4. Safety Concerns

Certain areas are notorious for hijackings and smash-and-grab incidents, yet response times can be slow. Drivers lack a quick way to report incidents in real time.

Integrating with law enforcement and emergency response systems would allow for the prioritisation of dispatches to high-risk areas. Hijacking hotspots can be better tracked, and patrols can be efficiently deployed. Citizens can report incidents such as crimes, hazards or accidents through customer portals to aid response time and create awareness for other commuters. With My Smart City, which is powered by Forcelink, citizens can see other emergencies that have been logged in their vicinity.

5. Operational Inefficiencies

Road agencies struggle to accurately track road repair quality and contractor performance. Tender irregularities result in frequent repairs. Asset and budget tracking can also be a challenge.

With Forcelink’s asset and budget tracking, clients can maintain records of road repairs, contractor performance, and material usage to ensure optimal budgeting and the proper allocation of funds. Invoices can be generated against completed work, with supporting documentation provided by the Work Management module.

Forcelink’s mobile and offline capabilities make it the perfect fit for road industries on the go. With its scalability, ability to integrate with other systems and applications, flexible pricing model, and rapid deployment, Forcelink positions itself as a standout Mobile Field Service ERP Solution.