End of the road for breakdowns?

Recovery operators could soon find their services in short supply. At least that’s the hope of mobile resource management company Trimble.

It says winter breakdowns will soon be a thing of the past thanks to predictive technology that identifies when a vehicle is about to fail.

Trimble already provides what it calls a “Driver DNA” GPS tracking box to commercial fleets such as British Gas and BT and it now hopes to roll it out to other businesses and the public.

Driver DNA records information about the vehicle’s location, condition and the way it is driven. It also measures battery voltage to predict a failure or non-start and advises customers via a text message or email.

In 2010, prognostics technology will be available to analyse all problems and predict a failure earlier than the driver or even the vehicle itself.

“People will no longer have to wait in the cold for someone to come and fix their vehicles as breakdowns will be prevented from happening in the first place,” said Andrew Yeoman, Trimble’s MD.

“We are proud to produce cutting-edge technology that will benefit businesses and the public.”