Road inspection application.

Despite all the modern materials and techniques used to minimize road surface damage, road inspections remain a necessary evil. Besides damage caused by traffic load, after an accident or any deliberate destruction, nature also affects the state of the road surface. Ground effects, temperature differences and precipitation form a continuous impact on the road surface. SmallToGo developed an application that allows road inspections to be performed significantly faster and easier.

Inspecting the road surface is done in a variety of ways. "From vehicles with advanced techniques on board to physically checking a road surface with a tablet in your hand," explains Danny van Hooren, director/owner of SmallToGo. "The latter happens especially in hard-to-reach locations. Together with a consultancy partner in road management, we have developed a completely new application that simplifies a number of manual tasks and further streamlines processes. In doing so, we use calibrated standards such as those of Crow. Photos of damages can also be directly linked and assigned to the relevant project."

GPS support

New "projects" can be created quickly in the application, according to Van Hooren. "With a basic set of geographic information and the application itself, an inspection can be started in a very short time. Because GPS support is provided, it is fully automated to record for which roads the inspection has already taken place. Besides information about the damage, one can also add additional information in fields such as 'Remarks' or 'Minor Maintenance'. A photo can also be linked to this. The application also features various additional reporting options and is extremely user-friendly. The field service employee will get used to it in no time. At the office, a project to be inspected can be set up, used on the road and synchronized with the central software back at the office."

The application also incorporates two more functions that allow incorrect data from the BGT base files to be reported. "With this, a quality improvement takes place," Van Hooren emphasizes. "And vice versa, the required BGT data can easily be brought in for a project. This makes it possible for other colleagues within an organization to quickly have the current data to take follow-up action on it. In short, with this new application, road inspections can be carried out significantly faster and easier."