Every night the automation reads each truck's odometer and engine hours from GPS telematics and compares them with the service plan. Trucks nearing a service get a workshop booking, a blocked day in dispatch and a WhatsApp note to the driver.
Typical results
1,000 km
Warning distance before each service is due
≈3.5 hrs/wk
Fleet manager time on service tracking saved
Nightly
Odometer and engine hours check for every truck
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
With 30 trucks and trailers, service intervals are tracked in a sheet that the fleet manager updates from odometer readings when there is time. Oil changes slip past their interval, brake checks wait for a gap in the schedule, and dispatch sometimes books a truck for a long run on the day it should be in the workshop.
Before and after
Roadside breakdowns per quarter
−30%Trucks overdue for a service at any time
−83%Hours per week tracking service dates
−88%The automation
Each night a Make scenario reads every truck's odometer and engine hours from GPS telematics and compares them with the fleet sheet's service plan. A truck within 1,000 km of an oil change or brake inspection, or 3 weeks from its annual test, triggers a workshop booking request for a day with no planned trips. Once confirmed, the day is blocked in dispatch and the driver gets a WhatsApp note. Completed services reset the plan and log the invoice.
How it works
- 01
Nightly readings
At 1 AM the automation pulls each truck's odometer and engine hours from the GPS telematics platform.
- 02
Compared with the plan
Readings are checked against the service plan in the fleet sheet for oil changes, brake inspections and the annual test.
- 03
Workshop booking request
A truck within 1,000 km of a service, or 3 weeks of its annual test, triggers an email to the workshop proposing a day with no planned trips.
- 04
Dispatch and driver told
Once the workshop confirms, that day is blocked for the truck in the dispatch calendar and the driver gets a WhatsApp note with the date.
- 05
Plan and costs updated
After the service, the next due reading is set in the plan and the invoice amount is added to the truck's cost log.
Starts from
- GPS odometer + engine hours
- Service plan per truck
Delivers
- Workshop booking request
- Truck blocked in dispatch
- WhatsApp note to driver
The impact
Services happen on schedule instead of when someone notices. Roadside breakdowns fall by about 30%, from around 10 a quarter to 7, overdue trucks drop from about 6 at any time to 1, and the fleet manager saves roughly 3.5 hours a week. Each truck also builds a running cost log.
Questions about this automation
Which GPS or telematics systems can it read from?
Most fleet telematics platforms offer an API or a scheduled export with odometer and engine hours per vehicle, which is all the automation needs. Trailers without their own tracker are linked to the truck that usually pulls them, or their readings are entered at each service, so their plan stays current too.
What if the workshop can't take the truck on the proposed day?
The workshop replies with another date through a short confirmation link. The automation checks that date against dispatch and blocks it if the truck is free, or flags the clash to the fleet manager to decide. Nothing is blocked in the calendar until both sides have a confirmed date.
Which part goes live first?
Telematics access and the service plan for each truck and trailer come first, as this is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages. The workshop booking, the dispatch calendar and the driver messages follow, and the cost log comes last, once workshop invoices arrive in a consistent format.