In the spring of 2021, DKV Mobility announced the 'go' for DKV LIVE, the digital assistant in vehicles that helps companies with administrative and practical matters such as fuel management, live tracking, tachograph data, alerts and more. Suttrans B.V., in Steenbergen in Brabant (Netherlands), was one of the first DKV Mobility clients to decide to make use of the new service. Pip Heskens, right-hand man of managing director Mark Heemskerk at Suttrans: "From now on, we can see in real time where our people are!"

With these realtime-tracking features, Heskens immediately identifies the biggest user benefit that DKV LIVE offers to Suttrans. "It saves us an enormous amount of time that we now can immediately see, without having to call, where a driver is, how long he has been stationary and when he will arrive at a customer's location." In the past, finding out the location of vehicles took a lot of time, he says. Especially since Suttrans' fleet expanded to the current number of ten vehicles, automation is only logical. Therefore, the company started with a request for six boxes, but soon ordered DKV LIVE boxes for the entire fleet.

Another advantage of DKV LIVE - in addition to the real-time tracking functions - is that you can automatically download the tachograph and driver card data from a distance. This too used to be a time consuming task as this data had to be physically downloaded from the tachos. The DKV LIVE portal also offers a freight search function. This gives fleet managers the opportunity to optimize the cost per kilometer by preventing drivers from driving empty trucks. This 'Freight Search' function provides access to two external platforms that offer transport jobs. Suttrans does not - yet - use this option, but Heskens does not rule out that this will still happen. "We mainly drive in the Netherlands, and occasionally in the Benelux, but we can see now where our people are driving and are already trying to prevent them from returning empty. This feature could certainly help us with that."

No teething troubles

When DKV Mobility and Suttrans first came into contact, the mobility provider played its cards right: DKV LIVE was a new product at the time and the company needed critical testers. What could still be improved about the service? Looking back, Pip Heskens can only think of one thing: the translations from English to Dutch in the portal were not optimal in the beginning. "But that's actually the only thing. We have been satisfied users of the service from the start, and were also happy with the fuel cards and toll boxes before that. We are looking forward to how DKV LIVE will develop further."

With a wide variety of alarms, companies have the opportunity to get relevant notifications automatically, says Jör Koster, DKV LIVE Specialist in the Benelux, UK and Ireland. "For example, we have customers who choose to get a notification when their trucks leave a customer's premises, or when they are stationary for a certain period of time." He points to a library of capabilities DKV Mobility's team developed in Germany. "We are constantly looking at our customers' demand. For example, we help them refuel more efficiently: if DKV LIVE detects that a driver is refueling earlier than necessary, we can save time by pointing out that his fuel gauge was still half full. That saves time, which allows our customers to provide better service."

Suttrans itself also emphasizes the latter about the successful cooperation. Heskens: "By using DKV LIVE, we save time and improve our service. This results in satisfied customers, which is what it's all about in the end."