A driver marks the left headlight as defective during the morning check. The next day another driver marks it again, and the day after that, a third. On paper, that is three defects nobody acted on. In Trace4X it is one issue with three reports, waiting for someone to fix it.
Defects become issues automatically
When an inspection with defects is submitted, each defect becomes a maintenance issue on the vehicle or trailer, with the driver's note and photos attached. If the driver marked the vehicle as unsafe, the issue is created with high priority. Issues are numbered per company (ISS-1001, ISS-1002, …) so everyone talks about the same thing.
One open issue per item
Trace4X keeps one open issue per checklist item and vehicle. When the same defect is reported again while the issue is still open, the new report joins it as "Reported again", with its own photos and note, instead of creating a duplicate. Drivers also see in the checklist that an item was already reported, and when.
Not only from inspections
Issues come from several places, and they all land in the same list:
- Drivers report problems from the app, with photos, at any time — not only during an inspection.
- Inspections create issues from their defects.
- Engine fault codes reported by the telematics device can be turned into an issue with one click.
- Managers add issues on the web.
From issue to work order
Each issue has a priority (low, medium, high, critical), an assignee, a due date and a timeline of everything that happened to it. When the repair is planned, add the issues to a work order — for your own shop or an outside vendor, with labor and parts. Adding an issue to a work order moves it to in progress; completing the work order resolves it.
When the vehicle goes to an outside shop
For a shop that doesn't use Trace4X, print the vehicle's shop sheet: its open problems and due services on one page. The shop gets a clear list; you keep the history in Trace4X.
What drivers get out of it
Drivers can follow the issues they reported, from open to resolved, in the app. Knowing that a report leads somewhere is what keeps them reporting.