The current situation is far from easy for the many truck drivers who continue to pound the roads of Europe during the second COVID-19 wave. To cope with the multiple difficulties they face in their line of work, they are on the lookout for relevant, updated information about the best places to fill up, eat and rest, for example, as well as for a means to share their personal tips and benefit from the feedback of other drivers who are in the same predicament.
To address this need and facilitate the everyday lives of road haulers, Michelin has reviewed and upgraded the services provided by TruckFly.
Available in 44 countries, this free app, designed to provide truck drivers with essential information for their job, has been downloaded 500,000 times since its launch in 2015. The 120,000 drivers across Europe who take advantage of its services every month have made the TruckFly community one of the continent’s biggest of its kind, with users notably located in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 4,500 restaurants have updated their on-line information, with more than 1,000 such updates recorded since late-October alone. Meanwhile, some 70 new recommended eating places in Europe are being added by drivers every month.
The app also makes it easy to spot temporarily-closed restaurants at a glance thanks to an interactive map that indicates such establishments with grey-shaded pictograms, alongside icons showing places where drivers can still eat and/or rest.
In addition to all that is being shared via the app, the TruckFly team updates the information it contains on a daily basis to provide drivers with as much support as possible:
– App: banners on the pages of points of interest encourage users to specify whether takeaway food is available.
– Social networks: TruckFly relays information released by restaurant owners in order for it to be shared across the community.
– Website (www.truckfly.com): restaurant owners, fuel stations, etc. are encouraged to update their information regularly.
Michelin also sees this practical app as a means to support small businesses as they seek solutions to continue doing business.