• 29.June.2012
• By mide

Forty Years of DAF ITS

DAF ITS (International Truck Service), the international assistance service for drivers, is celebrating forty years of service. DAF ITS helps drivers get back on the road quickly in the event of a problem and is regarded as the leading service organisation in the transport industry. 

24 hours a day, 365 days a year

From the very beginning, DAF made a conscious decision to manage the ITS in-house. DAF ITS is positioned at the heart of the organisation, between the PACCAR Parts and Market Service departments, ensuring that ITS always has access to the most up-to-date technical knowledge and that any urgent requests for parts can be dealt with swiftly. DAF ITS is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and offers support in 49 European countries, providing assistance to drivers and DAF dealers in ten different languages. The excellent reputation of the service in Europe resulted in a similar service organisation being launched in 1998 in North America to support PACCAR's subsidiaries there, Peterbilt and Kenworth.  

Service points

DAF ITS uses a state-of-the-art computer system to determine which of the more than 1,000 DAF service points is closest to the driver experiencing a problem. Once the nearest dealer has been contacted, the driver is immediately told when assistance will arrive. The assistance service will also contact the dealer where the vehicle is registered for maintenance and organises a guarantee of payment so that the driver does not need to worry about financial matters. Naturally DAF ITS also informs the vehicle's home base of the issue and keeps the company updated on the current status of the assistance request.

Fleet analysis

The international assistance service analyses all requests for help, generating statistics and reports. "A significant proportion of breakdowns can be attributed to overdue maintenance", says Johan Drenth, Director of After Sales at DAF Trucks N.V. "This shows just how important regular preventive maintenance is in avoiding unplanned downtime and therefore unnecessary costs. The DAF ITS reports allow DAF dealers to provide transport operators with specific fleet analysis for this purpose — after all, maximum vehicle availability is key in the transport industry. That is why DAF ITS has continually focused on both quality and speed over the last forty years".