What Is a Truck Roll?

A truck roll is when a field technician gets dispatched to a customer or other field agent’s location to solve a problem with an asset. That could mean anything from fixing broken equipment to walking through a difficult installation.

Truck rolls are one of the costliest drains on a service budget. From technicians’ labor and travel time to all the truck operating costs, it adds up quickly—especially when imperfect and incomplete information causes multiple visits per call. Fewer truck rolls save internal costs while improving customers’ trust that your products are reliable.

The real cost of a truck roll

Labor cost

On-site equipment repairs traditionally require a lot of labor, as technicians work to diagnose issues and fully understand what’s needed to correct and prevent similar repairs.

Vehicle cost

The cost of a truck roll to an organization includes many factors, such as vehicle ownership, maintenance, and fleet management.

Opportunity cost

Many times, a technician might not be able to fix an issue on the first try or the technician's time is being spent on a call they didn't need to make could've gone toward something more productive.

Customer churn

Multiple truck rolls to a customer have the potential to impact customer satisfaction negatively, increasing the possibility of churn.

Common causes and issues with truck rolls

No fault found (NFF) dispatches

NFFs are usually simple problems that can be solved without a technician being called on-site. Unfortunately, many times a technician is called and what was a simple fix has now wasted valuable time and resources.

Low first- time fix rate (FTTR)

FTTR indicates the percentage of service calls where a technician can fix the issue the first time without needing additional expertise, information, or parts. If FTTR is low, the need for multiple visits, cost, and personnel resources increases.

Increasing product complexity

As product complexity increases, so too does the skill and knowledge necessary to maintain, diagnose, and repair it. Truck rolls increase when technicians are unfamiliar with the product or lack the training to fix the problem the first time.

Eliminate the need for truck rolls with remote field service

Reducing truck rolls can dramatically lower costs associated with delivering service. Minimize the need to send techs on-site by diagnosing and resolving issues remotely, optimizing call planning, and enabling end user self-service. PTC’s solutions help customers to achieve:

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Issues resolved remotely

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Software issues resolved remotely

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Success rate for remote service

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Reduction in resolution time

Benefits of reducing truck rolls

Reduced asset downtime

By reducing truck rolls via remote service, technicians know in real time how equipment is performing in the field and address issues before they become downtime problems.

Improved first-time fix rates

With remote monitoring solutions, service organizations get advance notice of customer issues before they escalate. Use real-time data to plan the call at a convenient time and fix it right the first time without multiple visits.

Improved customer satisfaction

With fewer truck rolls and improved first-time fix rates, customers experience less downtime and increased product efficiency.

Key strategies to reduce truck rolls

Act on product data before incidents occur, and make truck rolls a thing of the past.

Every service dispatch represents costs to your organization—costs that can be minimized with the right connected product strategy. Monitor and predict problems before they happen; resolve issues remotely; and even empower customers with self-service tools to eliminate time on site.

Enabling self-service

Remote diagnostics

Predictive service

Remote monitoring

Remote visual support

Drive service efficiency and reduce costs

Service parts management

Improve the agility of your service responses and keep excess inventory costs low by ensuring that technicians always have the right parts in the right place at the right time.

Decrease service costs and increase customer satisfaction

Learn how to leverage IoT to proactively resolve service issues before they require a costly truck roll, or worse—result in downtime.

Remote service case studies

BID Group: Industryial-wide digital innovation at scale

BID Group transforms sawmills digitally with IIoT and AR to improve their wood processing operations, and also for their customers.

Read Their Story

Elekta: Advancing connected service and product offerings

Elekta now resolves 20% of service issues remotely, reducing costs and improving equipment uptime for uninterrupted care and clinical health.

Read Their Story

Zeiss: Focusing on service excellence

Moving from reactive to predictive maintenance improved mean time to repair for Zeiss with fast equipment issue diagnosis and increased system uptime.

Read the Zeiss Story

Howden: Accelerating digital transformation in the face of disruption

Howden uses remote monitoring, support, and predictive maintenance to cut service costs, raise technician efficiency, and boost customer satisfaction.

Read the Howden Story

Future of service

Field service is a critical component in a wide variety of industries, involving dispatch of technicians or service personnel to customer locations to resolve service-related concerns. Client demands in the field service industry are increasing, and companies need to respect the power of data to make strategic decisions and invest in value-adding assets to thrive in the future.

Additional resources

Need more information? Check the resources below for more information on our service solutions.

Putting a service strategy into action

Learn how to transform remote service strategy through three stages—visibility, process, and implementation and adoption.

Why remote service is key to customer satisfaction

Fast, reliable service, and asset performance are significant factors for satisfied customers. Transform your service strategy with IIoT to keep satisfaction rates climbing.

Reduce Truck Rolls and Resolve up to 30% of Issues Remotely