Technology will soon alter how we all maintain our trucks

Today, it seems there’s an app for everything. You can manage your health, maintain contact with friends, watch TV, download music and purchase mouthwash all from a few touches of your mobile device. Now, you’ll soon be able to take your rig to the virtual mechanic as well, so-to-speak.

While mobile apps won’t be changing your engine oil or replacing spark plugs anytime soon, the industry is working on relatively new technology that would allow trucking companies to update the software in the engines of their rigs, even while they’re in service and on the road, all with very little disruption. This type of approach offers the ability for hauling companies to save thousands of dollars in time and travel, removing the need to take multiple trucks to their dealerships of origin for such updates.The technology is known as OTA, or over-the-air.

In terms of app development, the progress we’ve made since the 2007 introduction of the iPhone is nothing short of astounding. That device was a game-changer in terms of how we interact with one another, how we access the Internet and how we approach business. Clearly, these devices are now going as far as to change the way we drive and maintain our vehicles. But while these and similar advancements have skyrocketed in the last decade, it should be noted mobile software solutions aren’t as new to the game as we think.

In fact, the first “smartphone” was introduced all the way back in 1993 by IBM. While it didn’t have the societal impact as the iPhone, our brains have been trending in this direction for decades now. In other words, we’re approaching a quarter-century of such changing behaviors. Given that, why shouldn’t our rigs be hopping online with the rest of the world?

So, there you have it. Trucking. Now there’s an app for that, too.