How Svevia connects roads, risk, and refuse through the cloud

By using GPS positioning data from the maintenance vehicles required by road authorities, digital warnings can be sent out instead of just using it to follow up on remedial issues, and to investigate compensation cases in the event of inadequate anti-slip control in accidents, for example.

In the project, system supplier BM System, which Svevia works with, is involved as well as Scania and Combitech. The same data can also be used to pay drivers for how they drive, and monitor production capacity.

A third area to be optimized is the salting of roads during the winter. In some areas, they’re testing the use of roadside sensors, weather data, and data from vehicles. By creating a digital twin of the road surface, dynamic routes for plow and salt trucks can be developed. They then receive suggestions for customized routes every hour from the route optimization system.

“This is fairly young technology and we’re at the forefront of the world,” says Bäckström. “But our trials have shown that a lower salt consumption of 15 to 25% is possible to achieve.”

Not for experiments

For a company like Svevia, there’s no room for experimentation, underlines Wester.

“We need to know that what we get is used in a good way within the organization, and that we can create an implementation and management organization for disruptive solutions,” she says.

In order to succeed in this, it’s necessary to think about what the introduction of new technology would look like—the architecture and whether there’s data or not.

“Integration cost, quality-assured data costs, and storing data and knowing how to clean it also costs money,” she says. “One must always understand the cost versus the effect.”

The importance of collaboration

Both she and Bäckström emphasize the importance of cooperation, even with competitors when it comes to areas such as traffic safety and sustainability.

When the industry advances seriously and new technology can be effectively implemented is when cooperation around new standards, production methods and technology becomes the main focus instead of competition being allowed to be an obstacle.

These are also areas where Svevia chooses to participate and take a lead, often by running innovation projects with the industry, which can, for example, be financed through grant projects from the Swedish Transport Administration or the strategic innovation program, InfraSweden2030.

“Quite a lot with us is governed by [laws governing public procurement] and focus on the lowest price,” says Wester. “In many cases, it’s also what controls the innovation, and in the best case, efficiency also leads to better things for the environment. But if profitability levels become too small in the industry, the focus on digitization and the power of innovation is affected in favor of a revenue focus. With the right incentives and cooperation, however, safer roads, the environment for road users, and the sustainability perspective can be at the center of digitization in the company, which benefits all citizens.”