There were potholes on the corner of Essenwood Road and St Thomas down in Durban that was so large that it swallowed up a VW Cross Polo. But drivers and road users in J’burg have a reason to smile with a new app that will help them track and report road defects such as potholes on the go, even saving time for the authorities.
Today, the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) launched the Find & Fix mobile app, a first in Sourthen Africa, in a move to engage Joburg citizens to report any road related defect at the click of a button to the agency.
The Find & Fix app will enable the public to report potholes, faulty traffic signals, storm water drains, manhole covers, and other infrastructure issues related to JRA.
“The launch of this new smartphone app forms part of the JRA’s turnaround strategy and service delivery drive”, says Skhumbuzo Macozoma, JRA Managing Director, “The organisation is committed to becoming more accessible to citizens and road users and to developing itself into a centre of engineering excellence with enhanced service delivery and satisfied customers”.
The app comes after the Agency’s recent service delivery dubbed “Just tell us” to support the City’s “Active Citizenry” priority so they get involed in its service delivery activities. The campaign provides multiple contact points for the community to actively engage the JRA and report any road related matter. The contact points include email, twitter, Facebook, a new service delivery mailbox for service issues, as well as the new mobile app.
The Find & Fix app – tagged as “snap it, send it, and we’ll fix it” – is freely downloadable for most mobile operating System platforms such as Windows Phone 8, Android and iOS for Apple.The app provides an accurate location with GPS coordinates, and makes it easy to provide photo evidence, which compliments the JRA’s ability to plan repairs more scientifically based on reports and data received, thereby enhancing efficiency and increasing productivity.
For citizens, the Find & Fix app enables on-going communication on service progress, facilitates faster turnaround times, and also allows for media alerts on hotspots and pre-reported issues in a specific journey area.
The app will also assist to ensure that Joburg, one of Africa’s largest economic hubs, will benefit from improved road infrastructure due to faster call logging and fixing turnaround times that translates into significant benefits for the economy.
“This exciting and innovative app has already been nominated for a global Microsoft Partner of the Year Award”Macozoma concludes, “The JRA Find & Fix app positions the City and the JRA at the forefront of technology and innovation – truly embodying the City’s tagline to be ‘A world class African City’, a great achievement benefitting the community at large.”
Apart from the app, the JRA has also made public its contacts so that residents ca report all road and storm water related issues and potholes to 0860 562 874/ [email protected] / twitter @MyJra.
A similar app, though in the UK called Fillthathole helps motorists declare war on potholes too.
