United States International University-Africa

Spring SEMESTER 2022

APT/IST 4900 FINAL-TERM PROJECT

Road breakdown Assistance Finder system

BY

Hussein Aisha Ahmed

Fardowsa Mohamed Salat
Supervisor

Dr. Collins Oduor PhD

UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY-AFRICA

SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
April ,2022

This final project report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of

the Applied Information Technology (APT)
Declaration
I declare that this is my original work through my own effort and that it has not been presented in
any form for academic or any other reason, to the best of my knowledge. Contributions to this
work by any other person or literature have been duly cited.

Student

Hussein Aisha Ahmed - 657744

Fardowsa Mohamed Salat - 657969

Signature………………… Date…………………

Hussein Aisha Ahmed - 657744

Fardowsa Mohamed Salat - 657969

Signature………………… Date…………………

Supervisor

I confirm that this research project report was carried out by the student under my supervision

Signature……………………. Date…………………

Dr Collins Oduor PhD

Assistant Professor-Information Systems,
School of Science and Technology
UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY-AFRICA
Acknowledgement
First and foremost, we would like to thank God for giving me the gift of life, health and being
with me every step of the way throughout this academic journey, our parents for being there
when we needed them, for giving us spiritual, moral and financial support, our friends for their
academic and also moral support and all our lecturers especially Dr. Collins Oduor for guiding us
through this course.
Definition of central terms
Abstract
Summary of back ground, problem statement, objectives, LR, Methodology, Results and Conclusion
and Recommendation] –one page maximum
Table of Contents
List of tables
List of figures
List of Abbreviations
Copyright
All the rights reserved. The report may not be photocopied, recorded or otherwise reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any electronic or mechanical means without prior
permission of the copyright owner.

Copyright © 2022
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction
Road breakdown assistance finder system, helps one with finding closest Mechanics, Petroleum
Siphon on just a single click. You simply need to enter the area such as the name of the location
and within a short time, the nearby service providers available will respond to your concerns. In
this chapter we shall look at the background of the study, look at the existing problems, the
objectives of the proposed road breakdown assistance finder system, the scope of
implementation as well as looking at the limitations of this project study and the significance of
this study.

1.1 Background of the study

In many countries, support for road breakdowns is always very crucial. In china, there are
numerous company that offer recovery and support for customers in case they face a road
breakdown. The existing systems in china are web applications as well as mobile application.
The companies also use gps to locate and to be located by clients easily. The company respond to
customers concern within a 10 minutes maximum response time. In country like United States of
America, there is a system that offers battery jump emergency services in case of a breakdown.
The customers only need to make a phone call, specify their addresses and within no time, the
service providers respond to their concerns.

India is also one of the developing countries where technology is adopted by many companies
day in day out. In addition to this, several companies offer emergency support in case of road
breakdown. There is a company that offer service such as battery jumpstart, flat tyres fixing, and
emergency fuel. All these services can be accessed by making bookings using an online platform
provided by the company.
Moreover in Africa, especially in South Africa, there are several companies that offer road
breakdown assistance services. This company offers 24/7 customer support, flat tyres fixing and
many more. Users can easily access these service via online platforms that have been provided
by the company.

Additionally, there is an emergency aides application that is utilized broadly in Nigeria. The
Application gives committed driver data and help through the Application. The framework is a
versatile application intended for drivers across the Nigeria. The application incorporates
highlights will permit clients all day, every day admittance to call for emergency aides at
whatever point their vehicles breakdown anyplace. The fundamental capacity of the application
is to associate clients to mechanics or tow trucks with not more that 3-5 ticks.

Locally in Kenya, there are many companies that offer road rescue services to customers. The
companies offer 24/7 customer support and response time is quite considerably. The type of
services offered include; road rescue, towing and breakdowns as well as mobile car wash. With
this kind of technologies and companies in place, it is evident that implementing a secure, faster
and user-friendly road breakdown assistance finder system, it would be essential due to the
increased technological use as well as the increasing vehicle use in countries.

1.2 Problem Statement

There are numerous problems experienced by road users and especially when they face vehicle
breakdown emergency at the middle and along the road. Some of these problems experience by
this users include;

Lack of enough information: the users are not aware of the existence of online systems that
could offer emergency responses in case of breakdown as well as not being able to know of the
verified road assistance service providers and contractors.

For the existing online system, insecure system authorization and authentication, making the
users not to trust online systems for support.

Inaccurate locations, there is lack of clear and accurate location capturing on existing online
platforms that offer these kind of services and therefore using a google map api’s would really
help.
Insecure user information: there is a need of securing users data such as phone numbers,
identification card number as well as vehicle related information.

Inconsistency and delays: there is a lot of delays that exists especially when it comes to
emergencies in the country and therefore advocating on quick respond time would be really an
added advantage to this since only verified and accredited service providers exists on the system.

1.3 Project Objectives

1.3.1 Overal Goal
To design and develop a road breakdown assistance finder system.

1.3.2 Systems design and development objectives

The use of google maps api’s in order filter and identify accurate location.

To design and implement an online payment module for those who would choose to pay for the
service via online module.

To design and develop an automation process such as login/registration of the users.

To design and develop feedback feature for the stakeholders involved.

To allow for contents upload and download features.

To design and develop a secure database implementation.

To design and develop reports generation features for stakeholders involved.

1.3.3 Specific Research Objectives

1.3.3.1 To find out the traditional challenges with the old road assistance systems.

1.3.3.2 To determine the benefits of the newly proposed road breakdown assistance finder
system.

1.4 Project Questions

What are the traditional challenges with the old road assistance systems?

What are the benefits of the proposed road breakdown assistance finder system?
1.5 Scope of the Project
This system will works on users that experience vehicle breakdowns and they would find these
kinds of service support by finding the closest service providers, the contractors responds to the
concern in the limited time possible. This system will have verified service providers at
convenience and at considerable prices that customers can afford.

The system will be implemented in Nairobi, Kenya and for a start, it will offer these serve the
users along Thika superhighway and the success on this will help to diversely extend this system
to be users by others in different counties. The stakeholders of this systems are having the assists
you with finding closest Mechanics, Petroleum Siphon on just a single click. You simply need to
enter the area such as the name of the location and within a short time, the nearby service
providers available will respond to your concerns. The system is proposed to be adopted by the
Kenya Nation Highway Authority (KENHA).

1.6 Limitations of the study

Limited time: to start with, this system is very comprehensive and so many features are to be
implemented. In order to implement all the required contents and automation processes of the
system ranging from carrying out research, has been affected by the global pandemic COVID-19
pandemic and therefore more time is needed in order to achieve the desired goals. I will
implement the major objectives specified on the document within the 14 weeks of this semester.

Limited access to resources: As I was carrying out research and visiting different companies, I
noted that only few companies are willing to disclosure all information and therefore it was very
difficult to get all the resources. The solution to this is; to use the information provided from the
research as well as the information provided on different company websites and use it effectively
for the proposed system.

1.7 Significance of the study

• This paper is also relevant to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9, specifically, to

– “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization

and foster innovation”
• This can be achieved when through implementation of accurate location finding, having
quick responses by service providers as well as automating processes as a way of
adopting and promoting technology growth.

• An effective way of achieving through the use of google maps api’s for clear and
accurate location finding.
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
To start with, this chapter gives the literature review on existing systems, looking at their
strengths and weaknesses and the comparing them to the proposed system. The chapter also look
at the summary and conclusions for this chapter.

2.1 Analysis, comparison and criticism of existing projects with an assessment of

strengths and weaknesses of existing projects
2.1.1 Auto Power Towing system in china
To start with, this emergency respond breakdown company is a company by the Hong Kong
police department. In addition to this, auto Power Towing has been giving quality, solid and
expert every minute of every day towing administrations. This company has accomplished and
talented team utilizes cutting edge towing gear to deal with street occurrences whether bigger
scope or limited scope, most productively. As well as towing and recuperation services, we
additionally give every minute of every day emergency aides, for example, tire change, kick off,
and so forth

With GPS innovation and portable radio framework, they have been able to offer 24/7 of control
focus can dispatch the most appropriate recuperation gear from our armada of 50 tow trucks,
which are positioned decisively all over Hong Kong and Guangdong. To limit client holding up
time, the company endeavor to show up at the episode scene within 10 minutes.

The company offers its services around Hong Kong, this system is a web application. It also
allows for online bookings in case of breakdown. The system interface has been poorly
implemented.

Link: http://hfauto.hk/hf-towing.html
2.1.2 Victoria Roadside Assistance system in the United States of America
To start with, this is a towing road assistance system that offers variety or breakdown services in
US. (victoriatowing, 2022). In addition to this, this company specializes in providing services to
commercial clients in the Victoria area, we focus our efforts on towing and related services –
never impounding vehicles. According to (victoriatowing, 2022), this focus allowed them to
grow from a mere two trucks to over twenty towing units. Serving a wide range of commercial
vehicles, the company works with truck fleets, equipment rentals, and construction sites,
providing services to most automobile clubs like the CAA, AMA, and others.

The website interface is awesomely done and it offer online services such as navigation to
different articles, online booking of services as well as marketing for their services. The cost of
their services is quite expensive and the system interfaces is also difficult for many users to
navigate through. In terms of securing user data, this has not been mentioned on the kind of
database it uses or how they intend to do this. Some sections of the website have been poorly
done and others are incomplete.

Link: http://www.victoriatowing.ca/

2.1.3 ReadyAssist system in India

According to (Poojary, 2020), India is the biggest bike market all around the world, and
henceforth, at some random place of time, there will be vehicles that will require fixes and
administration.

The vehicle administration or fix portion, regardless of whether for bikes or four wheelers, is
additionally profoundly chaotic in our country (Poojary, 2020).

Tending to this challenge is Bengaluru-settled on-request vehicle fix and administration startup
ReadyAssist, which sent off its administration in 2019. The startup gives every minute of every
day on the spot fixes and administration for the two bicycles and vehicles for all sort of issues.
This is a breakdown response system in India. It offers 24/7 support to users. This system is a
web application that this company has implemented. The system allows for online booking on
services such as bike and care towing, engine overheating support and many more. With the
graphical user interface, the system is very simple, they only capture fewer details from their
clients from the system and some sections of the website design have been poorly done.

Link: https://www.readyassist.in/

2.1.4 Summary of comparison of the systems

Features Auto Power Towing Victoria Roadside ReadyAssist

system in china Assistance system in
US System in India

Cost X X

Easy to Install X

Easy to use X X

Efficient Database X X

Good Security

Vulnerability X
assessment

2.2 Literraure revew on based on the specific research objectives

2.2.1 Challenges with the old road assistance systems

Poor user interface by most existing application: numerous existing systems are quite basic to
an extent, the GUI are not attractive to the users.
Complexity of systems: some of these applications are complex for user understanding and nav-
igation through.

Poor customer interaction support by system administrators: sometimes users can call several
times but their calls and concerns are never answered.

Time consuming is really high especially for most existing system that user manual reports and
storage of stakeholders’ information.

Poor maintenance of stored information: due to the use of manual record keeping and storage,
maintaining this information becomes a little bit hectic.

User data is kept insecurely: there is fear on how the details shared by clients are kept. The ac-
count details may be exposed to unauthorized users which is actually a challenge that is experi-
enced by old systems.

Inconsistency and delays: there is a lot of delays that exists especially when it comes to emer-
gencies in the country.

Inaccurate locations, there is lack of clear and accurate location capturing on existing online
platforms since many are using manual tracking which is actually unclear.

2.2.2 Benefits of the newly proposed road breakdown assistance finder system
Interactive user interfaces: the proposed system offers a user experience interfaces that are well
organized.

Automation of processes: this system guarantees automated processes to the users especially on
booking, record keeping, online payments as well as reports.

Accurate location tracking: the proposed system used map API’s which are accurate in
providing location details in the case of breakdown.

Guaranteed report generation: this system allows the stakeholders to generate reports from the
system.
Secure storage of user details: the system allows for use of distributed database storage where
the user details are encrypted as well as having views on the system content viewing.

Guaranteed 24/7 customer support: the system is determined to offer customer support and
making sure that user can always rely on this system for services and products.

Consistency are reliability: the system guarantees response to customer needs at a consistent
and efficient manner.

Provisioning on the services: this is through creating diverse awareness on the services that the
system offers, this will help in building trust and a brand that clients can always rely and believe
in.

2.3 Conclusion
The suggested system will efficiently work in a motor vehicle industry as well as respond to the
breakdown emergencies at an effective and in an efficient manner. The system offers a wide
range of benefits that customers will benefit on as well as guaranteed secure storage and
management of user sensitive data.
 CHAPTER THREE:

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction

In this chapter, the writer will cover the design and methodology used in the research that will
ensure the effective and efficient running of the whole system successfully, the beneficiaries of
the project, not forgetting the target group, and lastly is the methods that will be used to collect
data, analyze data and come up with a testing plan for the system.

3.1 Locality of the project and Beneficiaries to the project

The system will be implemented within Kenyan boundaries starting with implementation in one
company (venture company- an automobile firm) and it can be improved and be used by other
companies in different counties and countries for an online road breakdown service to ensure that
drivers for both public and private vehicles are carted for, this project will allow the drivers to
locate breakdown services form near by petroleum station or different work stations.

The system stakeholder-who are the beneficiaries of this system including Drivers, Automobile
users for all types of automotive as well as the administrators within the company who will help
deliver and suggest various services for breakdown.

3.2 Research Design approach –DESCRIPTIVE

The research design is intended to provide an appropriate framework for this study. A very
significant decision in the research design process is the choice to be made regarding research to
ensure relevant information is obtained in this research the author employed the use of well-
structured google questionnaires which were easy to formulate and analyze. The study also
involved visiting other automobile industries and their websites for data collection. The research
also involved observation of different vehicles breakdown along the road.

3.3 Population of the study(Target group) and Sampling method

The system will be implemented within Nairobi County with implementation in one company
(venture company- an Automobile firm) and it can then later be improved and used by other
companies in different counties and countries for an online road breakdown analysis, therefore
the system will be created and tested based on the target group who will be both public and
private drivers, simple random sampling will be employed to ensure that the relevant data is
obtained from the stakeholders.

From the analysis of the data collected, the system will be created and tested based on the target
group. Graphs will also be generated from the Google forms administered to the stakeholders of
this system who are the drivers, administrators as well as the community as the end-users.

3.4 Data collection methods and Primary Data collection methods

The collection of data is by the use of questionnaires generated by the google forms that will be
administered to the users of the system, who are the drivers.
3.4.1 Primary Data collection methods
For the system, the Questionnaire is the primary method used for data collection.

3.4.1.1 Questionnaire

Some drivers, System administrators, and the other stakeholders filled out an online google
questionnaire to know the challenges they face during road breakdown especially for the existing
possible road breakdowns that are prone to deadly accidents, and other safety measures have
been implemented.

3.4.2 Secondary data collection methods

These methods consist of data that has already been collected by someone else and passed
through a statistical process. They include qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
In addition to this, qualitative methods include the use of newspapers, reports, historical and
official documents whereas quantitative methods are international sources where the internet is
the major source.

3.5 Data analysis methods

In this research, the data collected from various sources such as online google forms will be
analyzed with simple, descriptive, statistical, and analytical tools such as frequencies,
percentages, graphs, and charts (control, Pareto, monitoring, bar, pie, etc.).

3.6 Testing plan for the system

For the system, several testing procedures will be conducted ranging from Unit testing for the
individual modules to eliminate executable and logical errors, Integration testing will be
performed for the dependent modules, and finally System testing for the whole system as a
whole

Table 3.1: Tabular Description for the Testing Plan of the system.

Input Expected actions & Output

Processes

Login validation Username and password are For the Correct password: Logged in
set by the users to the system successfully
For Incorrect password: ID or
password Error

Login type Two types of Users: The drivers and system

Drivers/system users and administrators have different roles
System administrator

Administrator adding System Administrator adds The Administrator can add the users
users’ details and web user’s details and web as well as the services that are
content. content included for road breakdowns.
 System administrator From user requests, the Password changed to a new
generating results. system administrator can one and accepts the log in
change the user password The previous one invalid
and update it.

Users general form Displays all the available There are links based on the clicked
salary, leave, and other button and active links on the mobile
available forms. pages.

Table 1 Tabular Description for the Test Plan

3.7 Ethical clearance considerations

Ethical clearance approval of a research project helps to increase the legitimacy of research
findings. This is important for those making decisions based on the research results of my
project. To implement this proposed system, I will need approval from different considerate
bodies. Some of the documents for approval on my project include:

● A letter from the program coordinator in the university.

● A letter from Kenya National Highway Authority.

● A letter from the project supervisor.

● A letter from Dean School of science and technology.

CHAPTER FOUR

SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND SYSTEM DESIGN

4.0 Introduction

4.1 System Requirements

4.1.1 Functional Requirements

4.1.2 Non - Functional Requirements

4.3 Stakeholders

4.4 System Models

4.4.1 Systems Architecture

4.4.2 Use Case Diagram

4.4.3 Flow chart

4.4.4 Class Diagrams

4.4.5 Data Flow Diagram

4.4.5.1 Context Diagram 0

4.4.5.2 Level 1 Diagram

4.4.5.3 Level 2 Diagram

4.4.6 Entity Relationship Diagram

 CHAPTER FIVERESEARCH FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

5.1 Response rate

5.2 Demographics results

5.3 Results of Specific Research Objective 1

5.4 Results of Specific Research Objective 2

CHAPTER SIX
DISCUSSION CONCULSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Discussion

6.2 Conlcusion

6.3 Recommedations

6.4 Furture work

CHAPTER SEVEN

IMPLEMENTATION (PROTOTYPE FRAMEWORK)

7.1 System Implementation

7.2 Technologies Used

7.2.1 Hardware Platform.

7.2.2 Programming Language

7.2.3 Programming Tools

7.2.4 Software Platform

7.3 Features of the Prototype

7.3.1 Technical Manual Screenshots 1.3.2

7.3.2 User Manual Screenshots:- main activtoty step by step
7.4 Database Management System

8.0 References

APA Format

9.0 Appendix.