A moving story from Trafficmaster’s Fleet Director

There is nothing more frustrating for an office or transport manager than to send a driver on a job, only to be told they couldn’t make it or that they are running late because they got stuck in traffic. What’s more it is perceived as poor customer service and may incur penalties and tarnish the company’s reputation. However Trafficmaster has come up with an Oscar winning solution with the launch of TRAFFIC – an integrated congestion alert service on its Fleet Director solution.

For the first time a Fleet Management system is able to provide a map of the UK’s roads showing up-to-the-minute traffic delays. Using Trafficmaster’s highly acclaimed traffic data, traffic congestion icons overlay the fleet management systems mapping. These icons indicate the severity of the congestion using colour coding – red for traffic moving 5 mph or less, orange for traffic traveling between 10 and 15 mph and yellow for speeds of between 20 and 25 mph.

By hovering the cursor over the icon additional information can also be obtained. This includes the time the traffic problem was last recorded, the current road speed, how long the delay is on that section of road and the direction in which congestion has occurred.

The traffic information is taken from Trafficmaster’s reliable network of roadside sensors that cover the UK’s busiest roads including motorways and 95% of the country’s trunk roads. It also directly integrates London traffic data taken from Transport for London’s own camera network. This data is updated on the screen every ten minutes or can be refreshed manually.

The map also allows the manager to zoom in and out, so that they can determine the exact location of the traffic jam, down to the road name and junction. The TRAFFIC service can also be switched on and off from the managers office PC.

This additional service has been introduced to help fleet and transport managers identify which drivers are best able to complete or get to a job on time and will also help them provide accurate ETAs for customers.

One Fleet Director customer commented: “I have to keep my drivers on the move at all times, to ensure that I maximise productivity and meet customer expectations. The addition of Fleet Director TRAFFIC, will enable me to schedule jobs more effectively and keep customers informed.”

John Lawrence, Trafficmaster’s Sales and Marketing Director, added: “Often the price of being late or missing a delivery is a hidden cost, because the manager simply reschedules another time or the customer begrudgingly has to accept it. However in extreme cases companies who are delivering ‘just-in-time’, such as those working within the manufacturing sector, may actually stop a whole production line because they are late. In the automotive industry the cost of late deliveries are said to incur penalties of around 1 million euros an hour*. This can be drastically reduced if the transport manager knows what is happening on the roads.”

The TRAFFIC service will be included free of charge within the Fleet Director subscription. It is available now to new and existing Fleet Director customers.