Nov/Dec 2004

There has been a shake-up among suppliers of real-time traffic information. Thanks to a contract with UBC Media Group, Trafficlink now claims to supply all commercial radio networks in the UK. In return for advertising slots, UBC supplies traffic information free of charge to about 170 commercial radio stations in the UK. In October it signed up the 38 radio stations run by GWR, a deal which followed a similar one in July with EMAP.

AA Roadwatch, part of the Automobile Association, previously supplied UBC's traffic news. The AA was sold to private equity firms CVC and Perima earlier this year, and the AA has already announced it is closing its 122 service centres and its mobile tyre fitting and vehicle inspections operations.

The AA, of course, has had close links with ITIS, the company that monitors road congestion using floating vehicle data. The motoring organisation says it "is currently in discussions with ITIS about how any future relationship may be structured," and expects a conclusion before the end of the year.

In the meantime, ITIS will continue to support both the mobile phone and Web services that the AA has always had (Vodafone 2222 and the all-network 401100), so to AA members there will be no visible change. The 4,000-plus AA patrol vehicles will also continue to contribute data to ITIS until a new deal is finalised with it or any other provider.

 

Trafficlink is privately-owned, and also supplies breakfast television station GMTV with traffic reports, as well as some regional BBC stations. Its rolling traffic news service is updated every 10 minutes.

In 2005 it is planning to offer a commercial real-time traffic service to fleet operators and other key road users, which will have extra granularity such as regionalisation, email alerts on particular roads and so on. Its main rival in the UK is Trafficmaster.