Aug/Sept 2007

Citroen / Trafficmaster

Our impression

Citroen is the first van manufacturer in the UK to fit satellite navigation and stolen vehicle tracking as standard. Trafficmaster's Smartnav and Trackstar stolen vehicle tracking is now factory-fitted to all Dispatch and Relay vans.

Included is a three-year subscription to Smartnav, three months' free use of the live traffic data, and a one-month subscription to SafeSpeed speed camera alerts. Citro'n believes Smartnav will help businesses by cutting mileage and fuel consumption and will offer better vehicle and driver safety.

 

Trafficmaster is the company that operates the fixed traffic sensor network, positioned across major roads in the UK, and supplies traffic updates over the RDS/TMC network. There are 7,500 sensors, covering 8,000 miles of UK motorways and trunk roads, plus 50,000 probes in vehicles equipped with the Smartnav navigation system.

The Smartnav system is rather unusual these days in the way it works. You are actually connected to a real person in real time, and sent a voice instruction list that you then follow as you continue on your journey. But that's not to say it doesn't draw on the latest technology. For instance, the Smartnav device uses historic road speed data and live incident information from Trafficmaster to calculate the optimum routes and avoid congestion.

Each vehicle has a hidden GPS transceiver for position location and a GSM SIM card to communicate with the Trafficmaster centre to get route guidance. As standard, Smartnav comes with a dashboard-mounted button, a microphone and a speaker. Pressing the button connects the driver to the contact person, who asks for destination details and keys in the information for you. The route is then downloaded to the vehicle and you follow the verbal instructions.

There is an ongoing cost in the form of an annual subscription of £109, although this is included for Citroen customers for three years. Citroen Relay and Dispatch buyers also get the optional Smartnav LCD Touchscreen (retail price £279), which provides more functionality and is activated whenever the ignition is on.

It has to be said that the screen is smaller and less colourful than other satnav screens. There is a basic pictorial display of the route, with next manoeuvre confirmation, but not the detailed coloured street-level mapping found on other systems.

However, the screen does display clear graphic confirmation of distances to the next manoeuvre and destination, plus other information such as estimated time of arrival and where your next turn should be. All of this is perfectly readable at a glance, and in our view there's nothing wrong with simplicity if it minimises distractions for the driver.

The screen also offers an alternative method of obtaining route guidance. With a limit of 360 voice calls per year to the Trafficmaster control centre, but no limit on data calls via the screen, this option makes sense for multi-drop work. You can enter the destination by postcode, select the route to one of 20 favourite destinations, or select one of the last five destinations from the menu. However, in the interests of safety, you can only do this when the vehicle is stationary.

Other icons suspend navigation, mute the voice instruction, and repeat the last verbal instruction. There's an SOS Emergency icon and a breakdown button.

The focus on live communication, with a control centre either via the screen or the in-cab call button, sets Smartnav apart from rival systems. The mapping information is held centrally at the Trafficmaster call centre, not on an Internet site and not on the in-vehicle device. A key factor here is that if you subscribe to the live traffic data option, any route downloaded to the vehicle automatically takes account of current traffic conditions on the route.

The Safe Speed option works with or without active navigation and has three stages. Three beeps warn you as you approach a monitored speed limit zone, followed by five beeps immediately before you enter the zone. If you continue driving faster than the limit through the zone, continuous beeps warn you until your speed falls below the limit. There are three other options: London congestion charge zone monitoring, Trackstar stolen vehicle tracking, and European navigation option for travelling overseas.

Our verdict

One of the most useful things about Smartnav is the inclusion of live traffic updates. It checks the traffic situation before downloading the route and reassures you 'there is no faster route to your destination'. Not convinced that local knowledge wouldn't get me there sooner when trying to avoid a notorious local rush-hour bottleneck, I twice tried to better its predicted arrival time, but I couldn't.

The Smartnav female voice is one of the most listener-friendly we have come across, and there seems to be a level of politeness and reassurance missing in other systems, including use of the magic word 'please'. At one point, when we had driven past our destination, Smartnav leapt into action to tell us 'you are on the right route but travelling in the wrong direction' - much friendlier than the imperious 'when possible, perform a U-turn.'

Smartnav aims to take the stress out of driving in unfamiliar locations, and it certainly lives up to its promise. It's a different style of navigation, and the in-vehicle screen is desirable in providing reassuring visual confirmation of those verbal instructions.

Security-wise, the screen is mounted in a high-visibility position next to the windscreen and is hard-wired to the vehicle, so potentially there is increased risk of break-ins by people thinking it looks easy to steal. But no van driver is going to remove a satnav screen for security every time he makes a delivery, whatever the make, and the visible hard-wiring and small size of Smartnav screen might actually be a deterrent.

In making satnav standard on Dispatch and Relay vans, Citro'n earns much credit for recognising for many van operators satnav is not a luxury option but a vital tool in keeping vehicle mileages down and minimising time spent sitting in traffic jams.

Specification

Citroen Smartnav Tracking System

Satnav system Trafficmaster Smartnav system. Dashboard-mounted button, microphone and speaker. Hardwired to the vehicle

Communications Hidden, remotely configurable black box. Incorporating GPS transceiver and GSM voice-data modem. Direct communications link to Trafficmaster control centre over 02 network

Electrical system 12-volt or 24-volt vehicle electrical system

Citro'n package Factory-fitted Smartnav and Trackstar on Relay and Dispatch vans; LCD screen; 3-year Smartnav subscription; 3 months' free live traffic data; one month Safe Speed safety camera subscription

Trafficmaster options LCD screen (£279); Trackstar stolen vehicle recovery tracking (£449 including £150 installation); SafeSpeed safety camera alert; European navigation; London Congestion Zone alerts