Jan/Feb 2009

One of the results of the heavy snowfall across Britain during February was that traffic volumes dropped on average by a massive 20 per cent. In some areas the reduction was 25 per cent.

That information comes to you courtesy of Cybit, one of the country's leading telematics and tracking specialists. The company's Fleetstar-Online Web-based tracking system monitors the location of nearly 50,000 vehicles, and says it records more than 10,000 vehicle positions every day.

Whilst information on individual fleets is exclusive to their operators, the aggregated data can be used for other purposes such as live traffic information services, and is also available for analysis of developments such as the snow-related fall in road use.

The lowest traffic volumes were seen on Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 February, Cybit says. They then recovered, but fell again to 82 per cent of normal on Friday 6 February.

Cybit reports that during the same week many gritting vehicles were being used for an average of 18 hours per day – perhaps helping to explain why in some areas the supplies of salt started to run out.