Loading up satnavs with freight routes

09 January 2008

Local highway authorities’ preferred routes for freight traffic could inform new satellite navigation systems designed to keep heavy goods vehicles on the most appropriate roads.

Ordnance Survey (OS) is to consult with councils on how it can get information on recommended routes that they have agreed in freight quality partnerships – in consultation with hauliers and local residents – into satnav devices.

Satellite navigation systems with information on width and height restrictions are in preparation, after OS made available national data on this in October 2006.

Tom Satterthwaite, Ordnance Survey’s senior product manager for transport, said: ‘We hope to give hauliers the full picture of Britain’s roads, highlighting the best routes, as agreed with local authorities, as well as those roads to avoid.’

But the OS, speaking to Surveyor, acknowledged that ‘this won’t be a panacea for the problem’.

The OS was only one information supplier, said a spokesman, and there was no guarantee when, if ever, individual satnav companies would use the data, while many satnav users did not update their systems. ‘Local highway authorities should continue to explore other solutions to HGVs using inappropriate routes,’ he said.

Innovative traffic signs have been developed by councils, such as Vale of Glamorgan and Hampshire, while the Department for Transport is considering whether the current legislation is ‘fit-for-purpose’. But Donald Armour, Freight Transport Association spokesman, welcomed the OS initiative.

‘HGV drivers becoming stuck up unsuitable roads creates a bad image for our industry, disrupts delivery schedules, and causes inconvenience for local residents.’ Mark Wilson, Tyne and Wear local transport plan team leader, welcomed ‘any opportunity to get our advised routes publicised more widely’. The routes discouraged HGV conflicts with road-users by, for example, avoiding schools.

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