Esri Tech Chosen to Keep Scotland's Gritter Trackers on Track

Aylesbury; November 28, 2016 – Esri UK, the UK’s leading provider of geographic information systems (GIS), today announces that its GIS technology is underpinning Transport Scotland’s new Trunk Road Gritter Tracker app. The live app monitors all of the major trunk roads to show the Scottish public in near real- time where gritter vehicles have been active during adverse winter conditions, and when, via a ‘snail trail’.

Transport Scotland is the national transport agency for Scotland. As such, it seeks to deliver a safe, efficient, cost-effective and sustainable transport system for the benefit of the people of Scotland. Through the Trunk Road Gritter Tracker app, Transport Scotland aims to enhance road user confidence by showing the live location of gritters out on the road network, via the Traffic Scotland website.

“In Scotland, gritting is essential during cold weather to keep traffic flowing and reduce the safety risks to the public,” explains Martin Thompson, Network Impacts Manager at Transport Scotland. “Historically, we have published static maps showing the public treatment and patrol routes, as well as planned number of gritters being deployed. But in the age of smartphones and real-time information, we needed to go much further in providing details of our gritter treatment activities through digital means. This “self-service” approach to getting information allows the public to be more involved in deciding, for example, when, where and how to travel, or even whether they want to travel at all.”

Many roads authorities already have GPS tracking on the vehicles used by their various gritter contractors, and they could get even more from this information by sharing it with their road users, allowing them to make informed decisions about travel during cold weather.

With Trunk Road Gritter Tracker, Esri UK’s cloud-based ArcGIS Online provides information on both the location of the vehicles and a trail of where they have been in the last 24 hours in an easy-to-understand way that automatically scales to the demands of the public.

ArcGIS is an online, collaborative platform that allows organisations to use, create, and share maps, scenes, apps, layers, analytics, and data. Out of the box, organisations get access to ready-to-use maps, apps, and Esri’s secure cloud, where they can add items and publish web layers.

“Winter treatment costs a lot of money; Transport Scotland’s Winter Service costs between £12 and £13 million per year. The additional insight provided by ArcGIS into the timing and routes used in real-life by the gritters leads to optimisations for Transport Scotland that saves money and improves safety,” adds Paul Clarke, Head of Government, Esri UK.