Skip to main content

Traffic alert app from Pennsylvania company launches in UK

Motorists using major highways in England can now access real-time, personalised traffic and roadway travel information on their smartphones by downloading a free app developed by Philadelphia-based Information Logistics. The Hands-Free Traffic Talker England (HFT England) app audibly broadcasts information about a motorist's specific travel route, freeing the user from the distractions of touching the phone, reading messages, or listening to irrelevant traffic alerts.
August 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Motorists using major highways in England can now access real-time, personalised traffic and roadway travel information on their smartphones by downloading a free app developed by Philadelphia-based Information Logistics. The Hands-Free Traffic Talker England (HFT England) app audibly broadcasts information about a motorist's specific travel route, freeing the user from the distractions of touching the phone, reading messages, or listening to irrelevant traffic alerts.

England's 503 Highways Agency is providing traffic information and timely advisories about all of its roadways to Information Logistics. Advisories concern lane closures, active road works, accidents, traffic congestion, and other conditions affecting travel. The Highways Agency, an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom's 1837 Department for Transport, is responsible for operating, maintaining, and improving the strategic road network of England, outside London.

"We want to allow road users to access live and targeted traffic information in a safe manner when they need it. The availability of smartphones provides a way to do just that, and the introduction of this hands-free app is really exciting, it being both iPhone and 1812 Android compatible," said Highways Agency director for traffic management Simon Sheldon-Wilson.

"Our collaboration with Information Logistics is a good example of the public and private sectors working together to provide motorists with real-time traffic news and constant updates about incidents on the network," Sheldon-Wilson added.

Information Logistics President Mary Farrell said this is the company's first overseas launch of the traffic app. "We're just very delighted that the Highways Agency saw the value that our app can deliver to motorists," Farrell said. "We like to tell people that our app moves with them, and now we can say it's moved to England. This launch represents an important breakthrough for our team here." The app is currently used in the US by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to provide location specific traffic advisories to motorists using its toll-road system.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Standalone connected car smartphone launched
    February 21, 2013
    Israeli telecommunications company Accel Telecom has partnered with navigation and traffic app supplier Waze to launch Voyager, which it claims is the first standalone connected car smartphone device that can be easily installed in any car and operates using an existing phone number via a twin-SIM. The company says Voyager is a dedicated connected car smartphone device that provides drivers with a safer and superior connected car experience. The device combines android based smartphone technology with an HS
  • UK smart motorway traffic management system suffers two-hour 'outage'
    February 22, 2023
    'We apologise for any inconvenience caused,' says National Highways
  • French city pilots ticketless public transport payment by smartphone
    October 5, 2015
    French local transport authority Valence Romans Déplacements (VRD) in south-eastern France, is piloting Xerox Seamless, an easy-to-use technology for public transport mobile payments that enables passengers to make payments by smartphone. Between now and the end of June 150 customers will use the Xerox Seamless app on their smartphones to travel on the city’s buses, operated by Citéa for VRD. Xerox has installed near field communication (NFC) tags on VRD’s local and intercity bus lines. Users downloa
  • TRL drives National Highways update
    May 3, 2022
    England's roads agency to replace 20-year-old asset managment software