There’s no business like snow business! OIC trials gritter tracker system

The Council has been trialling a new gritter tracker system that could give folk in Orkney an extra tool to help them plan their journey in wintry conditions.

The roads team were provided with a couple of demo devices – coincidentally timed to perfection with the arrival of the recent snowfall!

The trial has been going well and allowing those behind the scenes real time information as to where the gritters are at any given point and where they have covered. If decided to purchase a full system for the entire winter maintenance fleet this will enable a much more detailed picture to be able to be shared with the travelling public and staff.

Road and Environmental Services Operations Manager, Darren Bisby, said: “Once evaluated and if the decision is made to go ahead with a tracker system this will help people to make more informed decisions before setting out on a journey during wintry periods.

“It will also enable us to answer customer queries in a much more detailed way – we will know exactly where any of our gritters are at any time – and, importantly, which roads they have treated and when. The trial only began on 3 March but it has already enabled us to give answers to queries on vehicle movements and the ICE room, where all winter service roads activities are managed, have the information available to them when coordinating the daily winter service.

“We will also look at whether it would be helpful to share screenshots online showing where the gritters have been. This would show the salting routes as a coloured line on a map – potentially helping us highlight to the public which roads are priority one and which are priority two.

“The gritter tracker would be in addition to the OIC Updates social media posts and tweets that are regularly shared on conditions during periods of bad weather at present.”

The tracker system works by using 2G telematics and tracking vehicle movements in real time which updates every 15 seconds. There are also add ons available that can show when the vehicle is spreading salt.

In Orkney 73% (714km) of the road network is currently treated as priority one and two routes and there are 387 salt bins, most of which are on priority three routes.

Mr Bisby continued: “Given our finite resources, we have to prioritise which routes are treated – we hope this new software will also help the public understand the size of task infront of us and increase awareness of which routes are deemed number one as per the Council’s Winter Service Plan.

“We rely on MetoGroup detailed forecasting but with the best will in the world, it is not an exact science and sometimes conditions can change quickly or be much worse in one area than another – with the new system we will be able to move the crews to the areas where treatment is needed most in a much more efficient manner.”

If agreed to go ahead with a tracker system, it is hoped to be in place and fully operational for the next winter season across the Mainland and isles.