Real-time weather and traffic information increases road safety and customer satisfaction in Finland.
Dangerous road conditions caused by poor visibility in combination with glazed frost are often the cause of fatal traffic accidents. In order to prevent dangers caused by the weather in Finland, an expert committee under the direction of the Institute of Meteorology and the transport infrastructure service provider Finnish Road Enterprise tried to find a solution.
Their goal was to develop a simple and reliable system that is open to as many people as possible and spreads information promptly. The solution was to provide information about the weather and the local road conditions (accident, traffic jam) and had to be available around the clock. One criterion was that it had to be possible to pass the information on selectively to the traffic participants concerned. A great challenge was to send the data to the recipients and to ensure receipt of the messages.
TOPCALL developed a system that locates the road users via the GSM network and informs them about critical situations via mobile phone. The following companies participated in this project: the Finnish Institute of Meteorology, the Finnish Road Enterprise, the Scandinavian telecommunications and service provider TeliaSonera and the Finnish TOPCALL distribution partner LEKAB Communication Systems. The mobile radio based telematics solution was implemented at TeliaSonera (one hundred percent network coverage).
Warning by phone
The emergency centre of the Finnish Institute of Meteorology serves as an information pool. This is where the decision about the necessity of a warning is made. The text of the warning message is converted into a voice message using the TOPCALL text-to-speech engine. Then, the GSM system is used to locate the positions of all drivers subscribed to the service which are then compared with the coordinates of the hazardous area by the TOPCALL system. The voice message is sent to the mobile phones of all users within a radius of 30 kilometres. The system records all subscribed drivers who are located at a distance between 30 and 100 kilometres from the danger zone. After 15 minutes, it is checked whether these drivers have come closer to the danger zone and if so they will be alerted without delay.
To make sure that the messages are received the drivers are asked to confirm receipt by pressing a certain key. If the confirmation is not received within a predefined time period, the driver will automatically be called again. If no confirmation of the second delivery attempt is received, an SMS message will be sent.
A success story
Thanks to the wide functionality and flexibility of the TOPCALL Communication Platform the development time was very short. The real-time information about adverse traffic and weather conditions and accidents enables freight service providers and coach drivers to optimise their route planning. The early warning system helps prevent delays in delivery and late arrivals. According to a user survey, the system has increased the feeling of driving safely and helped avoid a great number of dangerous situations