Road agency gets customer friendly
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• Drivers could soon be able to complain about the state of UK roads directly to dozens of new managers as part of a Highways Agency initiative.
The Highways Agency is poised to appoint "route managers"—and is considering publishing their names, contact numbers and even photographs in a bid to become more "customer focused".
The agency's information line receives about 8,000 complaints and suggestions every year.
"This was very monolithic— we are now trying to look at routes the way road users look at routes," says a spokesman.
The move is part of the Government's route strategies initiative, first outlined in the green paper Transport—The Way Forward.
Roads Minister John Watts says the route strategy approach is intended to take a wider view of trunk road management by assessing the quality of journeys.
This includes ride quality, safety, congestion, journey time reliability, availability of driver information and rest facilities.
The Highways Agency plans to begin implementing the new strategy soon; more details are due in April.