Roddy Graham’s Blog: 25 October 2007

Traffic yield management

Yield management is key to success in the vehicle rental industry. Maximising vehicle utilisation can make a world of difference in terms of profitability so rates go up and down in accordance with anticipated demand.

Stretched to its consumer limits, a major international rental firm allowed its US customers to bid for rates – sometimes they got a great rate, other times their bid was rejected. Whether they still offer the facility I’m not sure but the point is that the rental company wanted to ensure highest vehicle utilisation.

Now it seems that Government is thinking along similar lines with regards to traffic management. Although the Department for Transport has denied reports that it intends to open up hard shoulders during heavy congestion periods, it will shortly publish the results of a pilot scheme on the M42. Apparently, during heavy traffic periods, an 11-mile stretch was opened up, by turning the hard shoulder into an extra lane, all controlled by overhead gantry signs. Cameras monitoring traffic flows allowed traffic controllers to switch the motorway traffic back to a normal three-lane flow when an incident or vehicle breakdown occurred.

In the same way that the variable speed limits along the M25 have alleviated the notorious major hold-ups on stretches around our capital so I believe intelligent use of the hard shoulder could ease traffic hold-ups, if used in combination with variable speed limits. After all, it’s best to be rolling along at say 40mph than sitting in a jam for minutes on end.

Traffic yield management could well be a key solution to our traffic nightmares.