Reading to use PIE Mapping for online freight journey planner
Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) routing specialists PIE Mapping has secured a Reading Borough Council grant to provide freight operators with a journey planner for the area which includes weight, height and width restrictions for larger vehicles. The Freight Journey Planner is an online routing system that HGV operators and drivers can access through the council website. Similar to consumer routing technology like Google Maps, the journey planner for Reading includes restrictions specific to large vehicles. The restrictions can be changed and updated as often as is required by council officers, for example in response to resident issues or any planned event that necessitates road closures. The changes will automatically populate the journey planner and drivers accessing the online system will be routed accordingly. It is hoped the new system will help to alleviate heavy goods vehicles using residential streets as they make their way across the borough. Tony Page, Reading Borough Council's Lead Member for Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport, said: "Too many narrow, residential streets in Reading still suffer from HGVs trying to use them by slavishly following out-of-date and inaccurate satnav systems. Even though our road signs indicate width and height restrictions and cul-de-sacs, it is far too often the case that drivers ignore these because their satnavs are advising them wrongly. The system will provide freight operators with routing information within Reading for different types of delivery vehicle, however there remains a need for suppliers to work together across the freight industry to ensure this information is used rather than out of date sat nav systems. The Journey Planner will also include a facility for residents to report sightings of freight vehicles if they do use inappropriate routes. We look forward to getting the system live as soon as possible." Any road restriction information included by Reading Council also feeds into a National Freight Journey Planner, launched at the end of 2013.
Pictured: Part of a journey mapped out on the national Freight Journey Planner website.
PIE Mapping: www.piemapping.com
National Freight Journey Planner: www.freightjourneyplanner.co.uk
Gloucester City Council outsources IT service to Civica in six-year contract
Specialist systems and business process services group Civica has signed a six year contract with Gloucester City Council to outsource its IT service, the company has announced. The move follows the success of the innovative revenues and benefits partnership Civica created with the City Council in 2011. The new agreement will provide the council with the ability to make further savings of £100,000 a year through the outsourcing of its IT operations and help the city council's strategy to reform the way it provides back office, transactional and corporate support services to meet budget constraints. The existing partnership between Civica and Gloucester City Council, to outsource the provision of revenues, benefits and welfare rights services, has delivered savings and enabled Civica to open a Centre of Excellence in the city, offering services to a further 20 authorities.
Civica: www.civica.co.uk
Brightwave renews e-learning with Clyde Valley Learning Development Group
E-learning firm Brightwave has announced the renewal of its contract with Clyde Valley Learning Development Group, a partnership of 21 councils in the Clyde Valley region in Scotland. The four-year contract comprises a number of elements including the provision of a bespoke learning management system-based learning platform, an authoring tool and an evaluation module. Brightwave's previous contract with the group ran for five years. Each product and application is individually branded to each council, delivering a flexible approach to engage workers. The continued partnership between Brightwave and CVLDG will build on the success of the programme to date, allowing councils to collaborate on e-learning projects and quickly develop and roll out courses. The project objectives extend beyond cost-savings to the strategic aim of creating a shared and sustainable e-learning service. The project remains the only one of its kind in the UK where councils have partnered in this way, with the most recent reporting figures demonstrating savings close to £10 million.
Brightwave: www.brightwave.co.uk
