Challenge

Millions of vehicles traverse Danish roads yearly. For traffic to flow smoothly and safely, The Danish Road Directorate needs to handle incidents and events and send out traffic updates quickly.

In 2019, the existing system for handling such case work was inadequately fast, precise, and adaptable.

Work tasks were split across several systems. In principle, the telephone system was coupled to the case management system, but in practice, coupling calls to cases was a laborious process that meant workers often did phone calls and registration work separately.

The Danish Road Directorate had little control over their own data. Data exports were tedious and could take a day to complete before analysis could be performed. When the data finally arrived, it was in an unstructured format, making it difficult to conduct in-depth data analysis.

»In general, the Road Directorate felt it was time for something new«, Heidi Lundgaard Sørensen says.

In December 2021, Netcompany came on board to modernise the system.

Solution

Working in close collaboration with The Danish Road Directorate, Netcompany built a case management system called TRACÉ more precisely tailored to the directorate’s needs. In May 2023, the system went live.

»The new system integrates a lot of tasks. When the phone rings, employees now pick it up directly from within the system, and a case flow automatically appears with prefilled records, such as phone number, and supports synchronous incident handling and registration«, Heidi says.

TRACÉ is prepared to receive data from sources not available before, such as from roadside equipment, and other vehicles. This will enable faster detection of events and quicker traffic warnings. All collected data is structured and immediately available for data analysts, who can now perform process optimization or event and holiday traffic forecasting with greater speed and precision.

The new system in general permits greater automation of tasks. Today, a speed dial allows employees to contact emergency contractors such as Falck quickly. Soon, TRACÉ will implement a direct integration to Falck to replace phone calls. In general, relevant partners and contractors of the Road Directorate will automatically receive notifications if a roadside event requires attention.

Lastly, the new system is flexible, and new categories for e.g. incidents can be added instantly, leading to a high degree of adaptability.

Results

From May 2023 to September 2023, TRACÉ has handled 27,500 cases and issued 32,500 traffic alerts to road users and partners. All traffic reports are integrated directly into TRACÉ, making communication swift.

Out of the 27,500 cases, 5,000 are generated in the Road Directorate’s Traffic Centre and concern acute incidents on the roads. The rest mainly concern roadworks or other planned activities.

In the coming years, The Danish Road Directorate will continue their digital journey.

»The Directorate needs to pinpoint exactly where each accident happens, but today, there is a lack of a consolidated authoritative register. One of The Road Directorate’s ambitions is to create a Road Infrastructure Model, a task as complex as it is exciting«, Heidi says.