Hauliers and logistic operators are increasingly using the M6toll as their route of choice through the West Midlands region, with exclusive new data showing a surge in HGV traffic volumes on the road during the past three years.
Based on data from the M6toll data analytics team, 2022 has seen some of the highest volumes of HGV traffic ever recorded on the M6toll. August and September have seen HGV traffic grow by up to 51%, the highest percentage increase recorded when compared to 2019 levels.
Both March and August 2022 have registered the highest HGV traffic volumes this year, with figures peaking in August with 138,735 vehicles travelling on the road.
More recently, the M6toll saw 1,807 business customers using the road on 11th October – the highest number of HGV customers to take advantage of the easy and efficient ANPR system, since it was first piloted in 2021.
The M6toll data team is also anticipating further spikes in November and December as the pre-festive period delivery traffic begins to ramp up on the road.
For firms such as pladis Global, a confectionery and snack foods company encompassing United Biscuits, Ülker, Godiva Chocolatier and DeMet’s Candy Company, there are significant benefits to be gained from using the M6toll as their route of choice through the West Midlands region.
Guy Moore, UK Transport Operations Manager at pladis Global said:
“The M6toll helps us overcome so many business challenges. It helps cut out the unknown delays and disruption, enables us to plan ahead and make key savings – in time, fuel and driver hours – across the business.
The reliability the M6toll provides also helps to reduce the stress points in our business, as we know we can always rely on it to deliver the operational efficiencies key to us and our customers.
When you weigh up those benefits and set them against the cost of regularly using the M6toll, it’s easy to make the case for continuing to use it.”
Michael Whelan, General Manager at Midland Expressway Ltd said:
“The rise in HGV traffic volumes on the M6toll during the past three and half years demonstrates the increasing confidence that businesses have in the road as their route of choice.
During the three-year we have been through a pandemic, followed by a gradual return to business operations and a cost-of-living crisis. Despite these periods of huge uncertainty, hauliers, logistics companies and other commercial operators have continued to place their faith in the M6toll as a route that can deliver operational benefits for their business.
M6toll has also supported businesses with attractive product trials, bespoke pricing and incentives for new HGV customers. We remain committed to increasing the volume of HGV traffic on the M6toll, by making it a viable alternative to more congested routes in the regional road network.”
As part of its ongoing support for businesses, for the Road Haulage Association’s (RHA) ‘National Lorry Week’, the M6toll will offer RHA members opening a new M6toll account, an introductory offer of 30% discount for the first three months, valid from 14th October 2022 through to 31st of December 2022. It’s a promotion that has proved popular in the past, with previous offers recording a 100% retention rate for those RHA members opening up new accounts.
Further support for businesses has seen hauliers, logistics companies and delivery firms become the first to trial the new Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) based tolling system. ANPR cameras identify licence plate data, removing the need for card payments at the toll plazas and replacing them with a remote payment system.
It means customers can manage all transactions via the M6toll website, whether for a single vehicle or larger fleets spread across several depots. The pilot project was launched in April 2021 with Maritime Transport Ltd, the UK’s fastest-growing intermodal transport operator, the first to trial the new ANPR technology,
Since then, similarly large-scale operators such as Culina, Huntapac, Menzies Distribution and Wincanton have all been added to the pilot project. The feedback from drivers and the wider companies they work for has so far been very positive about the new ANPR system.
