The High­ways Agency has a world class rep­u­ta­tion for the oper­a­tion, main­te­nance and improve­ment of England’s motor­ways and trunk roads.

Under­stand­ing the needs of our cus­tomers is an inte­gral part of the Agency’s oper­a­tions. To help us achieve our vision we need help.  We have a well estab­lished (2004) net­work of Cus­tomer Bea­cons, rep­re­sent­ing teams across the Agency.  The bea­cons are in a good posi­tion to encour­age teams who plan and develop ser­vices and deliver improve­ments to take account of what you, our cus­tomers, want.  They draw on the feed­back they receive from all road users, includ­ing freight; motorists; pas­sen­gers; cyclists and other cus­tomers such as road neigh­bours and local com­mu­ni­ties.  The feed­back comes from many sources includ­ing cor­re­spon­dence; tele­phone calls to the High­ways Agency Infor­ma­tion Line (HAIL) and our reg­u­lar sur­veys.  The pub­lished feed­back can be seen in the lat­est Cus­tomer Feed­back Report cov­er­ing quar­ter 3 2012/13 (345KB PDF).

We held a work­shop in Novem­ber 2012 which pro­vided a net­work­ing oppor­tu­nity for our cus­tomer bea­cons to share best prac­tice and to dis­cuss what you are telling us.  These work­shops have been annual events since 2004 and have proved invalu­able in encour­ag­ing our teams to com­mu­ni­cate effectively.

Feed­back, includ­ing com­plaints and com­pli­ments, comes to us through many chan­nels and since 2006 we have been car­ry­ing out a reg­u­lar rolling pro­gramme of sur­veys Area Road Users’ Sat­is­fac­tion Sur­vey (ARUSS) in each of our 13 areas (seven regions).  The ques­tions cover the respon­dents’ gen­eral expe­ri­ences and per­cep­tions of the net­work within the area where they live. We use the results to gain under­stand­ing about what road users’ find impor­tant and this helps us to improve our ser­vices.  The National Road Users’ Sat­is­fac­tion Sur­vey (NRUSS) tracks sat­is­fac­tion with respon­dents’ last jour­ney on the net­work. Please visit the Sat­is­fac­tion Sur­veys page for the most recent results.

If you have any ques­tions about either of these sur­veys we would be pleased to hear from you. Please email our High­ways Agency Infor­ma­tion Line (HAIL) ha_info@highways.gsi.gov.uk.

You tell us that you like…

• The help given by our  Traf­fic Offi­cers if you are involved in inci­dents on our network
• Prompt and appro­pri­ate responses to com­plaints and suggestions
• Com­plet­ing work ahead of schedule

You tell us that you dislike …

• Con­ges­tion caus­ing delays to your journey
• Lit­ter on the network

Here is an exam­ple of what we have done by lis­ten­ing and work­ing with our partners:

Motor­way lit­ter drop­pers told to wind it up

You have told us how much you dis­like find­ing lit­ter on the road net­work and the High­ways Agency and Tame­side Coun­cil are join­ing forces to crack down on lit­ter drop­pers after 172 sacks of rub­bish were col­lected from the junc­tion at Den­ton between the M60 and the M67, dur­ing a two-week period in April.  This cost the tax­pay­ers an esti­mated £8,000.

Motorists are being told they could receive a fixed penalty notice of £50 if they are caught drop­ping lit­ter, lead­ing to a poten­tial fine of £2,500 for a sec­ond offence of if they fail to pay the penalty notice. Tame­side say they won’t hes­i­tate in tak­ing action against offenders.

Road­side lit­ter is not only unsightly and anti-social but it can also lead to haz­ards for other motorists if it is thrown from mov­ing vehi­cles; it causes a threat to wildlife and can lead to flood­ing if drains are blocked.

We would urge every­one to keep a bag in their car and take their lit­ter home with them.