FMG has managed the contract since the NVRM was inaugurated in 2008. Following a competitive tender process, the company has been awarded a new three-year contract, which will run from autumn 2013, with optional extensions for four further years.
The contract covers 4,300 miles of motorways and significant A-roads and will be worth £34.5m over seven years.
Operating from its secure control centre at FMG House, FMG helps to monitor the road network and coordinates specialist recovery operators to remove broken down vehicles, road traffic collisions, loads, passengers and coordinate incident recoveries to return traffic flow to normal, helping to minimise disruption on UK PLC and all road users.
FMG CEO John Catling said: ‘This is great news for FMG and road users at large. We look forward to working with the Highways Agency well into the future. They’ve shown their considerable confidence in us, by awarding the contract for up to seven years, and we’re more than ready to accept the challenge of delivering improvements and efficiencies across the Strategic Road Network.
‘By working together with the appropriate bodies and agencies, we can ensure that incidents are dealt with safely and quickly. This allows motorists to get back on the move as soon as possible, and helps to minimise the impact on UK PLC.’
On average, FMG deals with around 40 incidents a day, and managed over 48,000 incidents over the life of the last contract. These range from HGVs hitting bridges, to multiple vehicle pile-ups and breakdowns in dangerous locations.
In the five years since FMG has worked on the contract, response times have improved to a 33-minute average, and the time to deal with incidents has improved.
