Peek Plc is a traffic management company. It isn’t really a front-name firm for consumers, selling into the traffic control markets. It sells the embedded controllers that make traffic lights switch on and off, but it does a whole lot more besides. Consumers would probably know it better upon learning that it owned 20% of General Logistics Plc, which produces the Trafficmaster in-vehicle driver information system. Until last August it also owned Navistar, the Global Positioning Systems company that produced mobile satellite receiver systems which could fit onto yachts and provide travellers with a latitude and longitude reading. The firm also owns Husky, which produces ruggedised handheld computers for field data applications.
Asia with a vengeance
As a traffic company, though, it’s active in the US, UK, the Nordic region and Asia – especially Asia. In fact, this year the firm is pushing into Asia with a vengeance. It’s no secret that Asia is an expanding market. This continent is being promoted as the next economic powerhouse, and so it should be with an economy that is growing at roughly 10% per year. Once people learn to do business with the Chinese the rewards could be enormous, says Peek’s technical manager Tony Killet, adding that it is no coincidence that the firm recently opened an office in Hong Kong. According to him, Peek has learned to accept the long negotiating periods favoured by the Chinese, and has come to terms with what he describes as a strong sense of honour. There is another reason for Peek’s interest in Asia, which is the population there. As cities become more congested, so do the roads, which means that Asiatic governments have a more urgent need for traffic management systems than most. Taking advantage of this, Peek has already started blazing a trail into Asia. It has invested in Modem Control Systems of China and KEC Engineering of Singapore. This rolling-up of sleeves in Asia has already reaped significant reward in the form of a sub-contract for UKP6m from the Bangkok Municipal Authority for a computerised urban traffic system. At the moment it covers 143 junctions within the city, but in two further stages it will roll out the rest of the system, hopefully to cover the whole of the city. Another contract has been secured in a Chinese town, again on a multi-phase basis. Meanwhile, it is using KEC Engineering to sell traffic controllers and small traffic management systems in Singapore. For the Bangkok contract, the company uses a traffic management system called SCOOT; Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique. This is run on a Digital Equipment Corp VAX box, in a central site. All the traffic controllers in the designated area link up to this site, so that it can control traffic flow on an overall basis to try and avoid congestion.
By Danny Bradbury
Avoiding congestion not only cuts down inconvenience for road users, but also increases the efficiency of the emergency systems, reducing the chance of an ambulance or fire engine being caught in a jam. The SCOOT system is interesting because it has been developed to address a certain type of city structure. Other traffic management systems work best within a spoke-type structure, where the main roads emanate out from the city centre. SCOOT has been designed to operate within a grid-like structure, where the roads cross over at intersections, as in many North American towns. The traffic controllers themselves contain an embedded controller in the form of a Motorola 68302 processor. Peek found this to be the best real-time embedded processor for its needs. Running on the top of this is the pSOS embedded real-time operating system which was originally developed in 1982. It is a modular system now marketed by Integrated Systems Inc, and runs on a variety of chips including the Intel iAPX-86 range and Intel Corp and Motorola Inc RISC processors. While management of traffic from the road is a large part of Peek’s operations, management of the road from inside the vehicle is another. The company’s 20% stake in General Logistics gives it a val
uable stake in another innovative technology. Trafficmaster produces a small terminal which is linked to infrared beacons in the road. These detect traffic and then beam it to a Trafficmaster control centre, which then relays the total traffic information to the personal computer terminal. Road users can then see the movements of traffic in real time. The systems are operating only on motorways in England as yet, primarily because the investment needed to install the sensors in cities is much more expensive. The 80-20 rule dictates that more money can be made on the motorways. Another barrier to operating Trafficmaster in the cities is local authorities. They are unwilling to co-operate, because if road users have a way of finding out where the congestion is, then they will use side roads, which are also apt to become congested. Road tolling is coming into vogue now, with the Swedish government commissioning a system to charge for road use. As you may have already guessed, Peek has been taking an active interest in this area too. The issue is not just making sure that vehicles can carry Smart Cards to be debited when they pass through a toll booth. It is also to ensure that when vehicles don’t have a Smart Card, their numberplates can be identified and the owners invoiced. To this end, the firm has signed a deal with Saab-Scania Combitech of Sweden to work worldwide on Automatic Vehicle Identification. It has already signed a deal for road tolling work in Sweden. The British government may not be as easy to penetrate; it is testing methods of tolling this spring with a view to implementing tolling systems in 1997.
Road tolling policy
The UK Department of Transport says that the system must pertain to Britain’s roads and their specific problems. Kellitt believes that Britain has to be careful when implementing a road tolling policy or it could find itself with another poll tax disaster on its hands. With its current lack of popularity, John Major’s government must be treading on eggshells when considering such a wide-ranging public policy. This could represent a stumbling block to many companies trying to forge links with the Department of Transport. Peek’s ability to compete is growing: sales grew 13.2% to UKP44.3m last half, pre-tax profits, hit by acquisitions of UKP4.3m, slipped by 7.1% to UKP2.6m. If it carries on this way, then perhaps its projected 40% of group revenue from Asia within three years – up from 3% in 1992 – could be a reality.
