Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire-based provider of real-time traffic information systems Trafficmaster Plc’s profitability is still in a bit of a jam as the company announced interim net losses up at ú1.1m from ú773,000 last time. The company maintains that it is mid-way through its three-year plan to achieve profitability, and indeed turnover for the six months to June 30 has increased 171% to ú1.3m. However, it attributes increased losses to what it terms the dynamics of a subscription business, citing high launch and subscriber acquisition costs as well as servicing and maintenance of an enlarged network, but says its ú2m cash reserves are adequate for the company’s needs. Trafficmaster introduced its YQ in-car unit screen-based dashboard unit in March (CI No 2,628), giving live traffic information for 2,000 miles of motorways and 400 miles of trunk roads. It has now launched Trafficmate, a speech-based product aimed at the low-volume user that travels only short distances and needs only local travel information. Trafficmate is shipping this week, and will be available from retail outlets in the UK including Dixons, Tandy and John Lewis. It costs ú50, which includes the mobile phone-sized unit that fits on the dashboard, and the first year’s subsription or information key, which costs ú24 per year thereafter. The product monitors Trafficmaster’s transmitters, giving warnings to motorists approaching congested motorways or motorway junctions, and filters information according to the direction the car is travelling. Since the unit is already being produced in Spain, the company will realise a profit on the base unit this year, in addition to subscription fees, where it says it is subsidising the hardware for Trafficmaster YQ. It is also talking to major car manufacturers to get Trafficmate built in to new cars as standard. The company said it had four main objectives for 1995; to launch Trafficmaster YQ through retail channels, to develop and launch a low-cost entry-level product aimed at the mass market, to negotiate an additional licence with the Department of Transport and to incorporate new technological and product developments and enhance its network to exploit the developments. It says it has achieved all four of these objectives. Chairman Sir James McKinnon says he expects the launch of Trafficmate to increase revenues sharply in the latter part of 1995, and that since the company’s operating costs are now largely fixed, he believes that the company will show significantly improved financial performance during 1996.
