Council pilots ‘totally’ mobile way to report and repair potholes in Sutherland

Motorists in Sutherland area are being encouraged by The Highland Council to report potholes using a new online service at www.highland.gov.uk/roadfaults or by phoning the Council’s Service Centre on 01349 886601.

Six of the Council’s Roads and Transport teams within Community Services are piloting mobile technology  - called ‘TotalMobile’ - which allows for more efficient route planning, job scheduling and customer updates. 

Area Roads Operation Manager, Graham Mackenzie explains: “The main principle behind the pilot is to directly connect customers with our staff carrying out the work, locally. Once reported through our online form at  www.highland.gov.uk/roadfaults the pothole request is sent directly to the Sutherland mobile teams. 

“There’s a clever algorithm in play (TotalMobile) that receives requests in real time and carries out planning activity automatically and distributes to the teams’ diaries. It sorts the jobs by date logged and area and sifts through requests to provide the most effective routes. Staff are then directed to the pothole using standard smartphones recording their visit while carrying out the work.”

Cllr Allan Henderson Chair of the Council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee welcomed the new pilot he said: “The Sutherland TotalMobile pilot will run for 3 months and dependant on feedback the Council will have the potential to be rolled out to other Highland Council areas.

“This is a very welcome new initiative as what’s important to The Highland Council is to provide our customers with an update on the potholes they report. That’s why there is an inbuilt automated email facility to update customers and tell them as soon as the pothole reported has been repaired. I look forward to hearing the results of the pilot.”