">http://Trafficmaster PLC
05 October 2005

5 October 2005



Trafficmaster signs 5 year contract to work with Norwich Union on "Pay As You
Drive"TM Insurance



Trafficmaster, the leading supplier of digital traffic information and
intelligent in-vehicle services, has signed a five year contract with Norwich
Union (NU) to deliver "Pay As You Drive"TM (PAYD) insurance services to the
motorist.



Trafficmaster will supply NU with an initial quantity of 10,000 advanced "
black-box" in-car units in the first half of 2006. The black box, which is
already being used for both Trafficmaster's navigation unit Smartnav and
tracking device RAC Trackstar, identifies the location of the vehicle to allow
the delivery of PAYD insurance.



NU customers will be offered comprehensive products that provide cost effective
insurance together with a raft of optional in-vehicle services. These will
include safety camera warnings, Smartnav navigation, emergency and breakdown
calls and stolen vehicle tracking from RAC Trackstar.



Tony Eales, Chief Executive of Trafficmaster, said "This is a major new market
for Trafficmaster as it not only provides large scale deployment of our
in-vehicle units but also provides an opportunity to sell our other compelling
services. The deal provides a new way to deliver Smartnav and it will allow us
to offer insurance products to many of our own subscribers."



Stephen Doran, Director of Business Development at Norwich Union said "Our
partnership with Trafficmaster will allow us to deliver some very compelling new
customer propositions combining "Pay As You Drive" TM Insurance from Norwich
Union with a range of added value in-vehicle services that Trafficmaster will
deliver. Norwich Union have been the pioneers of PAYD insurance in the UK, and
this partnership will allow us to take the programme to the next level."



-ends-


Trafficmaster Tel: 01234 759 300
Tony Eales, Chief Executive
Stuart Berman, Executive Director

Financial Dynamics Tel: 020 7831 3113
Ben Atwell / John Gilbert



Trafficmaster

Founded in 1988, Trafficmaster Plc is the UK's leading journey management
company providing high quality satellite navigation, traffic data and vehicle
tracking systems.



Trafficmaster's traffic information is derived from its unique state-of-the-art
network of nationwide static roadside sensors and transmitters that gather and
distribute traffic data from over 8,000 miles of motorway and trunk routes.
Traffic data is then delivered to the customer through a number of screen or
speech-based receivers. These include a variety of in-car products and services
that include its satellite navigation - Smartnav, Trafficmaster Monitor, YQ(2),
Oracle and Freeway units. Traffic information can also be obtained by phoning
the 1740 service, which is run in partnership with the RAC and the UK's main
mobile phone operators.



The traffic data provided through Trafficmaster RDS TMC is used, in conjunction
with third party satellite navigation systems, to route drivers around
congestion. The data is broadcast on licensed radio networks owned by GCap Media
Plc and Chrysalis Radio and is provided to original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) or direct to automotive manufacturers.



For more information please visit www.tmc.co.uk or www.trafficmaster.co.uk or
contact:



Pay As You Drive (PAYD)



Pay As You Drive is the concept of insurance charging based upon usage.



About Norwich Union Insurance

Norwich Union is the UK's largest insurer with a market share of around 14 per
cent.

With a focus on insurance for individuals and small businesses, Norwich Union
insures:

- One in five households

- One in seven motor vehicles

- Around 800,000 businesses



Norwich Union products are available through a variety of distribution channels
including brokers, corporate partners such as banks and building societies and
Norwich Union Direct.



Aviva, Norwich Union's parent company, recently announced its acquisition of the
RAC. The acquisition brings together the RAC's powerful brand and customer base
with the expertise and leading position in motor insurance of Norwich Union
Insurance.




This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

CNTUUGQAUUPAGMC

http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&ned=uk&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=payd

another day up 10%.. wont be long till we hit 1

Pay-Per-Mile Car Insurance: It's Coming.
Money as a Tool Finance, Venture Philanthropy, Trade and Economy see all posts in this category

How can you reward yourself for driving less? Or how can you make the costs people pay more closely match their impact on the world?

Car costs are largely divorced from car usage. Sure, you pay for gas as you drive, but for most cars, the average driver pays about as much for insurance as they do for gas; then there's the car's purchase price and maintenance. For the well-off, purchase price and maintenance can be ameliorated by leasing instead of buying. For low-income people, purchase price is as low as they can find, so insurance is often the biggest cost of having a car. Either way, insurance means being stuck with a fixed cost, no matter how much or how little you drive.

Well, not anymore. At least not in some places. Pay-Per-Mile, or Pay-As-You-Drive ("PAYD") insurance means that your insurance payments are based on how much you drive. Such plans have cropped up in places like the UK, Japan, and even a few US states. The Victoria Transport Policy Institute says that PAYD insurance will "help achieve several public policy goals including fairness, affordability, road safety, consumer savings and choice, and reduced traffic problems." Fairness will be improved because the user's financial costs will more closely match their accident risk--to say nothing of their burden on the roads, traffic, and the environment. Fairness between low-income and high-income drivers is also improved, because as the National Organization of Women's Cents Per Mile website details, low-income drivers often have to bear a higher insurance burden than their mileage or real accident risk warrants. Fairness between genders would even be improved--ever wonder why women pay less in car insurance than men? It's because on average they drive 40% less. (Though their discounts are not as big as their reduced risk.) Road safety and traffic will be improved by encouraging people to drive less, of course, and consumer savings and choice will be improved by giving people the option of using PAYD or staying with traditional all-you-can-drive plans.


Why would insurance companies want to offer discounts for people to drive less? Because if you look at the numbers, it works out in their favor: As Environmental Defense writes, "a 10% reduction in driving is estimated to result in a 17% decrease in crashes." Insurance firms' costs would decrease much further than their revenues. Why would insurance companies not want to offer it? NOW's Cents Per Mile site argues that it would expose some of the unfair pricing structures currently used. But proper marketing should be able to handle this, and smart pricing structures should allow them to improve profits while making pricing fairer. One of the biggest obstacles at this point is no one wants to be the first kid on the block, who has to work out all the kinks, then watch as the rest of the industry jumps on the bandwagon later; but again, good marketing should overcome this, by giving the first kid on the block a great reputation with green consumers (who are extraordinarily brand-conscious and brand-loyal).

Paying by mileage requires some technology to measure how much you drive. There are two ways of doing this: either installing a proprietary odometer that has an embedded phone to occasionally call in your mileage, or installing a GPS with embedded phone (like OnStar) to report your actual routes. Obviously, the latter is a huge privacy problem, and has raised stern objections from some groups. But public-policy-wise, it has advantages: it can charge you not only by how many miles you drove, but by where and when you drove them--driving in congested areas during rush hour costs you more than driving off-peak or in traffic-free areas. Whether these benefits outweigh the privacy concerns depends on who you ask.

So who offers PAYD, and how much would you save?

Plans differ, of course, but some offer as much as a 40% discount for people who drive significantly less than average. Norwich Union, the UK's largest insurer, has offered PAYD for about a year. Their system is GPS-based, charging by time and location as well as mileage. In Japan, Aioi has started offering it with an odometer-based system, according to Cascadia Scorecard. In the US, a pilot program was tried back in 1998 in Texas by Progressive Insurance Corp, though it has yet to be rolled out to normal consumers. It was originally GPS-based, but reportedly switched to odometer-based. In 2004, GMAC and OnStar supposedly partnered to make PAYD (or, as they call it, Mileage-Based Insurance) available in Arizona, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania; however, I haven't been able to find places offering it, just the press release. Their system is / would be GPS-based.

How much will per-mile insurance change the world? The Victoria Transport Policy Institute does not expect PAYD to radically alter people's driving habits, but estimates a 5% - 15% mileage reduction if it were universally available in the US. Still, this is a significant impact, and it sets up the right incentive structure; perhaps over time people's habits would change more significantly. When we first mentioned this topic back in 2003, we quoted a Grist article saying: "Dean Baker, codirector the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., has noted, mileage-based auto insurance 'may be the biggest free lunch around in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.'"

Smartnav standard fit on Isuzu truck.Is this a new contract?

Advertised in daily press.

no its been a standard fit for over a year now..

RAC is selling NU's PAYD insurance

up another 5% today

up another 2% today and still a lot further to go

Holding(s) in Company

RNS Number:6759W
Trafficmaster PLC
09 January 2006

9th January 2006


Trafficmaster Plc


Holding in Company

Trafficmaster Plc ("the Company") has today received notification that Legal &
General Group Plc has a notifiable interest in 5,844,105 Ordinary Shares of 5p
each of the Company, representing 4.33 per cent of the issued share capital of
the Company.



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

i think this will pass 40p tomorrow ;-)

10/Jan/2006
TRAFFICMASTER GOES MOBILE WITH WAYFINDER TO PROVIDE LIVE TRAFFIC INFORMATION


For immediate release - 10th January 2006



TRAFFICMASTER GOES MOBILE WITH WAYFINDER TO PROVIDE LIVE TRAFFIC INFORMATION


Trafficmaster Plc, the UKs leading provider of real time traffic information, announces a five year agreement with Wayfinder to provide live traffic data on Wayfinder navigation software for mobile phones in the UK. The service will be available from February 1st 2006.

Wayfinder is the UKs leading provider of navigation software for installation onto mobile phones. Trafficmaster will provide real-time traffic information to Wayfinder Navigator software, which will be used to dynamically calculate routes and update traffic information. The traffic service will use Trafficmasters high quality real time traffic flow data to deliver information on the traffic conditions to help users of the Wayfinder navigation software avoid congestion on the UKs motorways and trunk roads.

Jonas Sellergren, VP Product Management from Wayfinder:
"Wayfinder has a pedigree of working with leaders in the technology and mobile service industry. Trafficmaster Plc is delivering highly accurate information on the traffic flows on the UKs major roads. This data will provide a value added solution that will help our customers travel from A to B with ease."

The Trafficmaster service can be downloaded via GPRS onto your mobile phone and will help Wayfinder Navigator calculate the fastest route using the current road conditions. A detour symbol will be displayed if you have to be re-routed around congestion problems allowing you to reach your destination stress free. You can also update the current route with updated traffic information by recalculating the route.

Craig Blount, Director of Trafficmaster Services, comments:
"This is the first agreement that we have entered into to provide Trafficmasters traffic information on to a mobile phone equipped with navigation software. Wayfinder is at the forefront of developing mobile phone based navigation services which are now rapidly emerging as a new segment within the increasingly dynamic market for navigation devices in the UK."

The Trafficmaster traffic information service can be purchased directly through Wayfinder via your mobile phone or through a personal navigation home page - MyWayfinder.com.


-END-

damn, you beat me to it...


anyway no harm in repeating it ;-)

news just out

10/Jan/2006
TRAFFICMASTER GOES MOBILE WITH WAYFINDER TO PROVIDE LIVE TRAFFIC INFORMATION


For immediate release - 10th January 2006



TRAFFICMASTER GOES MOBILE WITH WAYFINDER TO PROVIDE LIVE TRAFFIC INFORMATION


Trafficmaster Plc, the UKs leading provider of real time traffic information, announces a five year agreement with Wayfinder to provide live traffic data on Wayfinder navigation software for mobile phones in the UK. The service will be available from February 1st 2006.

Wayfinder is the UKs leading provider of navigation software for installation onto mobile phones. Trafficmaster will provide real-time traffic information to Wayfinder Navigator software, which will be used to dynamically calculate routes and update traffic information. The traffic service will use Trafficmasters high quality real time traffic flow data to deliver information on the traffic conditions to help users of the Wayfinder navigation software avoid congestion on the UKs motorways and trunk roads.

Jonas Sellergren, VP Product Management from Wayfinder:
"Wayfinder has a pedigree of working with leaders in the technology and mobile service industry. Trafficmaster Plc is delivering highly accurate information on the traffic flows on the UKs major roads. This data will provide a value added solution that will help our customers travel from A to B with ease."

The Trafficmaster service can be downloaded via GPRS onto your mobile phone and will help Wayfinder Navigator calculate the fastest route using the current road conditions. A detour symbol will be displayed if you have to be re-routed around congestion problems allowing you to reach your destination stress free. You can also update the current route with updated traffic information by recalculating the route.

Craig Blount, Director of Trafficmaster Services, comments:
"This is the first agreement that we have entered into to provide Trafficmasters traffic information on to a mobile phone equipped with navigation software. Wayfinder is at the forefront of developing mobile phone based navigation services which are now rapidly emerging as a new segment within the increasingly dynamic market for navigation devices in the UK."

The Trafficmaster traffic information service can be purchased directly through Wayfinder via your mobile phone or through a personal navigation home page - MyWayfinder.com.


-END-
http://www.trafficmaster.co.uk/shownews.cfm?num=392

Another deal taking tfc in another direction,reaching a different kind of customer.

Smart-Nav,standard fit.Does anybody know how many units are in place since its launch?As time passes by the numbers keep growing even if sales are not as good as they could be.

Standard fit on Ford.
Just keeps getting better.


11/Jan/2006
FORD PROVIDES SMARTNAV ON FIESTA AND FOCUS ST


For immediate release - 11th January 2006



FORD PROVIDES SMARTNAV ON FIESTA AND FOCUS ST


In a Ford special promotion - The Test Drive Week - all Ford Fiestas and Ford Focus STs will come with Smartnav, an advanced satellite navigation system by Trafficmaster. The campaign, starting on the 14th January 2006, will offer motorists a Smartnav package that includes a 12 month subscription to the navigation service and one month free of Safe Speed, integrated speed camera warnings and RAC Trackstar, a stolen vehicle tracking service.

The Test Drive Week will run across all of Fords 650 plus retailers and will give customers the chance to drive all of Fords models and experience the benefits of Smartnav, before they purchase. The campaign will be supported with regional radio and newspaper advertising and prominent point of sale in the showrooms.

Smartnav was chosen as the standard fit satellite navigation for Fords Test Drive Week because it is very easy to operate and offers the most accurate up-to-date mapping available. This means that drivers can instantly see the benefits of using Smartnav within the test drive.

Pat Gallagher, Director of In-Vehicle Products at Trafficmaster, comments:
"This campaign comes from the successful relationship that Trafficmaster has built with Ford since Smartnav became an approved accessory 18 months ago. This is a great time for Smartnav to be fitted into a car as standard, as people will be looking for their next new car."

wow weee!!!

according to TFC they hope this will lead to standard fit on most ford cars this year ;-)

add to that NU increasing the PAYD insurance experiment soon and its starting to like a bottom for TFC. next stop a quid

more like 78

This link shows the offer on the Ford site.

http://www.ford.co.uk/ie/currentpromotions/-/test_drive_week/-/-/-/-

Is the L&G notification of % holding up or down?

Down i believe

Yes, by about 0.5%

In todays Shares Magazine:

Trafficmaster Helped Out of a Jam

Problems with its Smartnav car navigation
system dogged Trafficmaster (TFC) in 2005
but Ford has now given the product a vote of
confidence by announcing a week-long promotional
giveway of the system to all drivers who test drive and
then order a Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus ST.
In December, Shares suggested Trafficmasters
relegation from the FTSE All Share index could
provide a buying opportunity as index trackers
dumped the stock and, sure enough, the shares
troughed at 25.1p shortly after their demotion. But
they have bounced back nicely since.
Non-executive chairman Colin Walsh purchased
100,000 shares at 26p just before Christmas to double
his stake, and his confidence looks well founded.
Trafficmaster has since announced it is to supply
mobile navigation specialist Wayfinder with realtime
traffic information.
The Ford deal, which is being supported by a
high-profile advertising campaign, suggests that
Smartnav is competitive in the standard-fit
market, though portable solutions such as
TomTom still dominate the retail channel.
Trafficmasters balance sheet is net cash so it
can easily sustain its current losses as it sorts out
Smartnav.
A proliferation of road-charging schemes would
be a boost, too: Trafficmasters two-way
communication technology has a clear edge over
portable units as they cannot be used for pay-asyou-
drive schemes.
Shares says: The shares have already
suffered and if relegation from the All
Share pushes them down further,
Trafficmaster would look interesting at just
11 times 2006 earnings

The Ford deal may not be the biggest for Smartnav,the real test will be if Smartnav helps sales for Ford.If sales go well i think we could see this relationship grow.