Traffic Customer Service: Road users’ reports on road conditions now forwarded faster than before

While driving, have you encountered road surface damage or snow dangerously piled up on the road, or was the road particularly slippery or flooded? Do you know what to do if you want to report a road condition related matter? Read here where you can send the reports so that they will be forwarded to the area’s road maintenance contractor as quickly as possible.

In Finland, road condition related reports can be sent through two channels: The Traffic Customer Service receives most of the road users’ reports on road conditions, and issues causing acute danger can be reported to the Road User’s phone line.

Road users’ reports on road conditions play an important role in various exceptional circumstances for the sake of reacting as quickly as possible and properly targeting road maintenance measures. Last year, over 100,000 road maintenance related reports and observations were forwarded to contractors.

- Last year, reports were increasingly received through the Traffic Customer Service’s electronic Feedback Channel, where people can leave feedback around the clock. Out of the about 100,000 messages forwarded to road maintenance contractors, approximately one third was sent through the Feedback Channel, says the Traffic Customer Service’s Customer Service Manager Katariina Korteoja.

The Feedback Channels reports are now forwarded directly to the road maintenance contractor

The feedback giving process has been developed in the past few months. Now, certain road condition and maintenance related messages sent by road users are directed through the Traffic Customer Service’s electronic Feedback Channel to the maintenance contractors who are responsible for the condition and maintenance measures of roads.

- If a driver or another road user wants to report, for example, a slippery or unploughed road, that can be done directly to the Feedback Channel. The reports are automatically forwarded to the contractor around the clock, every day of the year. A phone call is not necessary because in the Feedback Channel, you can target a report directly on a map where you can also follow the status of your report. In the Feedback Channel, you can also check if someone else has already left feedback on an issue, continues Katariina Korteoja.

In addition to the Traffic Customer Service’s electronic Feedback Channel and traditional telephone service, the Traffic Customer Service has the virtual customer advisor Tempo. In the Feedback Channel, there are also various different articles and ready answers to the questions most frequently asked by those using the state-owned roads.

How can I give feedback on road conditions? Remember these three golden rules

1. Reports are forwarded to the state-owned road maintenance contractors through the Traffic Customer Service’s Feedback Channel and Road User’s phone line. Municipalities and towns take care of the maintenance of their own roads, which is why reports on these roads must be sent directly to the municipality or town in question. Private roads are maintained by the road maintenance association of that particular road.

2. If you want to leave feedback on road conditions, do so in the Traffic Customer Service: The fastest way to send your report forward is to leave it to the electronic Feedback Channel. Reports on road conditions are immediately forwarded directly to the road maintenance contractors around the clock. Other non-urgent contacts are processed on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you want to contact us via telephone, you can call the Traffic Customer Service on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the number: 0295 020 600. You can also contact the Feedback Channel’s chat during service hours between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays, and the chat’s virtual customer advisor is available around the clock.

3. Call the Road User’s phone line when you encounter problems which are acute or require immediate assistance, and which are causing danger to people, vehicles or road infrastructure on state-owned roads. These situations include, e.g., large-scale road surface damage, flooding, road collapses, unexpected slipperiness or snow-filled roads. The Road User’s phone line is open around the clock via the number 0200 2100. Locating the caller will be easier if the report is made by calling through the Emergency Response Centre Agency’s 112 Suomi mobile app. This way, the phone’s location is directly visible to the Road User’s phone line.

The Traffic Customer Service is a nationwide advice service for road, railway and waterway related matters. You can submit feedback, ask questions, offer improvement suggestions and make reports about state-owned roads, railways and waterways. You can contact the Traffic Customer Service via telephone, email, Feedback Channel form or the website’s chat channel. It is a joint service of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, and Fintraffic.

The Road User’s phone line is the report service for acute and dangerous road traffic problems. The service works via telephone, and the Fintraffic Traffic Management Centre’s traffic operators answer the phone around the clock. Reasons to call include, for example, dangerously slippery roads, flooded roads or a stuck, heavy vehicle. Locating the caller will be easier if the report is made by calling through the Emergency Response Centre Agency’s 112 Suomi mobile app. This way, the phone’s location is directly visible to the Road User’s phone line. The service is offered by Fintraffic's Road Traffic Management.