Why We Report Incidents Faster Than National Highways

If you follow us on TikTok, you'll already know this — we regularly report incidents before National Highways updates their systems. Sometimes by 30 minutes. Sometimes by over an hour. Our community tells us about it constantly, and it's become one of the main reasons drivers trust us.

But how is a small independent platform faster than the government agency responsible for England's motorways?

How National Highways Data Works

National Highways uses a network of sensors, CCTV cameras, and reports from traffic officers to detect incidents. When something happens, it goes through their internal systems before appearing on their feeds and apps. This process takes time — verification, categorisation, and data entry all add delays.

Their RSS feeds, which our website pulls from, are updated periodically rather than in real-time. So even when they know about an incident, it can take a while before it shows up on third-party platforms.

How We Do It Differently

During our live streams (weekday mornings, 5–8am), we're actively monitoring traffic cameras across the entire motorway network. We screen-record what we see and broadcast it live to over 16,000 followers.

When we spot an incident on camera — a collision on the M6, a broken-down HGV on the M1, lane closures forming on the M25 — we call it out immediately. Our community then confirms what we're seeing, adds their own reports from the road, and shares the information.

There's no verification queue. No internal sign-off. We see it, we report it, drivers get warned.

Why Speed Matters

For a lorry driver heading down the M6 towards Birmingham, knowing about a major incident 30 minutes earlier could mean the difference between taking an alternative route and sitting in three hours of queuing traffic. For a commuter, it might mean leaving 20 minutes later to avoid the worst of it.

That's not just convenience — that's fuel savings, less stress, and for professional drivers, it's protecting their delivery schedules.

What's Next

We're looking into pulling data directly from Traffic England, which sits upstream of National Highways' public feeds. If we can access that data, the speed advantage gets even bigger. We're also expanding our live stream hours — evening coverage is coming soon.

In the meantime, follow us on TikTok and you'll always be first to know.