24 May 2005

Multimap and the THINK! Campaign Advise May Bank Holidaymakers to Take a Break Every Two Hours

Multimap and the Department for Transport's THINK! campaign have stepped the campaign to boost awareness of the dangers of driving while tired up a notch with the incorporation of ‘fatigue alerts’ to Multimap’s step-by-step Travel Directions service. The alerts warn drivers that it’s “Time for a break” and advise them to “Find a safe place to stop” every time they have completed a two-hour stint behind the wheel. The addition of the alerts to Multimap’s service, available to a unique user base of over 8.6 million people, is part of the DfT’s strategy to educate people about the dangers of driving when tired. This strategy was devised in response to research which found that up to 350 people are killed every year in Britain in sleep-related accidents. The alerts are now live so that people planning their journeys over the May Bank Holiday can receive them as part of Multimap’s Travel Directions service.

To avoid the dangers of driving tired the DfT recommends:

• Planning your journey to include a 15-minute break after every two hours of driving;
• Don't start your journey tired. Be aware of the risks if you have to get up unusually early to start your trip, or have a long drive home after a full day’s work;
• If you start to feel sleepy, find a safe place to stop (not the hard shoulder of a motorway) as soon as possible. Drinking two cups of coffee or other high caffeine drink, and having a rest to allow time for the caffeine to kick in, are effective methods of combating sleepiness;
• Opening the window or turning up the radio does little to prevent a driver from falling asleep at the wheel.

Jeff Kelisky, CEO, Multimap, commented, “We are always looking for ways to improve not only the quality of our premier maps and driving directions, but also the complementary services available on www.multimap.com. Providing in excess of eight and a half million unique users with reminders that they need to take a break every two hours of their journey within the ‘Travel Directions’ service is a natural extension of this, and we wish our customers a safe and timely delivery to their destinations!”

About Multimap

Multimap is Europe's leading provider of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on mobile, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms and in multiple languages.

The public website, www.multimap.com, provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada and Australia; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The public site attracts over 8.6 million unique users, registers more than 160 million page impressions every month, and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the UK. Multimap recently featured in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 league table of fastest-growing unquoted UK companies across all sectors.

About THINK! Road Safety

The THINK! road safety publicity campaign was launched in 2000, to help support the Government’s ten year road safety strategy, Tomorrow’s Roads: Safer for everyone. The strategy set the target of reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on Britain’s roads by 40% by 2010 and by 50% for children.

The high profile publicity campaign aims to encourage all road users to recognise that it’s the small things they do that can lead to crashes on the road and that there are simple steps they can take to reduce their risk to themselves and others. THINK!’s power is that it fosters an attitude of shared responsibility and provides a well recognised brand to unite national and local activity.