Control Room Operators

Sometimes known as Emergency Customer Service Advisors, our Control Room Operators play a vital role in keeping our roads moving safely.

National Highways is responsible for looking after England’s motorways and major roads, and to do this we have seven control centres across the country, as well as a National Traffic Operations Centre.  

The vast majority of journeys go smoothly and according to plan, but sometimes things do go wrong. Ranging from breakdowns, accidents, things falling from vehicles, people or animals on the roads to severe weather, we have to be ready to respond, to make sure that the roads are safe, and that people get moving again as soon as possible. 

Our Control Room Operators are responsible for responding to emergency calls and setting signs and signals when they are required on our roads 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Not only are they our eyes and ears, but they are responsible for helping to manage incidents, deploying resources, such as traffic officers and maintenance crews, where they are needed and co-ordinating any emergency repairs that are needed. Working in a shift pattern of six days on and three days off, the job is extremely varied, and our advisors all say that no two days are the same. They work closely with our Traffic Officers and maintenance crews, and teamwork is a vital part of the job. 

Safety is always the first consideration at National Highways; whether it’s the safety of our customers, our supply chain or our own people.

The Control Room Operator role is front and centre, contributing to the safe use of our roads by customers, road workers, emergency services and Traffic Officers. 

Control Room Operator key responsibilities:

• Answering calls from people using our emergency roadside telephones, giving them safety advice and reassurance while arranging for Traffic Officers to go and assist
• Setting signs and signals to manage traffic and protect stranded people and their vehicles
• Dealing with issues and problems on the road by requesting Traffic Officers, Inspectors and Maintenance contractors to deal with anything ranging from emergencies to clearing debris off the road
• Keeping Traffic Officers and other emergency services up to date with key information when dealing with incidents
• Helping with the clean up processes after an incident or accident by requesting emergency repairs to make sure the road can re-open safely and as quickly as possible
• Working with other emergency services (ambulance, police, fire service) and utility companies to deal with incidents
• Monitoring and managing incidents from start to finish; be the eyes and ears and make sure that there is a co-ordinated approach, especially when there are lots of people and organisations involved.
• Maintaining accurate incident logs by recording information gathered from multiple sources
• Carrying out other duties as required to help the safe running and operation of the network and the Regional Operations Centre

Training and support in the role:

People often think that you need a military or emergency services background to work in a Regional Operations Centre, but this isn’t true. National Highways provides a full four week training programme that includes:

• Call handling
• Customer service
• Emergency call handling
• Using the radio system to dispatch Traffic Officers
• Setting signals
• Managing CCTV cameras
• Managing road maintenance

Once training is complete, new Emergency Service Customer Advisors then have a coach to support them as they begin to work through their probation period in the live environment.