HW Martin (Traffic Management), together with National Highways and supply chain partners, has been shortlisted in the Customer Experience of the Year category at the 2025 Asset Community East (ACE) “Better Together” Awards for its role in delivering the Customer Service Video initiative – a powerful example of industry collaboration designed to improve customer experience across the strategic road network.
The recognition celebrates the success of a cross-industry team formed through National Highways’ Customer Business Priority Group, which brought together eight supply chain partners to strengthen frontline customer training and embed customer thinking into every stage of highways design and delivery.
The initiative produced a suite of educational materials, including a compelling video that captured authentic stories from across the network – from HGV drivers in narrow lanes to neurodiverse individuals navigating diversions. The video, developed in collaboration with National Highways’ communications team, has since been integrated into National Highways’ Thrive and Supply Chain Sustainability School (SCSS) learning platforms, reaching over 2,500 viewers in its first month. It was also featured in National Highways’ Customer Service Week 2025, as part of a webinar series that explored customer experience.
By highlighting real-world experiences and promoting empathy in decision-making, the project is helping create a more customer-centric culture across the sector. It has been widely shared at major industry events, including Highways UK 2025, Customer Maturity Best Practice 2024, Engagement Council 2024 and the Temporary Traffic Management Community Meeting 2025, and now forms part of National Highways’ official customer learning pathways.
Stakeholders praised the initiative for its authenticity, collaboration and positive industry impact.
“The video is fabulous, really powerful. You can see it, you can feel it,” David O’Neil, Supply Chain Director at National Highways 2016 – 2025.
Transport Focus stated that the video was “Inspiring”, whilst an Aggregate Industries Operative commented, “Show what the whole team can do for the customer”. Finally, a Ringway Operative provided the feedback, “It’s a good video and nice to see you’re trying to improve things for us.”
The project exemplifies HW Martin (Traffic Management)’s ongoing commitment to supporting National Highways’ Customer Service Provider principles, helping to drive continuous improvement in both frontline safety and customer experience.
Another Win for Customer Excellence
In addition to being shortlisted, HW Martin (Traffic Management) and its sister companies Virtus and Fewzed, alongside Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, secured the Customer Experience of the Year Award for their work on the A12 Concrete Roads Framework.
Working under the ethos that “customer service is everyone’s responsibility”, the A12 Team embedded a customer culture that delivered outstanding engagement, communication and service. The team embraced technology by deploying an SMS information service to keep customers informed. Early feedback was acted upon, improving the service to include alerts about road traffic incidents (RTIs) and their impact on travel times.
The team also empowered colleagues to design, star in, and produce Customer Update Youtube videos, providing a more engaging way to present scheme progress, address customer issues and close the feedback loop.
This achievement highlights HW Martin’s commitment to innovation and collaboration in delivering exceptional customer experiences across the strategic road network. This scheme also secured the National Highways Customer Focused Team of the Year Award in 2025.
The awards were held at King’s House in Bedford on 8th October 2025. HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd sponsored the Collaborative Project/Team of the Year category, which recognised projects that demonstrated a collaborative approach and represented the ACE Community moto: “Better Together”.
HW Martin’s Group Marketing and Communications Manager, Joanna Hill, presented Ringway Infrastructure Services with the award for their response to flooding on the A421 Marston Moretain. She said:
“It was a delight to attend the Asset Community East ‘Better Together Awards’ this year alongside Peter Elliot, our Commercial Manager for the Southeast. These awards recognise the incredible teams and individuals working collaboratively on the road network in the east region to ensure a safer, smarter and more customer-focused service. It was a pleasure to be shortlisted alongside other members of the supply chain for our work to produce the ‘Putting the Customer First’ video, to secure the award with our customer-focused team on the A12, and to personally congratulate Ringway for their exceptional work on a high-profile, media-sensitive, public-facing project on the A421. Well done to everyone who was shortlisted and to those who secured an award.”