National Highways traffic officer

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National Highways traffic officer

A typical National Highways traffic officer's vehicle
Occupation
Activity sectors	Government, road traffic control, vehicle recovery, roadside assistance
Description
Fields of employment	Motorways in England operated by National Highways and select trunk roads.
Related jobs	Road policing unit, Traffic guard

National Highways traffic officers, previously Highways Agency traffic officer (HATO), are employed by the National Highways.^[1]

In April 2004, Highways Agency traffic officers began working alongside the police on motorways in the West Midlands.

The first national roll-out of traffic officers was completed on 18 July 2006, starting to cover all of the motorway network within England, i.e. which functions as a subsidiary of the National Highways, and the All-Purpose Trunk Road (APTR) network.

On April 1st, 2015 the Highways Agency was incorporated into Highways England, a government-owned company.

On 19 August 2021, Highways England was renamed to National Highways. However, the company only manages roads within England.

Traffic operations play a significant role in achieving National Highways's three imperatives of safety, customer service and delivery. Its goal is to assist in keeping the roads clear and to ensure the road users' safety. HATO provides customer service and the delivery of schemes and projects, providing key services such as rolling roadblock. This is achieved through the planning and delivery of operational services, the function undertaken by on-road traffic officers, the management of the network from National Highways's control centres, the services National Highways supplies to the public, and its national incident liaison role. This aim is underpinned by legislative and regulatory requirements, the Network Operations Partnership Agreement and the National Guidance Framework agreed with the National Police Chiefs' Council.^[2]