Brands considering a major investment or commitment in opening new retail sites in Australia’s metropolitan areas can now view important traffic flow estimates passing those locations to help speed up and fine tune decision making.

GapMaps, the cloud-based mapping software used by more than 500 brands to support their network strategies and location intelligence planning, has partnered with Veitch Lister Consulting (VLC) to launch Zenith Traffic Estimates on GapMaps Live.

With Zenith Traffic data now accessible on GapMaps Live, it ensures brands can access the most comprehensive set of traffic flow estimates on all major Australian metropolitan roads to make more informed location decisions using a single login.

“Zenith is a strong credible brand with more than two decades’ experience estimating traffic and public transport passenger flows,” says Toni Newell, GapMaps Chief Executive Officer. “With customers in QSR, supermarkets, convenience, and petrol stations, which are significant industry sectors for GapMaps, this strategic partnership is great for both businesses.

“Unlike publicly available traffic counts, Zenith Traffic Estimates is dynamic and regularly updated by Veitch Lister Consulting, Australia’s leading travel modelling company, to ensure brands have the best traffic data Australia can provide,” continues Newell.

Depending on their specific needs, GapMaps Live customers have a choice of two Zenith Traffic data modules:

• Indexed Traffic module – this module is useful for any business which relies on basic traffic data as a key input into their location decisions, such as the estimated average number of vehicles per day in a selected location based on specific volume ranges.

• Premium Traffic module – the Zenith Premium Traffic module provides detailed traffic insights for businesses that need to understand turn in ratios and differentiated traffic counts for commercial and passenger vehicles to inform business performance and site selection decisions.

“Zenith Premium is a market leading module we recommend for Retail Fuel, Fast Food and Café brands who require a deep understanding of passing traffic volumes as part of their decision-making process,” adds Newell. “Combining Zenith Premium traffic with GapMaps data provides all the insights brands need to make fact-based decisions, all in one place.”.

“The Zenith Travel Model works by simulating the daily travel patterns of people and households,” says VLC’s Ali Inayathusein, Executive Director.

“By incorporating the household and demographic profiles of each suburb, the model simulates where, when, why and how people travel, which is essential information for brands making physical location decisions,” he adds.

The travel volume estimates relate to an average weekday during school term time and are updated annually. The model is underpinned by a detailed computational representation of the transportation network, known traffic counts sourced from government agencies, government Household Travel Surveys, census data and a range of other supporting datasets.

GapMaps Live is an easy-to-use platform for brands to validate and make important location decisions with increased confidence and reduced risk. This is possible based on the ability to visualise in maps a range of critical data sets, which now includes Zenith Traffic data. Other data sets include the latest demographic, economic, competitor, point of interest and customer data.

“We have more than 500 brands already using GapMaps Live across a range of industry sectors where a physical location is required,” adds Newell.

“With Zenith Traffic data now available in GapMaps Live, we are confident of further customer acquisition across a range of industry sectors, which includes healthcare and medical, fitness and wellbeing, childcare, allied healthcare, and service stations, amongst others.”

GapMaps’ clients contributing to the company’s growth and benefitting from the powerful data insights GapMaps Live provides includes brands like Domino’s, KFC, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway, McDonalds, Anytime Fitness and Goodyear.