TRAFFICMASTER has linked up with the RAC to provide a new traffic information service - the first of a number of major new contracts which has seen City confidence in the firm rise to an all-time high. The traffic information provider has two deals with manufacturers in the pipeline for its new Traffic Alert device.

The new combined traffic information and navigation service is expected to generate sales of more than 200,000 units annually. Developed jointly with Trafficmaster and Cellnet, the £29.99 unit will initially go free to RAC members and can warn of congestion up to 15 miles ahead.

Two car manufacturers are also involved in plans to install Trafficmaster's Oracle system, with one manufacturer expected to go public at the British International Motor Show in Birmingham in October. That contract will see the first production line fitting of Trafficmaster in a car with sales volume in the first year expected to be 20,000 units on the motor firm's mid-range fleet model, with plans to extend it to a higher volume model pencilled in for 1999.