Tailgating is a global problem, but in the UAE it is the major cause of road accidents and deaths and it’s on the rise. Aggressive driving is a common occurrence on UAE roads. Dubai Police records show that in the last year, more than 43,200 accidents took place due to drivers not keeping a safe distance between vehicles.

With over 30% involving taxis, the Roads and Transport Authority briefed us to come up with a solution.

There are many different Nationalities living in the UAE who we needed to connect with. The Arabian Radio Network owns stations across all of them all so by partnering with them we were able to deliver our message in the main languages spoken in the country.

We created a unique device that’s activated when the taxi reaches 60 mph. Sensors mounted to the front and rear of the taxi measure the distance between the car in front and the car behind the taxi.

If the taxi breaches the 2 car lengths safety zone a message is delivered direct through the taxi’s audio system warning the driver to slow down. If a car comes to close to the back of the taxi the device send the message direct to the offending cars radio.

So far we have had over 360 million media impressions, it is the most talked about topic in the region in 2015 and for the first time in 4 years there has been a reduction in tailgating related accidents by 14.8%.

We installed devices across the RTA’s franchised taxi fleet, by partnering with the regions largest radio network, ARN we managed to get access to multiple channels targeting the broad demographic of the UAE from Westerners, Arabs and Asians alike. The campaign targeted drivers at the precise moment when they were causing the offence delivering our message when it was needed most. The campaign is ongoing and plans are being made to role the device out to public buses and school transport, which is all under the regulation of the Roads and Transport Authority.

The campaign not only raised awareness of the problem, it has actually started to change the behavior of taxi drivers and motorists across the Country.

Taxi driver tailgating incidents fell from an average of 264 to 62 per day, resulting in a 426% reduction in tailgating occurrences.

Recorded public motorist tailgating incidents fell from an average of 58 per day to 16, resulting in a 363% reduction in tailgating occurrences.

Back off radio has successfully delivered 32 440 warning messages to date.

This has lead to an overall reduction of tailgating related accidents of 14.8% in the first quarter of 2015.

The story quickly spread and was a major talking point across all mediums – radio, news sites, motoring publications and major news channels.

Creating 360 million media impressions generating over $1million of earned media spend.