Winter service is a major issue for road managers; it has been around for several decades and has greatly evolved in recent years.
French government policy regarding winter service on road networks has been fine-tuned to recommend preparation of a winter service organisation plan. Winter service implementation has also been significantly improved, particularly due to the fact that spreading salt as near as possible to the meteorological event (pre-remedial salting) is recommended based on increasingly accurate data.
The traffic and service levels on roads have increased and there is increasing awareness of sustainable development and environmental issues.
These different factors have prompted a major need in relation to winter service activity: the need for anticipation. All possible resources required for anticipating potential winter road risks must be implemented to ensure effective winter service.
To facilitate this task, the present guide proposes points for reflection to be used for improving processes and organisations deployed within network management departments.

This document describes the entire decisional chain, from the alert phase to the maintenance operation itself, detailing the different chronological phases and placing man at the centre of the system.
The skills required by each stakeholder in this chain are also specified