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Sometimes, Bud Gruber’s guys want to find the quickest way to a crash.

But the rest of the time, they’re just looking to avoid them like the rest of us.

In May, the Florida Department of Transportation announced it was upgrading the Southwest Florida 511 travel service to provide real-time information about traffic crashes and construction delays along Interstate 75.

It’s a welcome upgrade for Gruber, owner of Bald Eagle Towing & Recovery on Marco Island, whose drivers frequently have to travel I-75 to reach calls located on and off the interstate.

“I’ve been using it pretty much since I first heard about it a year ago,” Gruber said. “We keep an eye on it because whenever we see an incident somewhere, we know we might be the first to get to it. But it also helps us get around it.”

The service was put in place in April 2007, and about a year later, DOT officials announced the availability of real-time travel information along I-75 in Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties. It gives drivers the ability to learn via phone or the Internet how long it will take to drive a specific segment of the interstate.

However, Susan Payne said her three drivers have varying levels of success with the phone service, which operates through speech-recognition technology and touch-tone service.

Payne, owner of Alligator Alley Express, a car service connecting travelers to nearby air and seaports, said her more “technologically savvy” driver finds that 511 comes in handy often.

“I think it probably has a lot of good features, but it’s a matter of feeling comfortable with it and knowing how to navigate it,” Payne said. “(Another driver) has found it to be time-consuming and hard to get through the commands.”

Gruber typically accesses the information from the Web, he said, leaving the site up on his computer all day so he can relay information to his 11 drivers. He said he has heard of problems navigating the phone system, but finds the Web site invaluable.

Payne said one of her drivers also finds the information is often geared more toward routine construction hold-ups than fender-benders that can unexpectedly wreak traffic havoc.

However, David Parks, a spokesman for DOT’s I-75 widening project, said the program is designed to deliver that information in an instant.

Censors are mounted on 22 poles along the 70-mile stretch from mile marker 101 in Collier County to mile marker 170 in Charlotte County. The stretch is divided into nine segments of two to 15 miles in length, so when someone calls or visits the Web site, they can find out how long it will take to drive that segment.

In the last three months, Parks said, the Southwest Florida 511 system has received more than 5,400 calls. In addition to travel times for I-75, callers to the system can find out about accidents and construction on other major Southwest Florida roads, including State Road 29 in Collier County.

The system still doesn’t have the same capability to tell drivers how long it will take to travel a road like Collier Boulevard from Rattlesnake Hammock Road to Immokalee Road, however, as it does on I-75.

Parks said the travel time service may become an option for those other roads, but it is not currently on the horizon for the 511 system, which is paid for through DOT’s five-year work program.

Parks said 96 percent of the demand for information comes from drivers traversing the interstate. Not surprisingly, most calls are made between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

He also pointed out the ease of use for drivers seeking information from connecting transportation systems, like Collier Area Transit and the Lee County Port Authority. Parks said 511 users can connect to the information line for Southwest Florida International Airport and the three counties’ transit authorities via the 511 phone line.

That would allow someone driving I-75 to the airport to call 511 not only to check traffic conditions, but also to learn about flight arrivals or delays.

“It makes it a lot easier for people because they don’t have to remember a bunch of different numbers,” Parks said.

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Censors are mounted on 22 poles along 70 miles of I-75, from mile marker 101 in Collier County to mile marker 170 in Charlotte County. When someone calls, or visits the Web site, they can find out how long it will take to drive a segment. To access the Southwest Florida 511 information, dial 511 or visit www.southwestflorida511.com.