About Us

We are bringing highways materials testing into the 21st Century.

Our technology helps asphalt contractors build roads without the need for manual record keeping or in-situ testing. Automation helps to improve worker safety and deliver better quality road construction whilst reducing costs and providing high-value information for use in asset management and deterioration modelling.

We believe that automation technology has the potential to unlock a wave of productivity that will help to build the high-quality infrastructure of the future in a safer and more sustainable way. HDS is a proud participant in national and international research projects to develop highways construction technology and our approach is now being used in the UK, Ireland and the USA.

Everyone working for HDS has lived and worked with problems in the road construction industry and, over time, we became increasingly frustrated with the lack of productivity, vision and innovation that is holding the industry back. We’re here to change that.

Our Management Team

Joe Charlesworth, Managing Director

Joe Charlesworth

Managing Director

Chris Freeman, Technical Manager

Chris Freeman

Head of Research & Development

Ruairi Charlesworth, Business Development Manager

Ruairi Charlesworth

Business Development Manager

Liang Shen, Lead Software Developer

Liang Shen

Lead Software Developer

Shaun Wilson

Shaun Wilson

Technical Manager

Gregor Wilson

Gregor Wilson

Operations Manager

What is 21st Century Materials Testing?

Automation & Digitalisation

Our Industries