Charging, Tolling & RUC

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board has approved a US$44 million contract with Chicago-based technology services company Accenture to build a new customer service and toll violation processing system. Scheduled to be in place by 2015, the system will improve how transactions from the tollway's 1.4 million daily drivers are processed and help eliminate violation errors, said Shana Whitehead, the tollway's chief of business systems. The tollway's customer service and violation processing system ha

The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) congratulated Anthony Foxx after the US Senate voted to confirm him as the next Secretary of the US Department of Transportation. Patrick D Jones, executive director and CEO of the worldwide association representing toll facility owners and operators and the businesses that serve them, said: “IBTTA congratulates Secretary Foxx on his confirmation today as the next US Secretary of Transportation. Secretary Foxx’s leadership comes at a time whe

The UK’s underused M6 toll road could be opened free to drivers stuck in congested traffic on the M6, it has been revealed. Toll road operators Midland Expressway have reportedly offered to clear the path to help relieve traffic jams on the M6 if the Government releases it from its commitment to part-finance the M54 link road. The company, a subsidiary of Australian company Macquarie Atlas Roads, has debts of £1.03 billion, which mature in 2015, and as part of its 50-year concession agreement would have to

Drivers using the 495 Express Lanes high occupancy toll road in north Virginia will benefit from the announcement that the speed limit is to be increased 65 miles per hour. The speed increase follows extensive safety studies and will help drivers save even more time when travelling on the Capital Beltway. The speed limit on the mainline Beltway lanes will remain at 55 mph. The 495 Express Lanes operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Dynamic pricing based on real-time traffic conditions manages the de

French engineering and consulting group Egis has been selected by Turkish toll concessionaire Oyotol as its partner for the operation and maintenance of the Gebze-İzmir motorway in Turkey. The deal follows the award of the Eurasia tunnel in 2012. The Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) project is being carried out on behalf of the Turkish General Directorate of Highways and is said to be the largest BOT project in Turkey to date. It includes 420 km of motorway (2x3 lanes) between Gebze on the North shore of

Vinci Autoroutes in France, the largest toll operator in Europe, has chosen Q-Free’s OBU 610 universal toll tag in an order valued at US$5.5 million. With more than four thousand kilometres under their concession Vinci Autoroutes controls around half of France’s national network. The OBU 610 is Q-Free’s fourth generation transponder, small yet powerful enough to support all 5.8 GHz CEN DSRC protocols.

Kapsch TrafficCom North America is to supply the next generation technology of its TDMA V6 interior transponder to the Canadian Tolling Company International (Cantoll) for 407 ETR, the world's first all-electronic, barrier-free toll road, in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada.

Plans have been announced to install 43 new toll stations on Greek motorways over the next few years. Toll prices are expected to go up as private companies take on contracts, with some suggesting that the price of journeys could triple. A total of 21 toll stations are to be constructed on the Egnatia Odos highway, eight on Ionia Odos, seven on the Trikala-Domokos motorway and six on Olympia Odos.

A team of IBM experts completing a month-long pro bono consulting assignment has presented recommendations to Nigeria's Lagos State Government to ensure that private traffic and public transportation flows more efficiently in Africa's most populous city, Lagos. Working with the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority and the Lagos State Ministries of Transportation, Works and Infrastructure, Science and Technology, the IBM team of experts proposed technology-driven strategies to make travel easier.

The challenging issue of revenue collection was under discussion at the 2013 Australian National Electronic Tolling Committee (NeTC) Forum hosted in Brisbane in May by ITS Australia. ITS Australia chief executive officer Susan Harris said the collection debate focused on ways to educate customers about the rationale for charges, payment processes and tactics to avoid repeat deliberate non-payers. The Forum provided an opportunity for industry and government to explore case studies about the costs of process