Charging, Tolling & RUC

In two contracts totalling US$13.5 million, Spanish consulting and technology provider Indra is to equip Metro Manila, the Philippines’ main metropolitan region, with more than 11 million residents, with its urban traffic control system. The company will also upgrade the toll collection system for the 90 kilometre long Manila North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), one of the most important motorways in the Philippines, carrying more than 160,000 vehicles each day. For the urban traffic control project, in a consort

The challenging topic of tolling collection will be a priority theme at the 2013 National Electronic Tolling Committee Industry Forum (NeTC) to be held 22 and 23 May at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Queensland, Australia. The forum will also feature a strong focus on government-industry policy development to facilitate systems deployment to maximise safety, economic, environmental and social benefits to transport in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. "The comprehensive forum program w

To make the toll collection process on the national highways easier and more transparent, the Indian government will roll out RFID-based electronic toll collection (ETC) across all the toll plazas on national highways throughout the country by 2014. "By 2014, we intend to have by ETC on all toll plazas in the country,” Road Transport Minister C P Joshi said. He added that pilot projects have already been launched on some national highways. Based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, ETC uses

Drivers in Massachusetts may no longer need to worry about having cash on hand as they hit toll roads. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is planning to replace every tollbooth in the state with electronic tolling systems that read E-ZPass transponders in cars and send monthly bills to drivers who use toll roads without passes. “We’re trying to look at doing things faster, more efficiently and provide more information to the public,” said MassDOT Highway Administrator Frank DePaola.

GeoToll, a new product that promises to turn the newest generation 4G mobile phones into a multi-protocol toll transponder is about to be launched in the US. OmniAir founder and president Tim McGuckin is leaving the interoperability standards cooperative to run GeoToll as its first chief executive officer. The device will be multi-protocol, so it will be usable on any toll system in North America, to the extent they can handle patent issues with licensing or open standards. GeoToll hopes to trial the devic

Indian technology company Rajdeep has received an order from Oriental Structural Engineers to install an infrared vehicle classification system for a National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase V road upgrading project in Etawah Chakeri, Uttar Pradesh. The order involves two toll plazas with a total of twenty-six lanes. The new system will replace the existing treadle based classification system. All toll lanes will have weigh in motion (WIM) as well as a mix of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) lane

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) has exercised its contract option to convert its traditional manual toll lanes at the Interstate 93 Hooksett Toll Plaza into an Open Road Tolling (ORT) system using Schneider Electric’s SmartMobility Tolling Solution. Schneider Electric will install tolling technologies into the existing road infrastructure in order to convert the centre portion of the toll plaza from conventional toll lanes to ORT. Toll tag readers for E-ZPass will be integrated with o

After two years of planning, all-electronic tolling will begin on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on 27 March. In 2011, when the bridge district was facing a five-year shortfall of US$89 million, the Highway and Transportation District approved a plan to pursue all-electronic tolling as a cost-saving measure. The district will trim its expenses by US$16 million over the next decade as a result of the new system. According to bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie, the bridge will be the first in Califo

Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is committed to implementing all-electronic tolling (AET) by the middle of 2016; the Tobin Bridge will be converted first as a demonstration to familiarise the public, according to Frank DePaola, the state's highway administrator. The state is going all-electronic because with modern technology it's the most cost-effective way to collect tolls, and because it reduces delays to motorists and improves safety at toll points, he said. MassDOT has estimated it

Schneider Electric is to implement what is said to be one of Brazil’s first three Multi-Lane Free-Flow (MLFF) systems for highway concession company Renovias, enabling the concessionaire to carry out electronic toll collection without the need for toll collectors or requiring vehicles to stop. Schneider says this will improve drivers’ experience when travelling through the toll stations, while being able to travel at a constant speed will reduce waiting times, traffic jams and emissions. The project inclu