Charging, Tolling & RUC

Slovakia opted for a satellite-based tolling system and following last year’s enlargement it now has the European Union’s largest truck user charging system.

Drivers in the Washington DC area are realising time savings following the opening of Express Lanes on the I-95 - and not only those paying to use the new facility. Washington is ranked as being the worst gridlocked city in the United States. Every day its drivers face an average commute time of 39.5 minutes and they waste an average of 67 hours every year just sitting in traffic. In a move to counter these problems, late last December new Express Lanes were opened along 46.6km (29 miles) of the I-95 betwee

The Sault Ste Marie International Bridge, which connects Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, is opening new toll lanes and upgrading its system with new software and new frequent user discounts. The International Bridge Authority (IBA) began opening the new lanes this week as part of a US$7 million project undertaken in coordination with the Mackinac Bridge Authority and the Michigan portion of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron. The toll software upgrades, which are necessary be

Portuguese motorways operator Ascendi has awarded Q-Free a US$19 million contract for the renewal and extension of service and maintenance of several of the Ascendi multi-lane free flow toll (MLFF) concessions for a further six years. Ascendi is said to be the largest European private operator, providing automatic vehicle classification of four vehicle classes including HGVs and light passenger vehicles. The company has 128 collection points installed and processes around one million transactions per da

China is considering regulations that would allow road operators to levy a toll on users beyond the current 15 to 30-year limit, according to Bloomberg. The plan would potentially boost an industry that has been plagued by losses as companies struggle to earn enough to cover their debt and operating costs. “The extension of the tolling period can help to woo private investors into highway development,” said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at JPMorgan Chase in Hong Kong. The plan shows the government’s

Regina Bypass Partners, a subsidiary of Vinci Concessions, in partnership with Parsons Enterprises, Connor Clark & Lunn GVest fund and Gracorp Capital, has signed a public-private partnership contract with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure with a term of 30 years for the completion and operation of the highway bypass of Regina, the capital city of the province of Saskatchewan in Canada. The project, which represents a total investment of around US$1.4 billion, includes the design,

US-based Gila is to partner with Kapsch TraffiCom on an electronic toll collection system (ETCS) operations and maintenance contract for the toll roads owned and operated by the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (PRHTA) and Autopistas Metropolitanas of Puerto Rico (Metropistas, an Abertis-Goldman Sachs consortium). The PRHTA selected Gila to provide comprehensive program management services including customer service centre management and operations for all toll roads within the island ne

The International Bridge, Toll and Turnpike Association’s 83rd annual meeting and exhibition takes place in Dublin, Ireland on 30 August to 1 September. The industry's thought leaders from around the globe will discuss the most pressing topics in the field in a country that has gone through a rapid road network transformation in the 21st century.

As the US Congress once again struggles to find funding for a long-term highway bill, a new Reason Foundation study details why truckers should embrace the use of tolling to finance the reconstruction and modernisation of aging Interstate highways, describes how all-electronic tolling can solve the industry’s previous privacy and logistical concerns about toll roads and proposes a set of rules to ensure that the tolls paid by truckers and motorists are used only to rebuild and widen the newly tolled Inters

From early November 2015, the multi-million pound Humber Bridge project will introduce the UK's first electronic toll collection (ETC) and open-road tolling system to the bridge, enabling motorists who apply for a HumberTag account to pay the toll automatically using an electronic tag linked to a personal online account. The middle lanes of the bridge won’t have any booths and will be for account holders only – enabling drivers to cross the bridge without stopping. The outside lanes will still have booth