Charging, Tolling & RUC

With the launch of Dart Charge set for 30 November, work to remove the toll booths will begin on Friday 28 November - the same weekend the new payment arrangements go live. Dart Charge means that drivers will no longer stop at a barrier to pay the charge. Instead, they will pay online, by phone, by post or in one of thousands of payzone retail outlets. The new payment arrangements will signal the start of major construction work to improve the road layout at the crossing, with 27 lanes of traffic reduced

With the economic prosperity of British Columbia and Western Canada relying increasingly on global trade and our ability to deliver goods to foreign markets, the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC) has released Building BC for the 21st Century: A White Paper on Infrastructure Policy and Financing in advance of its second annual BC Business Summit today. The paper examines the existing infrastructure networks – including transport, utilities, telecommunications, hospitals and schools – and their

The largest highway operator in Europe, French highway concessionaire Vinci Autoroutes has extended its frame agreement for tags with Q-Free with an order estimated to be a minimum of US$4.2 million. The contract will be fulfilled within 2016, with an option for further extension. “Q-Free has been present in the French market for many years. We are very pleased to receive this extension of the frame agreement with this important customer. During the delivery period, Q-Free will be able to introduce new e

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Region I took part in the European Parliament’s Transport Committee recent open hearing on road user charging, speaking on behalf of Europe’s motorists. The hearing was held to debate road user charging and how it can be tackled on an EU-wide basis. The FIA highlighted the amount that drivers and motorcyclists already pay in taxes and offered viable alternative solutions to road pricing, such as strict targets for emissions thresholds, park and ride sta

The German government has introduced a controversial road toll which will force foreign car drivers to pay up to €130 (US$162) a year for using Germany's autobahn motorways.

Motorists in India will soon be able to travel the length of a national highway without making a single toll stop with the government’s centralised and interoperable electronic toll collection (ETC) system which is set to begin operations by March 2015, according to a report in the India Times.

More than five years later than the industry had expected, market research and events firm IDTechEx find that the passive RFID tag market is now seeing tremendous volume growth. Market research and events firm IDTechEx find that the passive RFID tag market is now seeing tremendous volume growth - more than five years later than the industry had expected. Most of the growth is based on retailer adoption of UHF RFID for shelf-level stock replenishment, with the latest example being fashion retailer Zara r

Auckland, New Zealand, faces a US$9.5 billion transport funding gap to build the fully-integrated transport network set out in the 30-year Auckland Plan that includes new roads, rail, ferries, busways, cycle-ways and supporting infrastructure needed to cope with a population set to hit 2.5 million in the next three decades. If Auckland opts to pay for the fully-integrated Auckland Plan, Auckland Council officials claim the transport network congestion is expected to improve by 20 per cent over the next 1

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has awarded an order worth around US$4.8 million to Q-Free has for a six-month extension of the contract for operation of the country’s central toll collection system. The current contract expires in June 2015. Q-free CEO Thomas Falck comments: “We are happy to receive this extension order for the operation of the central system with the Norwegian Public Road Administration (NPRA). Q-Free continues to serve the NPRA and we are taking several steps to strengthen o

The Kentucky-Indiana Joint Board for the Ohio River Bridges Project has voted to restart the procurement of a tolling services provider. The vote comes after the Indiana Finance Authority’s review of a protest submitted by a non-winning bidder in late September. The Joint Board heard from the IFA that the allegations made in the protest were unsubstantiated, but the agency did uncover a significant potential personal and organisational conflict of interest regarding financial arrangements between a subc