Charging, Tolling & RUC

‘The delay of the introduction of free-flow tolls at Dartford River Crossing disappointing as it may present additional costs to industry’ is the message from the Freight Transport Association (FTA). The Association has voiced its concern in response to the announcement by the Highways Agency (HA) that the planned technology to allow motorists to use the crossing without having to stop at barriers and pay is to be delayed by up to four weeks. Originally planned to be in place by the 28 October 2014, th

Established in 2011, Indian technology and infrastructure company Vaaan has been awarded two major projects valued at around US$25 million from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through its highway operations management agency, Indian Highways Management Company (IHMCL). The company is to deploy electronic toll collection (ETC) on 164 dedicated lanes across 82 public funded toll plazas in a bid to to reduce traffic congestion and commuting time. In addition, in a move to identify which h

New regulations are set to standardise the process of awarding concessions across the European Union. In the wake of several inconsistent judgements at the European Court of Justice, the European Commission has approved new legislation that defines a concession. The basic demarcation from a public contract remains the same in that concessions include the right to exploit the work or services provided instead of payment. However, at the point of signing, the regulations impose an all-inclusive threshold of €

UK manufacturer of CCTV transmission solutions, AMG, has completed a new toll management transmission solution on the Solapur Highway for transportation company ITNL in India. ITNL is using the solution to monitor two toll plazas with a total of 20 Lanes with 24 booths, four of which have reversible lanes. The project covers a road stretch of 105 kilometres, with 49 kilometres between the toll Plazas. The new system includes 132 cameras of which 126 are fixed cameras and six are pan, tilt zoom cameras.

Cubic has announced an integrated back office system which can collate charges from tolling, parking and transit ticketing and allocate that to a single account. This not only can allow travellers to receive a single invoice covering all transit modes, it also enables authorities to target and incentivise commuters’ choice of transit mode. As part of its NextCity regional charging system for travel, we can look at a journey from start to finish and this gives authorities a clearer picture of travel patt

The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) has awarded the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai the prestigious 2014 Toll Excellence Award in Technology for its expansion of the Salik toll system, implemented by TransCore. The award was presented at IBTTA’s 82nd annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Already home to the world’s widest open-road tolling zone spanning seven lanes in a single direction, RTA’s objectives were to reduce growing traffic congestion, encourage use of alte

The Kentucky-Indiana Joint Board has unanimously selected Kapsch TrafficCom as the preliminary preferred proposer in the competition to provide an electronic toll system for the bi-state Ohio River Bridges project. The board’s action followed independent staff reviews of technical and financial proposals submitted by the competing firms. Kapsch was one of six interested companies that the board in January deemed qualified to submit proposals for the toll system provider (TSP) contract. The Indiana Fin

Q-Free’s Frank Kjelsli talks to Colin Sowman about why video tolling could be the boost to efficiency and interoperability the industry is seeking. Like it or not, the principal of one person, one tolling account is likely to become a reality: be that in America with the 2016 interoperability deadline or the European EETS requirement. Multi-tag readers are being introduced and alliances are being formed to meet legislative requirements but as the debate continues about which systems and protocols to adopt,

Arno Klamminger and Wolfgang Fleischer from Kapsch’s ETC Business Unit outline a new back office solution which addresses the ongoing changes in the road user charging sector. The rapidly increasing scale of some Road User Charging (RUC) schemes, both current and proposed, presents systems developers and manufacturers with significant opportunities in terms of product sales. However, it also presents them with significant challenges - and size is but one part – as at regional, national and international lev

According to a recent poll by infrastructure group HNTB, 79 per cent of US residents would support "would support the addition of a toll on a non-tolled surface transportation facility if it resulted in a safer, congestion-free and more reliable trip." The poll also found 83 per cent of its respondents would also support tolls on highways that are currently free, which has been a source of contentious debate in Washington. HNTB Toll Services Chairman Jim Ely said the finding bolstered the argument o