Skip to main content

Q-Free acquisition expands ATMS business

Q-Free has further expanded its advanced traffic management systems and road user charging business, with the acquisition of US company Open Roads Consulting. Q-Free says Open Roads Consulting's software solutions will be a valuable addition to its own ATMS solutions in the US and internationally. Established in 2000, Open Roads Consulting has 74 employees and operates mission critical traffic deployments and video based surveillance of critical assets in 30 states in the US. “We are happy to close t
September 23, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
108 Q-Free has further expanded its advanced traffic management systems and road user charging business, with the acquisition of US company 5660 Open Roads Consulting. Q-Free says Open Roads Consulting's software solutions will be a valuable addition to its own ATMS solutions in the US and internationally.

Established in 2000, Open Roads Consulting has 74 employees and operates mission critical traffic deployments and video based surveillance of critical assets in 30 states in the US.

“We are happy to close the Open Roads transaction and are eager to move ahead. The acquisition of Open Roads Consulting represents a milestone for Q-Free. Over time the company will become a global fully-fledged ITS player with significant presence in the US.

The current acquisition is a strategic good match with other ATMS and RUC activities within the group; Q-Free's number of employees in the US increases to approximately 100 and we intend to build from here,” says CEO Thomas Falck.

The acquisition of Open Roads Consulting is Q-Free’s third acquisition in 2014, following the inclusion of 131 TDC Systems in the UK and 7724 Traffic Design in Slovenia into the Group earlier this year.

The company’s ATMS business has been strengthened substantially over the last couple of years, with the acquisition of US based parking guidance company TCS International in 2012, followed by the acquisition of the Serbian traffic management company 7723 Elcom and a strategic ten percent investment in Intelight in the US in 2013.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Sensor solutions cuts maintenance and emissions
    December 8, 2014
    The new raft of sensor technology can provide cost savings as well as additional functionality, as David Crawford discovers. Austria’s third-largest city, Linz, with a population of around 200,000, is recording substantial savings in its urban tram network within 18 months of introducing a new, high-technology approach to its public transport management. Tram, bus and trolleybus operator Linz Linien forms part of city utilities management company Linz AG, which has been carrying out a wide-ranging Smart Cit
  • UK railways to benefit from information upgrade
    January 3, 2013
    More than US$13.44 million funding will be spent by train companies to boost passenger information at stations across the UK. The funding will pay for a national roll-out to link customer information screens at stations to the latest live real time train information data, fed from a database developed and maintained by train companies. The upgrade will be rolled out in around 2,000 National Rail stations. The first stations will be switched on in summer 2014 and the whole project is anticipated to be comp
  • Enforcement ensures equity for toll road users
    January 25, 2018
    All-electronic tolling boosts traffic flow but introduces the tricky question of enforcement. Workable solutions are starting to emerge. Enforcement is an essential part of tolling and one of the most important ways for a mobility agency to keep faith with its investors, its community stakeholders and the vast majority of its users. It can also be one of the most unpopular and contentious things a toll authority has to undertake. If tolling is about paying for the roads, then everyone has to pay their
  • Cellular communications drive the way forward for tolling
    January 18, 2012
    For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by