Skip to main content

Flowbird unveils terminal-based emissions surcharging solution

Flowbird Urban Intelligence has launched terminal-based digital technology to enable local authorities to levy variable surcharges on vehicles that exceed set levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). The digital system is loaded onto Flowbird’s solar-powered terminals and is expected to help authorities encourage people to switch to lower carbon vehicles and use public transport in congested areas. Flowbird says the system can generate a separate fee for higher polluting cars at the time of parking via data linke
June 13, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Flowbird Urban Intelligence has launched terminal-based digital technology to enable local authorities to levy variable surcharges on vehicles that exceed set levels of carbon dioxide (CO2).

The digital system is loaded onto Flowbird’s solar-powered terminals and is expected to help authorities encourage people to switch to lower carbon vehicles and use public transport in congested areas.

Flowbird says the system can generate a separate fee for higher polluting cars at the time of parking via data linked to official government figures covering vehicle emissions.

When a driver enters a number plate into the parking terminal, the vehicle details are cross-referenced with the DVLA for fuel type and CO2 levels. This allows any relevant surcharge to be applied and paid for alongside the parking tariff, the company adds.

According to Flowbird, separate parking and emissions charges can be remotely configured across entire parking estates via its cloud-based back office.

Related Content

  • Urban mobility and demand management - the Mobility Credits Model
    January 26, 2012
    Vito Marcolongo and Marco Troglia, Quaeryon srl describe the Mobility Credits Model, which is intended to combine inducements and fairness to improve mobility while reducing its more negative economic and environmental effects
  • Asecap Days 2023: Data drives the best decisions
    December 22, 2023
    Almost all the data being collected by highway operators is going to waste. But if firms collect and analyse these ‘vast lakes of data’ they can investigate threats, monitor management systems and drive up revenues, delegates were told at Asecap Days 2023. Geoff Hadwick reports
  • Mileage based charging offers secure future for funding
    August 10, 2016
    HNTB’s Matthew Click sets out why a move to mileage-based pricing is inevitable. Infrastructure is the most neglected yet the most critical engine of our society, and our continued indifference could lead to a dystopian future. Our roads, bridges and highways have been largely passed by in the digital age—marginalised in an era when funding is limited and stewardship of physical assets has given way to our preoccupation with technological innovation and data—the stuff of the virtual realm.
  • Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    October 29, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.