Skip to main content

Q-Free pioneers next-generation road user charging (RUC) for private vehicles

April 24, 2025 Read time: 2 mins

 

Since 1984, Q-Free has been a leader in tolling solutions, and now the company is driving innovation in road user charging (RUC) — a smarter, more flexible way to pay for road usage. Unlike traditional tolling, RUC calculates fees based on distance driven, with dynamic pricing for factors like rush hour congestion or urban vs rural travel. It also shifts revenue focus, covering external costs like accidents, noise, and delays rather than just infrastructure.

With declining fuel tax revenues due to electric vehicles and reduced car ownership, RUC offers a sustainable alternative. However, existing heavy-vehicle RUC solutions are too bulky, costly, and power-intensive for private cars. Q-Free is changing that with a next-generation GNSS-based tag — theTag4All, which will be launched in Seville.

Tag4All is compact, battery-powered and easy to install. It provides an unprecedented solution that removes RUC barriers with a cable-free device that takes privacy to a new level without sharing any detailed location information. Hence, it is fully compliant with GDPR regulations while offering fully-compliant DSRC technology.

RUC implementations vary by markets, with governments typically overseeing revenue collection. Q-Free’s development is backed by key stakeholders, including the Norwegian Research Council, SINTEF, and the Norwegian Public Road Administration. Following successful large-scale pilots, the company is refining the technology for broader adoption.

“With Tag4All, we’ve developed a solution that combines advanced technology with user simplicity. Our goal has been to make road user charging easy to use for private vehicles without compromising on privacy or reliability,” says Ola Martin Lykkja, RUC 2.0 Project Manager

Q-Free is inviting delegates to its stand at the ITS European Congress to learn more about RUC 2.0, Tag4All and how it’s shaping the future of road charging.

Stand: D4

Related Content

  • November 1, 2023
    The challenging European road to carbon neutrality and the need for distance-based charging
    Fuel taxes are falling and EVs have the potential to create social equity issues. The answer may lie in expanding the use of technology which has successfully been used for two decades with trucks
  • January 26, 2012
    Debating road user charging systems
    Are pre-launch trials of charging systems the way to improve public acceptance? Or is the real key a more robust political attitude? Here, leading system suppliers discuss the issue. The use of distance-based Road User Charging (RUC) is now well established, at least for heavy goods vehicles on strategic roads. However demand management for all vehicles, whether a distance-based charge or some form of cordon scheme, has yet to make significant progress. This is in spite of the logic and equity of RUC being
  • April 24, 2013
    Slow development of Europe's road user charging
    Delegates convened in Brussels for Europe’s 10th annual Road User Charging Conference in March, when both positive and negative developments came to light for advocates of more widespread introduction of RUC. Jon Masters reports. Goings on across Europe in recent months have again demonstrated how very sensitive road user charging (RUC) is politically. At the 10th annual Road User Charging Conference in Brussels at the beginning of March, a Danish delegation was notable for its absence, but Belgian governme
  • February 1, 2012
    Time for a rethink on road user charging
    There is no value in further US VMT charging trials, except to delay the inevitable. These trials should end after completion of the University of Iowa's National Evaluation of a Mileage-based Road User Charge. There is far greater promise in unleashing private operators to commence profitable, non-tolling services, then using these for toll assessment and collection as fuel distributors are currently used to collect fuel taxation. Bern Grush writes