Jan/Feb 2004

The introduction of tolls on Britain's main motorway network has given new logic to the deployment of transport planning software that takes account of them. Very early off the mark in this respect was German developer Map&Guide, which has just given a UK launch to a product called Toll Pro.

The company says the program enables users to calculate the exact toll charges for large numbers of shipments within seconds, and can cut costs significantly.

Features include the ability for users to take account of toll-related costs when quoting for business; to adjust prices according to tolls; and to re-plan journeys on different vehicle types where the overall cost after taking account of tolls is lower.

The company points out that the system is not limited to considering UK tolls, but can also take account of tolls across the Continent, where they are already a fact of life.

Calculated route and toll parameters can be exported from the program as Microsoft Excel tables or in other data formats.