This year's FTA summit was dominated by one theme - lorry road-user charging and its implications. here we report on some of the more telling presentations

'Still working out cost models' - the Customs perspective

Until this March's Budget, the UK Government was committed to introducing lorry road-user charging by 2006. Now the deadline has been put back two years; and some of the reasons were all too evident from a surprisingly frank presentation by Linda Swinburne of Customs & Excise, the organisation which will be overseeing the scheme when (and if) it eventually comes into being.

Even though she was speaking before the postponement was announced, on the question of timing she could only say that her department "is looking at options that we can actually deliver." She insisted that industry would not have to pay the £500 million cost of implementing the scheme, but admitted: "We're still working out cost models."

 

The scheme would cover all commercial vehicles from 3.5 tonnes upwards, Linda Swinburne reminded her audience. It would be revenue-neutral, since there would be offsetting reductions in fuel duty; but the actual mechanics of the tax balancing scheme were still being studied. She admitted there "would be winners and losers" in terms of the overall costs paid by operators after the scheme was introduced.

On one point she tried to offer a reassuring word: there would be no monopoly in terms of the equipment that would have to be fitted in cabs. "We're working on the basis of an open-source technical standard, in which there will be opportunities for individual suppliers to build in value-added services." She said the aim was to be as flexible as possible, "and not to place a burden on industry."

Sketching out an idea of what the in-cab equipment would consist of, she mentioned GPS positioning and GSM wireless transmissions linked to an on-board unit. This would be retrofitted in the first instance, but would later become an original equipment fitting in new vehicles. She accepted that alternative systems might be needed for occasional users. "We're looking at the options," she said.

She said the objective was to create a system that was simple to use. "We don't want compliance to slow business down." She envisaged a system that would be activated automatically when the vehicle engine was started, and she also talked about a scheme that automatically triggered reductions in fuel duty, perhaps identifying users through fuel cards.

Internet access would be part of what she called "a technical step-up" in the system. Operators would be able to register and monitor their accounts online, she said.

On the problem-fraught German motorway charging scheme, which had since been postponed, she simply commented: "They could have done better." n

'Working fine so far' - Austria's transponder-based tolls

While the severely-delayed German motorway tolling system has aroused controversy and animosity right across the Continent, neighbouring Austria has quietly put into place an equally wide-ranging road charging scheme - and got away with it. According to Sergio Battiboia of Europass LKW-Mautsysten, the Italian contractor behind the technology: "It's going fine so far."

The great difference between this and the German scheme is that Austria is not using GPS to track vehicles; it simply monitors motorway access by means of 5.8GHz SRC (short-range communications) microwave technology. Gantries are mounted at key points (Battiboia admitted there could be environmental issues associated with their appearance), and trucks are identified as they pass.

Battiboia described the scheme as "the first electronic nationwide fully-electronic free-flow tolling system in the world".

Austria is of course no stranger to tolls on tunnels and bridges, but the new scheme combines six previous separate systems, plus a former "vignette" scheme, into a single system. It applies to all commercial vehicles above 3.5 tonnes, plus buses - amounting to around 400,000 vehicles, of which 72 per cent are international.

Although using less ambitious technology than Germany's, the Austrian scheme is nonetheless complex. It has necessitated the creation of 800 toll stations around the country, along with over 300 points of sale (249 of them staffed and 82 being vending machines). There are 100 fixed enforcement gantries and 20 portable ones, plus a team of 100 enforcement "sheriffs".

While the system does not track vehicles in the conventional sense, there is nevertheless a requirement for an on-board unit called a Go-Box. Battiboia said 280,000 of these had already been distributed, and the figure was expected to rise to 370,000 by the end of the year. The box interacts with the microwave units to register the presence of each vehicle, which can then be checked against payment. The roving enforcement teams can in some cases also communicate directly with the on-board units.

So far, Battiboia said, violations were running at about 1.8 per cent, and were divided equally among Austrian and foreign-registered vehicles. He pointed out that foreign drivers could obtain refunds against unused payments on leaving the country.

He said the scheme was expected to handle over 600 million transactions this year (2 million a day during the week). Both pre-payment and post-payment options were offered, but most of the revenue came from post-payment. The busiest day of the week? Wednesdays. n

'Who's going to jump first?' - the world context

There may not be a groundswell of support around the world yet for technology-led road tolling systems, but the real question is simply "who's going to jump first?"

That was the view of John Dowson, senior partner at IBM Business Consulting, who described some of the systems currently under review in different countries, and considered the issues they raised. Among those issues, he said, were concerns about the visible impact of monitoring systems on the landscape, and worries over privacy. "They would have to be dealt with," he said.

He compared the two principal technological options - GPS tracking, and dedicated short-range communications, or DSRC. The latter was relatively simple, he said, but relied on potentially obtrusive gantries. There were also challenges to enforcement, including the elementary need to "get a good shot of the vehicle number plate", as he put it. Sun and the weather had posed difficulties in some countries.

GPS was more complex, but also more environment-friendly, and better-suited to the kind of system proposed for Britain, which would include all roads, not just motorways. This implied a need for systems to collect and validate information on vehicle movements against a map, and apply rules through a "charging engine".

"It's all very straightforward when you take it step by step," Dowson said, "but there are issues of integration. It's never been done before on the scale that's being proposed." However, he suggested that the sheer volume of transactions need not be a deterrent. "It works with credit card billing," he pointed out.

Dowson saw a future in which tracking and monitoring technologies would be integrated to improve business efficiency and also enhance security. As a pointer, he cited the FAST customs clearance scheme now operating in the United States, Canada and Mexico, in which driver, vehicle and freight identification codes were pre-registered, allowing authorised consignments a clear and quicker passage at borders. Comparable schemes in Britain could help with requirements such as monitoring livestock movements. n

'Really just another tax' - London's congestion charge

The Central London Congestion Charge is often cited by supporters of road-user charging as a model of a scheme that actually works - and succeeds by using relatively simple and unambitious technology.

Defending that view at the FTA Summit was Malcolm Murray-Clark, the director of Transport for London's congestion charging division. He described the scheme as "a major success", saying there had been a 30 per cent saving in congestion. He said London First had found that 60 to 70 per cent of businesses were in support of the scheme, and added that his organisation was now studying the possibility of using GPS and GSM technology to add further sophistication to it.

However, truck operators at the event were not convinced. John Hogan, managing director of express carrier DHL for the UK and Ireland, said the same number of DHL vehicles had to enter the charging zone now as before the charges were introduced.

Hogan said the savings resulting from the reduction in congestion were minimal as far as DHL was concerned. "We have some of the best minds in the business working on efficient scheduling," he said, "but we still haven't found a way to exploit the time savings usefully."

He pointed out that the trend towards timed next-day deliveries was growing, and it was difficult to meet that demand and still take advantage of any reduced congestion. FTA chief executive Richard Turner spelled out the problem, commenting: "It's wrong to expect unrealistic benefits from small increments of time that can't actually be translated into savings."

Hogan also pointed out that the growth in home deliveries was an exacerbating factor. "Congestion has to be managed, but we're an essential service, and should be exempted from the charging."