Europe’s Toll Concessionaires Put Safety and Service First
For the concessionaires that operate more than 50,000 kilometres of tolled highways across Europe, user financing is all about safety and service, IBTTA First Vice President Emanuela Stocchi told the Transportation Research Board’s International Symposium on Freeway and Tollway Operations in Berlin in mid-June.
“Users choose to drive along a tolled road network,” she told the symposium, on behalf of the European Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures (ASECAP). “They pay tolls because they expect a service to be delivered by the road operator.”
In two sentences, Stocchi encapsulated an operating principle that is well established in Europe, and rapidly gaining acceptance in North America and other parts of the world.
The Highest Safety Standard
Many years ago, a noted demographer commented that “you don’t do more with less. You do less with less.” If most of us had to pick an area where that principle should always hold sway, highway safety would go right to the top of the list.
That’s why ASECAP members “invest massively for road safety,” Stocchi said. “It’s thanks to the tolling system that they can implement and deploy the best safety technologies,” to increase customers’ comfort and peace of mind throughout their journey.
The connection between revenue generation and service delivery makes every toll operator a public service provider, Stocchi declared. “They have duties, they have specific contractual obligations, including the specific obligation to provide customers with a high quality of service,” she told workshop participants. That means ensuring that highways are available when needed and deliver “the highest possible level of security” for people and goods.
Toll Concessions Deliver
The resounding takeaway from Stocchi’s presentation is that the system works, and works exceptionally well.
“Tolling has proven to be one of the most powerful and effective tools to finance, build, maintain, and improve road infrastructure for the benefit of users and citizens,” she said. “Tolling may not be the only approach, but it is undoubtedly one of the tools in the toolbox for financing infrastructure,” a proven mechanism to delivery safe, reliable mobility without placing new demands on government funds.
That commitment led ASECAP to play a strong supportive role in the European Commission’s European Road Safety Charter, a civil society initiative to build a road safety culture across the continent. ASECAP has undertaken to share best practices with the Charter’s 2,300 signatories, Stocchi said, as one part of its effort to “keep customers at the center of our strategies to improve safety and mobility.”
Safety is always high on the agenda whenever, and wherever, the global toll industry gathers. Learn the latest at IBTTA’s 84th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, September 11-14, 2016 in Denver, Colorado, USA.