Toll Interoperability: Many Paths to the Same Goal
The many paths to interoperable tolling systems will be the focus of a fast-paced breakout session during IBTTA’s 84th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, September 11-14, 2016 in Denver.
Anyone with even a passing interest in tolling or highway finance knows how quickly the interoperability scene has been shifting over the last several years. Systems and decisions made to serve local customers need to be adjusted to reflect neighboring systems. Transitioning local services and practices to a national level has proven very complex; everyone is trying to reach the same goal, with the same rigorous technical and back office systems, but there are different paths to get there.
That’s true enough in the United States, where dozens of IBTTA agencies have been working to harmonize state or regional tolling operations with widely varying system and customer profiles.
But at the Annual Meeting, we’ll be elevating that conversation to the global level, where the mix of issues and solutions is even more complex.
Tracing Progress Across the Globe
The global interoperability session in Denver will include presentations from the United States, Europe, Japan, South Africa, and South America.
Cathal Masterson of Transport Infrastructure Ireland will trace nearly a decade of experience with eToll, described online as a “customer-friendly toll payment system” that has been in place since mid-June 2007. “One of the biggest advantages of signing up for this system is that [it’s] interoperable across Ireland,” states the eToll website. “This means that once you’ve registered with a tag provider, your tag will give you access to most toll roads in the country.”
We’ll hear from Neil Tolmie, CEO of N3 Toll Concession Ltd. in South Africa, which has been investing pro-actively in the technology it’ll need to make interoperability work.
And the session will be moderated by Hubert Resch, Managing Director of ASFINAG in Vienna, who will bring a wealth of perspective from toll concessionaires in the European Union.
Preparing for Interoperability 2.0
The session should be particularly useful for tolling agencies in the United States, at a time when the industry is entering a decisive shift toward Interoperability 2.0.
At IBTTA’s 2016 Summit on All-Electronic Tolling, Managed Lanes and Interoperability last July, U.S. panelists and participants took a step away from the continuing efforts to bring national interoperability close to reality, to take a look forward to the near horizon in which technology innovations will usher in the next generation of interoperability. From multi-protocol transponder technologies to mobile apps, from accounts receivable management to the rise of autonomous vehicles, this is an area where the only way to keep up is to keep on listening, networking, and learning.
The Denver Annual Meeting will be exactly the right place to pursue knowledge that will continue to transform the global tolling industry for the foreseeable future.
IBTTA’s 84th Annual Meeting and Exhibition takes place in Denver September 11-14, 2016.