This year, the world’s longest-running independent annual gathering of tolling, mobility pricing and ITS professionals celebrates its 20th anniversary! Here’s what to expect at Road User Charging Conference 2023 on 07-08 March at the Steigenberger Wiltcher’s in Brussels, Belgium…
For two decades, the Road User Charging Conference has provided a unique and unrivalled platform for international perspectives on all forms of road-user charging and why the future of intelligent transportation systems is vital in driving our understanding of how the world’s major road networks and infrastructure will serve future generations.
Set to take place on 07-08 March 2023 at the Steigenberger Wiltcher’s hotel in Brussels, Belgium, this two-day gathering of transportation leaders and senior decision-makers will welcome delegates from around the world and across sectors to encourage active discussion, invaluable peer-to-peer learning, and analysis of best practises for planning, promoting and delivering different road-charging projects on motorways, highways and in urban environments everywhere.
Attendees to this year’s conference will be privy to a truly international range of perspectives on the technologies and regulatory polices shaping tolling and road-user charging via a combination of exclusive case-study presentations and panel discussions on crucial issues such as interoperability, charging models, user acceptance, sustainability, equity, politics and much more!
Among the highlights from a bumper programme of content, Stephan Kösling, head of strategy and business development at Toll Collect will explain how to create more value from tolling data, from analytics to prediction and forecasting, with an overview of respective developments in Germany, including examples of use cases and projects utilising data-driven offerings.
Lise Jonasen, programme manager for kilometre tolling at Sund & Baelt Holding, will deliver a status update on the implementation of a GNSS-based tolling scheme for lorries in Denmark, and share key progress, challenges and learnings, as well as insight into next steps for the distance-based tolling programme.
This will be followed by a case study on the UK’s Humber Bridge’s transition from toll booths to free-flow tolling, delivered by Andrew Arundel, chief operating officer of Humber Bridge Board. Opened in 1981 as a 12-lane toll booth plaza tolling operation, the Humber Bridge has had to adapt to changes in customer needs, technologies and other challenges. Here, Arundel will discuss the bridge’s progression to full free-flow operation with a third-generation tolling system.
The topic of free-flow tolling will continue with Elly Sinaga, president of the Indonesia Road Safety Partnership, who will provide an overview of the replacement of Indonesia’s existing card-based payment system with multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) tolling. Here, Sinaga will provide insight into transaction time savings at toll gates due to MLFF and explain the role of GNSS in the initial implementation phase of MLFF technology on 40 toll roads across the country.
A substantial portion of this year’s programme will be devoted to presentations concerning recent revisions to the Eurovignette Directive. First, James Nix, freight manager of Transport & Environment, will discuss implementing CO2 variation truck tolling, with a focus on Belgium’s kilometre charge. Bernd Datler, managing director and CIO of ASFiNAG, will then provide a toll charger’s perspective on the challenges, potential pitfalls and decisions on the road to CO2-based tolling.
Both Datler and Nix will then be joined by Giacomo Migliore, policy officer for DG MOVE at the European Commission, and Marco Digioia, secretary general of the European Road Hauliers Association, for a 45-minute panel discussion on the benefits and challenges of the EU’s decision to move from time-based to distance-based tolling for trucks on the T-ENT road network.
Elsewhere in the agenda, Transport for London’s senior engineering leader for traffic and highways, Lixi Pan, and his colleague, senior traffic engineer Claire Harrison will explain how London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) differs from other road-user charging zones in the UK. Together, they’ll explain the project’s technical delivery in terms of sign design, including issues encountered and how they were overcome, and provide an overview of other infrastructure changes required to introduce an operationally enforceable road-user charging zone.
Other sessions not to be missed include an update on the status and emerging scope of the USA’s US$125m national RUC pilot from Adrian Moore, vice president of policy at the Reason Foundation; how Switzerland’s oil tax is to be supplemented or replaced by a mileage-based levy, delivered by Roman Rosenfellner, economist and project manager for mobility pricing at FEDRO; and a special 45-minute ‘independent consultants’ panel discussion featuring, Peter Ummenhofer, managing director of GO Consulting, Nina Elter of NEwROAD Consulting, and Trevor Ellis, founder of Trevor Ellis Consulting.
Meet our partners
Lead Partner
For more than 75 years, Arup has been recognised for its vision, talent and tenacity. Dedicated to sustainable development, the firm is a collective of 18,000 designers, advisors and experts working across 140 countries. Founded to be both humane and excellent, Arup collaborates with its clients and partners using imagination, technology and rigour to shape a better world. Arup’s primary goal is to develop a truly sustainable built environment. This means that in all its work, Arup aims to identify a balance between the needs of a growing world population and the finite capacity and health of the planet.
www.arup.comThought Leadership Partners
When truck road user charging was launched in Belgium in 2016, Be-Mobile developed a unique, high-performance road user charging platform in record time using the granularity and accuracy of its map matching activities. Since then, Be-Mobile has continued to develop its suite of services for toll chargers and account managers. These services allow toll chargers to determine their rates and immediately calculate their impact. They also enable account managers to offer additional value-added services beyond road user charging. Be-Mobile’s road user charging platform, in combination with connected vehicles, enables the collection of all required data from the vehicle itself and brings valuable information into the vehicle with V2X technology.
www.be-mobile.com
Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2021, Continental generated sales of €33.8bn and celebrated its 150th anniversary. Today, the company employs more than 190,000 people in 58 countries and markets. Its solutions include digital tachographs, telematic modules, tolling units and apps to secure the connectivity of vehicles. Continental also offers hardware, online and app-based data management solutions to ensure fleets comply with transport law while maintaining their trailer and vehicle management needs and assisting drivers.
www.continental.com
Headquartered in Trondheim, Norway and with around 400 employees, Norbit is a global provider of tailored technology to selected niches, solving challenges through sustainable and innovative solutions, in line with its mission to ‘Explore More’. The company is structured in three business segments to address its key markets: Oceans, targeting the global maritime markets; Connectivity, providing low-power wireless solutions for identification, monitoring and tracking of vehicles and other valuable assets; and product innovation and realization, offering R&D services and contract manufacturing. Deep domain knowledge from each segment ensures that innovations by Norbit are fully market driven. In-house manufacturing capabilities ensure good scalability and quality control.
www.norbit.com
Telepass Group was founded in 2017 with the scope of creating an integrated system of urban and suburban mobility services: an ecosystem of companies created to give people the possibility of unhindered freedom of movement. Today, Telepass Group companies are committed to extending and guaranteeing access to their services in Europe in order to transform each travel into a truly limitless experience.
www.telepass.com
Vitronic is a world leader in machine vision. Its core competency in the traffic technology sector is the monitoring of vehicles. Vitronic’s toll solutions help ensure that modern traffic infrastructure can continue to be funded in the long term. With more 30 years of expertise in traffic technology, Vitronic is an ideal partner for toll operators and designs customised solutions on an international scale. For future mobility concepts Vitronic is working on using existing traffic infrastructure to control and optimise traffic flows as well as increasing road safety for particularly vulnerable road users.
www.vitronic.comPartners
Ascendi, the second largest private motorway operator in Portugal, manages road infrastructure assets and provides toll-collection services. The company holds majority stakes in six Portuguese road concessions covering 630km and as a free-flow toll service provider manages a total of 136 electronic collection points, processing more than 170 million transactions per year.
www.ascendi.pt
Headquartered in Germany, T-Systems is one of the European-leading IT service providers and suppliers of digital services. Today, T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, supports more than 900 clients, including all DAX 30 companies in Germany and 100 of the Fortune 500 companies globally. With extensive experience in providing business solutions in the road-charging sector, T-Systems offers comprehensive and innovative services for all areas in the tolling market including state-of-the-art, high-quality GNSS- and DSRC-based road-user charging solutions as well as mobile applications, e-ticketing and an easy-to-install on-board unit (OBU) that covers all European Electronic Toll Services (EETS) requirements.
www.t-systems.com
Verra Mobility is a leading provider of smart mobility technology solutions that make transportation safer, smarter and more connected. The company sits at the centre of the mobility ecosystem, bringing together vehicles, hardware, software, data and people to enable safe, efficient solutions for customers globally. Verra Mobility’s transportation safety systems and parking management solutions protect lives, improve urban and motorway mobility and support healthier communities. The company also solves complex payment, utilisation and compliance challenges for fleet owners and rental car companies. Headquartered in Arizona, USA, Verra Mobility operates in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
www.verramobility.com
- The most up-to-date agenda for Road User Charging Conference 2023 is online at www.roaduserchargingconference.co.uk. For partnership enquiries, contact Mercedes Alonso at mercedes.alonso@akabomedia.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)20 8037 1774. For speaking opportunities, contact John Thornton at john.thornton@akabomedia.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)20 8037 1783.
