Global technology and consulting company Indra has incorporated a new capability into its toll back-office system to record transactions on a blockchain, from its Mova Collect line of dynamic toll solutions.
The company said it aims to offer operators and concessionaires a robust and reliable solution that can record operations quickly and efficiently, increasing data integrity, transparency and traceability.
The work is being developed within the framework of the European Critical-Chains R+D+I project, in which Indra is leading the transport use case.
The company has partnered with ROADIS, a multinational in the infrastructure sector, to validate the solution on a highway the company operates in Mexico, namely Monterrey-Saltillo.
Both businesses will implement the technology with the aim of protecting the numerous transactions that take place in a concessionaire, providing them with greater security and reducing the possibility of fraud, helping to reinforce it as an intelligent and secure highway.
According to Indra, applying blockchain to the processes and transactions that take place in the back-office systems of a toll – transaction integrity, clearing between operators, payments to the central entity, financial auditing, fraud control – can reduce conflicts between the different participants due to possible disagreements, protects against possible cyber-attacks, and facilitates settlement and auditing tasks.
Furthermore, it can reportedly reduce problems that may arise in the management of blocked users lists due to delays in the sending of license plate and vehicle type records that have used the toll at a given time.
Indra said the use of blockchain does not interfere with the users’ normal operation, who continue with the same interfaces. Rather, it will only allow alerting of possible mismatches in the records so that they can be consulted.
The solution developed by Indra is said to be suitable for electronic toll collection and in situations where there are several concessionaires and there is interoperability between them.
The work is being developed on a Software-as-a-Service platform that will make it possible to record toll transactions and associated settlement processes, thereby increasing traceability.
Specifically, Critical-Chains uses Quorum, a decentralised blockchain business platform that allows different permissions to be given to different users depending on their role in the business model, so that information is not public.
In a pilot led by Indra, participants will have permission to view and record operations while authorities will be able to carry out necessary audits in a transparent and secure manner.
The Critical-Chains project, funded with support from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Program, is led by the University of Reading and has 12 partners from eight countries.
In addition to the transportation use case, Indra is also leading the work package in charge of validating the framework developed in different areas: banking, insurance, financial institutions and toll highways.
In the field of tolls, in addition to the back-office solution with blockchain, Indra’s latest developments include its Mova Collect dynamic toll system with deep learning and automatic detection of high-occupancy vehicles.
Mova Collect has been implemented in the USA to enable the operation of the I-66 Outside the Beltway highway through an advanced dynamic pricing system.
Indra said the system will facilitate safer, more efficient and sustainable management of the highway, whose data will allow the system to ‘learn’ and improve its performance.
In recent years, Indra has implemented similar technology on roads in Queensland, Australia and in tunnels in London and those managed by the English Directorate General for Traffic.
You can learn more about the key trends and challenges affecting senior decision-makers who have responsibility for tolling, intelligent transportation systems and road pricing at the 19th annual Road User Charging Conference in Brussels, Belgium on 04-05 May 2022. Visit www.roaduserchargingconference.co.uk for more information.
