European toll service provider Axxès and technology company Continental have announced a new tolling solution for commercial fleets that requires no on-board unit (OBU) for electronic truck toll collection.
The tachograph toll has been developed to be future-proof and expandable, increase data quality, simplify logistics, reduce cost, increase security and privacy, and improve overall fleet economy. It also represents the first step in a transition from OBUs to distributed on-board equipment (OBE).
The OBU-free service will see data made available in the next version’s of Continental’s smart tachograph, the VDO DTCO 4.1, transferred to Axxès’ cloud platform via the Continental Road Usage Service (CRUS) platform. To ensure cloud connectivity to commercial fleets, Axxès will utilise Continental’s VDO Link, a smart connectivity device plugged into the tachograph’s front interface.
According to Axxès, the tachograph toll offers advantages to the company’s European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) and VAS portfolio and has the potential to relieve toll service providers from validating and maintaining technological infrastructure. What’s more, the connectivity provided through the VDO Link, combined with driver and vehicle data available in a tachograph, could create new value-added services for end-users.
Frédéric Lepeintre, CEO of Axxès, said: “The introduction of the tachograph toll is a milestone for the European tolling sector, comparable to the introduction of the all-digital truck toll in Germany in 2005.
“This new solution is very easily accessible, a lot more accurate, unambiguous and secure. It also opens new business fields for our customers and partners because the tachograph toll is natively connected through our existing APIs to our new customer portal, which provides a full range of fleet management services.”
In terms of the benefits of using tachograph data for collecting toll data, a tachograph comes with a DSRC modem, originally needed for tachograph inspection, but reusable for tolling. It also brings a satellite navigation receiver, front interface and a cryptographic trust anchor, which allows the tachograph and vehicle to be uniquely identified and authenticated.
The announcement of the new solution is regarded as particularly important for the road transport sector as the European Commission’s Mobility Package makes it necessary to retrofit trucks used by fleet owners for international haulage with second-generation smart tachographs by 2025.
Ismail Dagli, head of smart mobility at Continental, added: “We were always convinced that the tachograph toll offers a lot of opportunities for toll service providers and the whole road transport industry. Thousands of commercial vehicle fleets will benefit from this.”
Continental is a Thought Leadership Partner of the 20th annual Road User Charging Conference, which takes place on 07-08 March 2023 at the Steigenberger Wiltcher’s in Brussels, Belgium. Click here for more information and to register for this unmissable industry event, which presents the key trends and challenges affecting senior decision-makers who have responsibility for tolling, intelligent transportation systems and road pricing across the world!
