Toll Collect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toll Collect GmbH is a German company that has developed and is running the toll billing system for trucks on German motorways.
The company is a consortium led by DaimlerChrysler and Deutsche Telekom. It has won a bid for the development of a toll billing system from the German government. The development of the system started in September 2002. The technology is based on the Global Positioning System, and a web application for booking truck routes in advance. Trucks are equipped with embedded systems called "On Board Units" (OBUs). OBUs are used for positioning, monitoring and billing. Additionally the OBUs have infrared interfaces for communicating with stationary control bridges on the motorways.
Since the end of 2002 several hundred engineers and programmers worked on the project. Some articles report more than 1000 experts were involved in the project. The rollout was first scheduled for the end of August 2003, but was delayed repeatedly, causing the government to forfeit toll collection on trucks using the Autobahn. The deadline was first shifted by 2 months, then by at least one year. There have been, and still are, considerable disputes between Toll Collect and the German government about damages to be paid by Toll Collect to the Government because of the long delay in the deployment of the system. There were also accusations that during the tender process for the system, non-German companies were not given fair consideration.
Due to the high costs involved, the highly publicized technical mishaps, government intervention, and the perceived overcomplexity of its system, Toll Collect has become a byword within Germany for the country's economic malaise. [1], [2]
The system was opened two years behind schedule on January 1, 2005. Trucks are charged 12.4 Eurocent/km, payable at toll booths if they do not have electronic units that permit automatic billing.
