Charging, Tolling & RUC

I like it when an otherwise unremarkable evening turns into something which stays in the mind awhile, and enlivened debate has that habit of planting seeds in the mind which over time grow into thinking with much wider application.

At any conference or exhibition, it tends to be the ad libs and asides, the departures from the scripted or official lines, which are the most telling. In mid-February, ITS-UK's Road User Charging Interest Group met in London. The event was no exception to that statement. Keith Mortimer, the Group's chairman, and his colleagues put together one of the better programmes on charging and tolling that I've seen in recent years. Sadly, however, the very positive presentations on deployments and technological pro

Finland-headquartered Confidex has launched a new family of limited-use contactless tickets with extended memory and increased security features.

Almex, a business division of the German Hoeft & Wessel Group, has launched a new ticket vending terminal for buses and trams. The Almex.Mini, with compact dimensions and low weight, provides payment facilities in cash, via a coin processing and change return function, or by smart cards via contactless e-ticketing applications. Appropriate interfaces facilitate simple and speedy integration into existing applications or delivery in the form of a full package solution. As the company points out, the new Alme

Arcontia, a producer of contactless smart card readers and terminals, has announced a true multiple-technology onboard validator for electronic fare collection schemes in public transport.

Wi-Fi solutions specialist Arada Systems has launched a comprehensive telematics 802.11p DSRC/WAVE system. The solution includes On-Board Units (OBUs), Road-Side Units (RSUs), battery-operated DSRC tolling tags, high-power 600mW embedded cards, as well as, the company states, the world's first SD-based DSRC card operating at 5.9GHz.

IRDSA (IRD South Asia), the wholly-owned subsidiary of International Road Dynamics (IRD) has signed three tolling contracts in India with a total value of over US$1.5 million.