Alain Estiot, chief meeting organiser of this year's IBTTA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, talks about hot topics for discussion
TheHost organisation
"For a long time, whether we were dealing with a bridge, tunnel or a road, a point to remember was that we were talking about facilities which, in the grand scheme of things, were really quite small - a few tens of kilometres of road, a few hundred at most. We've evolved significantly since then. Now, spread across several countries in Europe, we have distance-based charging for heavy goods vehicles on many thousands of kilometres of strategic roads. That started in Germany, where we now have 12,500km of roads with charging, and France has just awarded a contract covering 13,000 kilometres. Such developments mark a dramatic change. Things that just couldn't be done before are now happening, courtesy of DSRC, GPS/GNSS and Open-Road Tolling [ORT]." Such developments represent a new dimension for Europe Estiot notes, but he is convinced that the US will eventually follow the trend. Significantly, so will major new markets such as India, which will form a significant chunk of this year's conference programme.
Emerging markets
Estiot: "It's important that the conference programme reflects what's happening on a worldwide scale. The two big new players are China and India. Both countries' tolling sectors are enjoying massive growth but you don't see invitations being extended to come and get involved in or invest in the Chinese market. India, though, is looking outwards and advertising."India has committed to building 8,000km of new roads every year for the next decade but even up until around 12 months ago it wasn't really being talked about. Now it's the new El Dorado. Between now and September, therefore, this is a part of the programme which we're going to be looking to build quite significantly.
'Making the Difference'
Frank McCartney, executive director of the Delaware Joint Toll Bridge Commission and 2011 IBTTA president, has adopted the theme of 'Making the Difference' for this year.
McCartney describes the difference, in the tolling industry, as "higher levels of safety; a commitment to customer service and sustainability; and the ability to use technology and finance in elegant ways to improve access to mobility" The 'Making the Difference' theme will underpin the Association's activities during the Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Berlin and, indeed, throughout 2011.
For those interested in learning more, the IBTTA has a full calendar of educational and networking opportunities. A 2011 Meeting Profiles and Resource Guide can be downloaded from the Events section of the IBTTA website."As well as being a new market, there is the potential also for new concepts," Estiot continues. "For instance, will motorways in India be the sole subject of tolling, or will normal roads be included as well? Also, what service levels will become the standard? In the West, we've been used to tolling now for 100-200 years. We have standards and levels of service which have evolved over that time. New markets aren't bound by such strictures. So how will they adapt to the levels of technical construction necessary and what kinds of partnerships can we expect to see emerge?
"Of course, the answers to all of these questions will be provided by the market. In India as in other countries, people will have to bid for concessions, and if they're not bidding with the right standards then they won't be successful. One thing's certain, the market will evolve; 10 years from now I doubt it'll look like it does now. Another certainty is that it will be different. We can't simply cut and paste what we've done elsewhere."
Technology and standards
Technology, of course, continues to advance even in established markets. Estiot regards it as healthy to have competing solutions."The big point to make is that there is simply so much more technology in use. Back in the 1990s, when ORT was first being implemented, there were very real concerns being expressed about systems' susceptibility to fraud. Similarly, when GPS/GNSS-based tolling was first being considered people were convinced that it could never be made to work. Now, we have hundreds of millions of DSRC-based tags and OBUs in operation; GPS/GNSS-based OBUs also number in the millions. The amounts of money being collected via ORT are substantial; e4.5 billion last year in Germany alone. And each new system implementation brings technological improvements, as suppliers and operators look to build on the experience gained elsewhere.
"We don't have the breadth of standards that we had maybe 10-15 years back. I think we'll see further improvement in this area even with the continued arrival of new trends and suppliers. Standardisation helps us all greatly - interoperability in the US is but one example of where I think we're obliged to follow such work. But it needs political will and a forum; that's where organisations such as the IBTTA are so important." Standardisation and an increasingly important IT component to tolling schemes are combining to shape many aspects of the industry's future. Estiot points to operators' and users' expectations of ORT as drivers for change.
"With a typical 'traditional' roll road, if a lane on a plaza went out then customers would simply use the other lanes until it could be restored to service. With ORT, that just can't be allowed to happen because expectations of availability rates are significantly higher. That means fast but robust processing. It also means size: we already have something like 20 million transactions a day in Germany alone, that's billions per year world worldwide. Many call centres use the same basic tools and we're already seeing a lot of standardisation. Equally, it's important to consider just what else we should standardise in order to bring costs down and streamline processes; from an operator's perspective, that's very important."
Consolidation
"The dynamics of the tolling market aren't just changing in terms of the systems themselves - 10 years ago, there were a great many more systems suppliers. Since then, we've seen a great deal of merger activity. When I started in tolling in the US back in the 1990s, all of the big defence companies wanted into the market. Today, we have tolling facilities which have a huge IT component and that in itself drives a need. Providers need to be strong enough to supply systems which can cater with transactions by the million. That means being able to advance the money for projects of a certain size and to provide other guarantees besides. We can see concentration of effort and capability happening already in the US market, but should we guard against consolidation? Is it good or bad? I don't know - ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different opinions. It's important, though, that we recognise that it's happening
Safety and the environment
Safety, the environment and sustainability are perennial topics.
Increasing sophistication extends to the application of greater amounts of ITS on tolled facilities. Safety as a result of increased and better monitoring on privately operated roads is reflected, for instance, by the situation in France, where fatalities on non-tolled roads outnumber those on tolled roads by 4:1. ITS application has been a major success, according to Estiot. As well as having obvious safety benefits, it has also helped to drive acceptance amongst users of the idea of paying tolls.
Much more than the bear essentials
The technology workshop hosted by the IBTTA in Berlin in 2007 highlighted the fantastic diversity which the city has to offer, says Estiot. As a major hub for continental transportation and the capital of the first country in the world to introduce a distance-based tolling scheme for transiting heavy goods vehicle traffic (the LKW-Maut scheme operated by event host company Toll Collect) it has significant industry credentials, he continues. It is also a celebrated cultural centre, with much to offer the discerning visitor.
The Berlin Bear is a famous symbol of the city and to mark the 2011 Annual Meeting and Exhibition's taking place in Berlin, Toll Collect has created a special Buddy Bear named Tolly.When it comes to the environment, he perceives a much more complicated situation than was the case historically: "Today, building a new road is a very complicated business. Often, it involves working with opposition and pressure groups to find an acceptable solution. But, those are the facts of life; building something which exhibits poor safety and environmental performance simply isn't an option. We're all citizens but it's easy to see that what's deemed to be an acceptable standard in North America or Western Europe may be regarded rather differently in developing nations where the economic and social pressures are really quite different."
New channels of communication
Encompassing all of this, as technology evolves, is how the customer can be kept satisfied."One conference theme will look at how we can deal in the tolling industry with social networks," Estiot continues. "We're terming this 'Communication 2.0' - where vertical communication channels are replaced by 'everyone, everywhere'.
"What's more rational in such an environment: rational issue management or gut feeling? Traditionally the basis of much communication was paper. Now a lot happens online, so do we have to consider net etiquette? And what constitutes good net etiquette - speed of exchange... accuracy of information? Speed can cause inaccuracies, so how can we deal with this? There's a juxtaposition of 'tried and true' and 'shiny and new'. There's a lot of work which needs to go on to integrate the traditional with what people think they need to be involved in." The IBTTA's 79th Annual Meeting and Exhibition takes place 10-14 September 2011 at the Dorint Hotel (formerly the InterContinental Hotel) Budapester Strasse 2, Berlin, 10787 Germany. Registration and hotel booking details can be found online at the IBTTA's website.
