ITS Australia, hosts of the 2016 ITS World Congress Forum, is inviting the intelligent transportation systems (ITS), tolling, and transport industries to submit abstracts for the 2017 National electronic Tolling Forum (NeTC).
Now in its 12th year, the NeTC Forum is an industry event for government agencies; toll road owners and operators; infrastructure providers; policy makers; and equipment, system and technology providers. More than 120 traffic and transport professionals attend the annual meeting, with presentations by both Australian and international speakers.
The 2017 NeTC Forum, which will take place in Sydney on May 23-25, is titled Converging Smarter Tolling Technologies and will address the challenges and opportunities faced by the tolling industry and their impact on business and personal mobility. Attendees at the event will include: key decision makers from government road authorities worldwide; toll road owners and operators; major global supplies of transport related technology and services; infrastructure providers; transport agencies and consultants; government policy makers; tolling and transport related equipment and system providers; and tag and pass retail providers.
As hosts of the event, ITS Australia is highlighting comments made at the opening of last month’s World Congress, when Scott Charlton, the CEO of Australian and North American toll road operator Transurban, said, “Over the next five years, industry and government will have to prepare for the biggest transformation of the transport sector since Henry Ford’s Model T rolled off his assembly line. We are at the tipping point for redefining mobility for future generations.”
Hosted annually by ITS Australia, the NeTC Industry Forum has grown over 11 years to become a must-attend event for Australian tolling industry executives. At this year’s event, delegates from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Thailand and the USA attended the two-day meeting in Brisbane. Among the keynote speakers at the 2016 Summit were: Mark Bailey, Queensland’s Minister for Roads, Road Safety and Ports; and Neil Scales, director general of the Department of Transport and Main Roads.
Other speakers included Jack Opiola, a leading authority on road-user charging (RUC) systems and managing partner of D’Artagnan Consulting, which is conducting RUC trials in several states in the USA.
ITS Australia’s CEO, Susan Harris, said, “User pay services, congestion management, and road tolling, is an ongoing discussion affecting all road users. One of the hot topics during the World Congress was road user charging. Any potential future change away from the current fuel-excise based system would greatly impact governments, agencies, industry, and users.
The 2017 NeTC Forum will be an opportunity to continue this discussion, and provide a platform for diverse industry partners and competitors to come together and explore ways to make Australia’s road network safer and more productive. We encourage the industry to be part of the program, and invite submissions for abstracts for consideration by the Program Committee.”
The submission deadline for abstracts is December 12, and Early Bird registrations open in February 2017.
