Kapsch TrafficCom and its partner Aventi Intelligent Communication have conducted a pilot project in Norway where they tested a new tolling technology. The target of the project (conducted during the summer months) was to find out how fee collection for passenger cars is possible based on the vehicle type, its emissions class and the kilometers driven.
The background to this is the rapid decline in vehicle-related tax revenues, particularly due to the high proportion of electric vehicles in Norway – a problem that more and more countries will face in the coming years. The project serves as input to the ‘concept selection study’ that was conducted by Norwegian authorities regarding the principles of determining and collecting future road user charges and tolls.
“In total, more than two million kilometers of trips, or about 50 laps around the earth, were analyzed,” says Alfredo Escriba, chief technical officer at Kapsch TrafficCom. “The system was able to handle the challenging environments of the Norwegian road network, matching routes and calculating rates with an accuracy level above 99%.”.
Road user charging can compensate for the loss of tax revenue by governments, while also offering a fair and transparent charging system for road users. While this type of charging is already established for trucks, the tested system could for the first time offer a practicable and user-friendly instrument for passenger cars as well.
