From next February, the German provider of commercial vehicle fuel and services cashless payment systems, Union Tank Eckstein GmbH & Co KG (UTA), will be providing an onboard unit (OBU) for the new interoperable European Electronic Toll Service (EETS).
Currently, most European countries have some form of road user charging or tolling system in place for trucks and other heavy vehicles, with various different toll devices for electronic toll collection (ETC) systems. The new interoperable pan-European EETS toll system will allow freight companies to use just one onboard unit within the European Union area. A long-standing provider of transport services payment systems, UTA will be expanding its range of services in the area of interoperable toll management and will assume responsibility for the administration, billing and evaluation of the new EETS system.
The new EETS service initially comprises eight existing toll services: Austria, Belgium road toll and Liefkenshoektunnel, Poland (A4), Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Further European countries, including Germany, will be integrated automatically in the second half of 2018 via over-the-air update. It is expected that tolling systems in Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Norway (non-EU) and Slovakia, together with the Eurovignette system used in the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Denmark, and Sweden, will be integrated by the end of 2018.
UTA is procuring the OBUs for the EETS service from the Italian company Telepass, the leading European provider of electronic toll payment services. UTA has more than 10 years of experience with interoperable toll systems, and already provides its customers with comprehensive toll payment solutions for 24 countries and 36 different toll systems.
“Our aim is to shape our customers’ mobility in a way that makes it as efficient as possible,” explained Volker Huber, CEO of UTA. “Our toll solutions represent a key element of this. We will significantly expand our range of services in order to provide every customer with the solution that is most suited to them, from the pan-European toll solution to the toll on German federal roads, which is due to enter force in 2018.
The customers thereby only require one agreement, which is valid for all European toll systems. In the course of the expansion of our European toll services, we are delighted to have found, in Telepass, a professional supplier with whom we can drive forward the project together as part of a premium partnership. This EETS solution thereby represents a systematic expansion of our existing toll services.”
