One of the leading providers of fuel and service cards in Europe, Union Tank Eckstein GmbH & Co KG (UTA), has been granted approval for its interoperable UTA One transponder to be used on the German road tolling network.
The Federal Office for Goods Transport (BAG) has now granted the UTA One toll transponder ‘Suitability for Use’ type approval for Germany. This has enabled UTA to connect to the German road toll system, allowing the UTA One onboard unit (OBU) to process transactions via a mobile data network. The UTA One was specially developed for the European Electronic Toll Service (EETS), and is now accepted on nine tolling systems in eight European countries. The interoperable OBU also supports the toll systems in Belgium (including the Liefkenshoektunnel), France, Italy, Austria, Poland (A4), Portugal and Spain.
The UTA One’s European toll service is to be successively extended to include the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Poland, as well as the central routes, bridges and ferry connections in Scandinavia. These countries will be integrated as soon as the EETS system is available there. As countries are added to the trans-European EETS ecosystem, they will be added to the UTA One’s internal software using an ‘over the air’ update. The automatic update option, along with the integration of all transfer standards of the European toll environments (GNSS and DSRC), makes the toll transponder unit future-proof.
UTA says the benefits for forwarding agents and transportation companies are that they will soon be able to use a single OBU to travel across Europe, with all fees are charged to one invoice. As a full mobility services provider, UTA also handles administration and evaluation, allowing customers to use just one partner for all cross-border transportation issues. Logistics companies will also benefit from a user-friendly ordering and registration process, which allows them to select the toll environments they require.
“We are pleased that our OBU has finally been approved for the German toll system. Our OBU now covers nine toll contexts in eight European countries”, said Volker Huber, UTA’s CEO. “This brings us another important step closer to our declared goal of offering one single toll solution for the whole of Europe. With UTA One, we offer our customers limitless mobility in Europe in as simple and efficient way as possible. Not only does our system allow forwarding and transport companies to pay their toll fees with one single invoice; we are also the first EETS provider to offer precise single trip reporting from one source that includes a detailed analysis of the covered toll routes of each individual HGV and serves as a basis for billing for the customers.”
