ET BURGER: ‘Toll dat Big Mac, Pal’

Sirit is installing a new economy reader called Flex which it developed for non-toll applications such as access control to gated communities and corporate yards, and parking. Says Sirit CEO Michael Briand: “It is about as simple an installation as you can imagine in terms of the vehicle-roadside electronics. Just one lane, a stopped car, in a known position.”

Customers stop the car by the menu board to make their selection. That’s in the read zone of the antenna. If they have an active transponder the tag is read there and the system has access to TCA’s ‘good tag list’ and the server at the window gets a notification. After serving the meal and totaling the bill, the server then asks whether they want to pay cash or charge their toll account.

TCA spokesman Lisa Telles says that the McDonald’s pilot project fits with the agency effort to make life easier for its customers: “The toll roads are managed to use technology to give people a quick hassle-free trip. It fits nicely to be working with drive-through fast food service. Of course we’ll be sure to set fees that at least cover our costs so we see it as a business deal too.”

Signs will say “FasTrak the Big Mac” with a mix of the FasTrak and the McDonald’s logos and colors, which will provide advertising for FasTrak too. McDonald’s stores at Costa Mesa, Laguna Niguel, Mission Veijo, and Rancho Santa Margarita are involved in the trial, places where there is a high concentration of TCA toll accounts.

Briand says he’d love to be able to claim the project is a result of his company’s marketing prowess, but it was sparked by a McDonald’s franchise manager who was watching the drive-through lane and noticed a succession of cars with tags on the windshields and started making calls to the TCA and to McDonald’s Western headquarters which happen to be located in the county.

“It was pure coincidence. We happened to be in the area talking to TCA about our new Flex reader and how we might use it for parking and gated communities when they called up. I am kicking myself I didn’t think of it. We did have in mind that at some point later on we would investigate using the new system for other purposes such as carwashes and fast food.”

The agreement between Sirit, McDonalds and TCA is described as being a “Mobile e-commerce Operational Test” which will last about 3-months. The system is called “SIRIT IDentity Flex AVI” product line, which they say includes a special antenna multiplexing feature in a cost effective platform for stationery or low-speed transactions.

Briand says he cannot discuss what such a complete installation will cost except that costs are being shared between Sirit and McDonald’s and TCA is cooperating fully. He says he can’t say whether there is an exclusive agreement with McDonald’s. A Flex reader system of the kind supplied to McDonald’s is being priced at about $3500 compared to close to $10k for a toll reader.

“One of the keys to this really is designing a reader that is affordable and cost-effective in non-toll operations. A toll reader is technical overkill. It was plain luck that we had the new reader available at the time McDonald’s expressed an interest.”

Antonio Hernandez of McDonald’s USA West says that the company is interested in exploring a variety of technologies to make payment quicker and more convenient for customers. Toll transponders are attractive because there are already 250k TCA tags out there on cars and another 100k+ of 91X tags if they were to join the scheme.

TCA will be paid a per transaction fee, the amount of which remains to be negotiated. TCA is open to arrangements with other fast food companies, parking, car-washes and the like, Telles says.

The average drive-through transaction at a McDonald’s takes 2.5mins. They think a transponder may knock 10 to 15 secs off the time, upping throughput by 6% to 10%. Not a huge increase in productivity but worthwhile?

Sirit is talking with TCA about doing parking and carwashes as well as fast food. The company may have an edge with the cheaper reader in extending the use of tags to smaller busineses. And though the Flex reader will of course read the toll tags, Sirit is now marketing a Flex tag designed specially for low cost stationary vehicle-to-roadside electronic transactions that will sell in the $12 to $16 price range, about half the price of a toll tag.

Amtech has had some success recruiting larger parking garages and parking lots in the Dallas TX area to its non-toll system tradenamed PassKey. The largest is at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport parking lots which are almost a toll road in themelves, but smaller parking operators are notoriously skeptical about new technology, at least until it is very cheap and they are persuaded it is easy to set up and administer. PassKey offered all the backroom operations.

Before Sirit bought out Texas Instruments TIRIS division that first marketed the backscatter tags made to California’s specifications via MFS that company announced a scheme to offer access and parking via FasTrak toll tags. (TRnl#7 Sept 96 p7) The first demonstration was for access control of employees to reserve parking places in the Imperial Bank building at the Offices of South Coast Plaza complex. At the time it also got major publicity for the project involving use of FasTrak tags to charge for parking throughout the plaza.

But like too many ITS applications this turned out to be hype about a possible project. The parking operators couldn’t see benefits commensurate with the costs, so it never happened though the media (including TRnl) was suckered into reporting it as a done deal.

Paul Manuel, marketing head of Mark IV says he thinks ways will eventually be found to use toll tags for other purposes and welcomes the Sirit-TCA-McDonald’s pilot project. He says the most difficult part of such projects is not usually the technology but business issues, such as procedures for handling customer inquiries, establishing rules for handling funds and the like. He says for example that toll agencies may be concerned if toll tags become available for buying food and gasoline, whether this will lead to an upsurge in toll tag theft.

“None of these issues is insuperable but they have to be considered and worked out before viable arrangements can be made. It takes time and a lot of decisions to be made and sometimes there are other priorities. These things are very complicated to put together properly.”

Manuel says the use of passive readers around northern NJ/NYC to measure traffic speeds under a program called Transcom is the major non-toll use of Mark IV equipment. Larger parking operators the best prospects because their costs are more easily covered. It is more dificult for smaller parking operators to justify the expense.

In the New York City area the same organization, the Port Authority of NY & NJ runs the tolled crossings between the two states and also the major airports of LaGuardia, Newark and JFK. There has long been talk of accepting the E-ZPass tags for payment at airport parking but so far nothing has happened.

Media Mania

One spinoff of the McDonalds-TCA-Sirit project is huge publicity. TV, radio and print media piled on this Toll-a-Big-Mac story bigtime, and all before the parties involved were ready to announce it. There’s something about the use a transponder to buy your Big Mac that captures the journalistic imagination! The story was broken by Anne Mulkern of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. She got the important things right, except she described Sirit as “the only Canadian company in the transponder business.” Mark IV happens to be headquartered in New York and more American than Canadian owned, but its IVHS division, the world’s largest transponder supplier, is in Toronto. Now, if Amtech would just move up there, Toronto would become the Detroit of transponders! (Contacts Michael Briand 905 940 4404 mbriand@siritcorp.com, Carol Ann Gordon, Amtech 972 733 6600, Paul Manuel Mark4 905 624 3025, Lis Telles TCA 949 754 341, Antonio Hernandez, McDonalds USA-West 949 399 0492)