Add-on to TRnl#48 April 2000:Toll roads newsletter

LATE NEWS/BIG NEWS

Mark IV Says Will Develop Multi-Systems Transponder

Mark IV, the leading North American transponder manufacturer is developing a transponder that will operate in all major US toll systems and trucking applications. They call it a Multi-Protocol Transponder (MP-tag). The one tag will work in (1) IAG E-ZPass lanes, the country’s largest system by far (2) the time division multiplexing (TDMA) ASTMv6/sandwich/IEEE-P1455 open road trucking standard that is the product of the FHWA-sponsored standardization effort, and (3) the Title 21 passive backscatter system that is a standard in California.

VP for marketing Paul Manuel tells us his company expects to have prototypes of the MP-tag ready in the spring of 2001 and that extensive testing will be conducted before the end of 2001.

"This goal is to remove the technical barriers to interoperability right across America. This will handle the major active synchronous and the asynchronous backscatter systems. This is what people have been saying they want - a system whereby one tag will be capable of being read anywhere in the US and Canada. At the same time it will work with the existing infrastructure so that the toll agencies won’t have to prematurely write down their investments."

Less than a year ago Mark IV, like other manufacturers, was saying that there was no viable market for a super-tag. They’d said they’d be happy to design such a tag if there were indications of a market. The unwillingness of manufacturers to manufacture to the ASTMv7 or sandwich standard led the FHWA to say it was dropping the five year long standardization project. [Ah well, it is the time of year for Resurrections!]

It is unclear what has caused Mark IV to change its mind. Reminded of Mark IV’s past skepticism about the market, Manual quipped: "Good things take time."

Manuel says the first market for the new multi-protocol transponders will be long-distance trucking companies. He says Mark IV won’t discuss the likely price but says it will be less than the cost of the three separate tags (Mark IV $20, Title 21 $25, Sandwich tag $60?- TRnl). Manuel also says that the MP-tag will be "aggressively priced" in line with the company’s pricing policy for its E-ZPass tags.

Conventional wisdom 3 or 4 years ago was that an active transponder was inherently more expensive than a backscatter tag. Mark IV turned that idea on its head by pricing its tags below backscatter tags.

Our guess is that the MP-tag will start out about $80. At that price it would be very attractive to commercial vehicle operators, and some toll agencies might offer it as an option to all their customers. But the mass of motorists would stick with the single protocol tag. In production, costs and prices would drop and its use might become more widespread. This product could wipe out the desultory Hughes/Raytheon truck tag!

No-one can compete directly with Mark IV in this MP-tag market. It has an exclusive supply contract with the IAG group and retains property rights to the IAG ET system. That initial exclusive contract ran from Aug 1994 through Aug 1999, when it was renewed for another eight years, taking it to Aug 2007 (TRnl#39 May 99 p1).

So Amtech, for example - should we say TransCore-Amtech –cannot respond with its own MP-tag covering E-ZPass, the system which will soon account for two-thirds of US toll transactions.

Amtech systems in Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Kansas and Florida also involve proprietary elements, though only ‘small modifications’ were needed, they said, to make it "Title 21" (CA) compatible. Does that mean that Mark IV’s MP-tag will work in Amtech systems in the south? Mark IV certainly wants it to, Manuel says. And that is a major reason for the breakthrough active/passive and synchronous/asynchronous aspects of the Mark IV product and its incorporation of Title 21 - an open spec.

Mark IV’s initiative is bold. It is developing what everyone said is needed, but just couldn’t be done financially. The next challenge will be new set of business arrangements among operators accepting the MP-tag.

Smart Card Interface

Mark IV also announced it is offering Smart Fusion (registered trademark), which will add a smart card interface (SCI) to the Fusion tag. This will operate as a normal toll tag in E-ZPass lanes and as a Hughes-style ASTMv6 tag on 407-ETR or at truck weigh station bypasses, but also allow the motorist to use a smart card to make payments on the road. It may be attractive to occasional users of toll facilities for whom the cost of monthly accounts is unwarranted. MTA and the Port Authority in New York appear to be early potential customers. They would like to offer it especially to commercial customers and those concerned that a central account detracts from their privacy.

Amtech <$10 sticker-tag

Amtech has announced a sticker type RFID tag and it says they have been tested successfully at speeds of up to 128km/hr (80mph). The speed is impressive for tags that were designed principally for warehouse and retailing use. Price under $10, Amtech says. A vehicle registration sticker-tag could be a huge market, though great political skill would be needed to open that up. Talk about a subject readymade for a biiiiiig ‘Big Brother’ brouhaha!