Alliance for Toll Interoperability formed in south - video data standard priority

Representatives of nearly twenty toll agencies met in Dallas TX February 7 and decided to form an Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI). Initial focus of the group, mostly southern tollers, will be how to go about establishing license plate read reciprocity. With the strong move towards cashless tolling camera reads of license plates - 'video tolling' - becomes the mode for collecting the tolls of those motorists without a transponder account.

Acting chairman of ATI is JJ Eden, chief operating officer at the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, and a veteran of E-ZPass and Lockheed Martin IMS. He says the idea formed at an IBTTA meeting where he and Evelio Suarez, Florida Turnpike head of toll operations, were talking about how a new NCTA could be interoperable with Florida. Suarez said that operations people from a bunch of adjacent states needed to get together on a more organized basis to discuss interoperability.

People in the industry were informally sharing ideas and research results but they decided they needed to make some practical decisions about cooperation in operations.

NC, SC, GA, TX, LA, CO, OK, KS, TX attendees

Attending the formative Dallas meeting were senior operations people from toll authorities in the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas. 15 to 20 toll operators were informally represented.

Eden says ATI is not in competition with IBTTA, the trade association, which he says is a great disseminator of ideas and information. But he sees ATI as responding to the need for direct cooperation between toll operators to advance interoperability.

"It is open and we hope others who feel they can benefit will join us."

The group is working on a statement of objectives and organization. Before they join anything formal many of the officials concerned will need to get the approval of their agencies. And before they can ask for approval they need to spell out what they're about.

One decision made in Dallas is that ATI membership will be toll operators - public and private. Vendors may be asked to attend to give presentations and be involved in discussions. ATI is to focus on operational cooperation in handling customers from other areas.

Is ATI "E-ZPass South"?

Is this the south's answer to E-ZPass?

No, says JJ Eden, E-ZPass members are welcome to be involved in ATI. There will be a need to work with E-ZPass, though realistically the most urgent problems will be tackled first where there is the greatest need to handle one another's toll transactions. And E-ZPass already has a framework for cooperation.

Video data exchange format priority

The Dallas meeting reached agreement that their most urgent need is a common format for exchange of video toll data. They hope to reach agreement on a common format for exchange of video by the end of the year.

It may be one or two images of specified size in specified format. Or it may be the license plate characters as extracted, or some combination of images and licence plate characters, in different circumstances, Eden indicated. It is all up for discussion.

One group will look at the technical aspects, another the legal issues. State law may restrict or specify how data can be exchanged.

ATI people are also interested in how they can improve the readabillity of license plates. Eden says some of the members have been talking with 3M, the big Minneapolis based company that supplies much of the surfacing film used on license plates.

Meetings

The group decided they'll 'meet' via a scheduled telephone conference call one a month, and travel to meet together physically, as in Dallas, occasionally - as they feel the need and as travel budgets allow.

"We've got some great expertise here, some of the most experienced toll operators in the country. We're all very excited to see the toll industry moving forward to take advantage of this technology. Working together towards solutions for system interoperability is a logical next step," Eden told us.

He says he's "delighted to be the facilitator".

Camera advances are changing the toll business model again

Eden says camera technology has taken an enormous leap in the past year or so: "The prices of the equipment have gone way down, and the quality of the pictures and their potential has gone way up. It's exciting, but it's a challenge. How do we use it best."

RFID implementation with transponders "changed the whole business model of tolling" twenty years ago and now signs are that dramatic technical advances in cameras and license plate recognition are changing the business model again - with the attractiveness of cashless, all electronic tolling.

Is ATI going to set standards and do joint purchasing like E-ZPass?

Eden says no one can answer those kinds of questions. It might, or might not, develop in those directions.

"Cameras are different from RFID. You can use different cameras but put the images in a similar format. We have toll authorities that have cameras in all their toll lanes, some that have them in selected lanes, others that have gates and no cameras. This doesn't have to be all or nothing. It should be a matter of you participate where you need to."

Is ATI going to be a Sticker Tag club? It's being formed in sticker tag land. Although Eden's own NCTA hasn't decided on which RFID to do: IAG Mark IV, TransCore sticker tags, 5.9GHz OmniAir, Title 21.

Eden laughs a little nervously: "The RFID thing is hot. There are great offerings out there. I could make a case for any one of four RFID offerings. Any one of the four would work for us. But each one has advantages and disadvantages which we have to weigh up and evaluate."

ATI will get into issues of RFID data exchange too, he says, but the most urgent and doable is setting a standard for video exchange.

COMMENT: You've got to love this - it is spontaneous practical improvization by the doers, the people who make the business work. No pilot program, no governing board, no study committee, no response to the CEOs, no congressional mandate, no research grant. Just the people who do operations taking the initiative and deciding they need to nut out how they operate together where their operations overlap.

Contact: jj.eden@ncturnpike.org

TOLLROADSnews 2008-02-15