Florida adopts eGo+ sticker tags - available from July for free from FTE

It's official, after many premature reports, Florida has adopted sticker tags: they have passed extensive performance testing, inluding dual mode tests at the Transcore test facility in Albuquerque New Mexico and at a FTE test site, and a big contract has been signed. Failing any last problem, the tags should be available and getting stuck onto windshields in the big peninsula state from July onward. Christa Deason, spokesman, says the Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) will be using the brandname "SunPass Mini" to describe their sticker tags. MDX, OOCEA, Lee County and other regional tollers will have their own brandnames.

Florida Turnpike Enterprise CEO Jim Ely has signed a contract with Transcore to supply the sticker tags which the manufacturer calls eGo Plus - proven to accept write-back as well as to read at highway speed. The contract provides for Transcore to supply the tags to all Florida tollers at a new industry low price for a transponder of $8.50 each. Florida Turnpike Enterprise will be pricing them to their customers at $4.95 plus tax, but granting an automatic rebate on establishment of an account, making them in effect free.

Regional tollers will set their own prices, but will obviously be under pressure to match the FTE terms.

All Florida tollers must go sticker or none do

Deason says the decision is by TEAMFL, the association of the Florida regional toll expressway authorities and the statewide Turnpike Enterprise. To make the SunPass system work all toll authorities have to handle new sticker tags while continuing to read the existing hardbodies. Florida is commited to full interoperability within the state.

We don't have details yet of the contract but we're told it is conditional on dual mode operations working satisfactorily on the road in live traffic. It is well proven on the test facility, Deason says, and indeed the tests showed slightly higher read rates with stickers, apparently because they harness the whole windshield as an antenna.

Readers will need to be proven dual mode in real traffic - to read the existing hardbody Title 21 style transponders on cars and trucks alongside or in among vehicles carrying the new sticker tag transponders. There are some 4 million hardbody transponders in use around the state.

Each toller will now independently field test the new transponders alongside the old in live traffic for about two weeks, starting this month.

After the regional agencieshave all satisfied themselves, the contract provides for full installation of dual protocol readers to begin. The whole of Florida - 800 toll lanes (CHECK/MAY REVISE) - will need to have the dual protocol readers working and tested by the summer before any sticker tags can be issued to the public.

Hardbodies will continue to be available

Existing hard case SunPass transponders will continue to be available for customers to choose if they wish - but priced at their approximate cost from the manufactuer of $25 each. Customers who like to get the audible 'toll paid' tone and the light indication, or who want to be able to move a transponder from vehicle to vehicle, will still be able to get that with a hardbody.

The new sticker tag transponders are batteryless. They use the energy of the querying or incoming signal from the reader antenna to power their response signal. This means they don't have the low power problems like the battery-equipped hardbodies. Most hardbodies have a permanently installed battery that lasts after four, 5, 6 or 7 years, but Florida has supplied transponders with a battery door, so users can replace batteries themselves.

One downside of sticker tags - if your windshield is smashed or you sell your car the sticker tag is lost.

The sticker tag has to be stuck on the top mid position behind the rearview mirror on the inside of the windshield. The outside face of the tag is colored a greenish grey color to minimize its exterior prominence.

600k sales in year 1

FTE expects sales of sticker tags to reach 600k in their first year. That should increase electronic tolls as a percentage of total toll transactions to 75% by end-2008, they say. The present ratio is a bit under 70%. (CHECK/MAY REVISE)

Elsewhere

Similar sticker tags are now doing over half the electronic toll transactions of Texas. Houston and Central Texas use them exclusively and Dallas NTTA has a lot of them in use. They are also used in the big Puerto Rico toll system, in Georgia, Washington state and Oregon. They are used for border clearance on the Canadian and Mexican borders of the US and for licensing of vehicles and in Bermuda. Some Chinese cities have them.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-02-15