Georgia Toll gets five bids for new toll technology - product ID invasion

Georgia state tollers have got an impressive five bids to supply new toll technology, initially to be deployed in toll/HOT lanes being built in I-85 northeast of Atlanta. I-85 with all respect to Georgia is a fiddly little toll project of small inherent importance to the industry. But the bidders clearly see it as a foot-in-the-door project that could open the way to serious toll system sales elsewhere.

Notably the list of bidders looks like the first serious invasion of electronic tolling by product RFID often called EPC (electronic product code).

Bids for I-85 tolling were received by Georgia State Road and Toll Authority (Georgia Toll) this week from:

- International Road Dynamics
- Sirit
- Kapsch TrafficCom
- Neology
- TransCore

Three of the five are established toll system suppliers. Kapsch is the world's major toll systems supplier outside of North America, TransCore is the largest in North America, and Sirit dominate in California electronic tolling and have been successful recently in South America selling their ISO 18000C open standard sticker tags for tolling.

The Georgia I-85 procurement generated a lot of interest because it requires an open standard system. That appears to rule out TransCore's eGo series sticker tags for which patents are claimed.

This generated industry buzz because GSRTA's only tollroad, the Georgia 400 tollroad uses TransCore "CruiseCards" based on the patented eGo tags.

Either TransCore has to bid their eGo tags as just ISO 18000 6B (also known as EPC Gen 1) abandoning their patent claim, or they have to make a separate bid, logically with ISO 18000 6C (EPC Gen 2).  

EPC is "electronic product code" and refers to wireless product identification or product RFID as used in warehouses and retail stores.

ISO 18000 6C (EPC Gen 2) is precisely the standard to which Sirit sticker tags are built, and their bid of that is easily predicted.

TransCore hasn't announced any reader that can read ISO 18000 6C (EPC Gen 2) though talk is that precisely such a reader may be announced within days at IBTTA's meeting in Chicago.

TransCore would announce a capability to read eGo series and also 6C (Gen 2) tags, probably with an add-on module to their widely deployed and well regarded Encompass 6 reader.

According to one source TransCore may be teaming with an established EPC leader such as ThingMagic, of Cambridge MA that has a neat line of compact readers for 6C tags.

If TransCore strategists see a shift away from patented products like eGo then a dual mode reader that reads existing eGo series tags and 6C tags could be attractive in handling the transition in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Washington states where a few million car windshields have eGos attached to them for toll collection.

Kapsch have championed 5.9GHz systems for North America and we haven't heard anything about their proposal. Cost is the big handicap for 5.9GHz - $40 or so per transponder v $5 to $10 for sticker tags. Kapsch may be offering some low end/high end combination of ISO 18000 6C and 5.9GHz if they are serious.

International Road Dynamics based in western Canada have been active in many technologies associated with tolling including vehicle detection and classification. They are leaders in weigh in motion.

In May this year IRD announced an agreement with IPICO a major supplier of ISO 18000 standard RFID in which IRD has exclusive rights to market IPICO electronic vehicle identification tags and readers.

IPICO claim their tag-reader system operates at up to 260km/hr (160mph) and at greater distance than competitors.  Headquartered in Burlington Ontario, Ipico has a branch in Atlanta GA. (ADDITION 2009-09-12 2200)

Neology has to our knowledge never bid before on an electronic toll system, but like ThingMagic they are established in product ID. Headquartered in San Diego they have large manufacturing plants in Mexico. They have to be bidding 6C.

Georgia Toll say they will announce details of the bids Wednesday Sept 16.

There is some chatter that TransCore is the low bidder, but we haven't been able to confirm that.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-09-11 ADDITION 2009-09-12 2200