interoperability

Within a few weeks Florida Turnpike Enterprise will begin procurement of 3- or 4-mode readers to allow them to read E-ZPass transponders.

Federal Signal, Kapsch and TransCore, the three big suppliers of toll equipment in north America are all expected to announce three-way readers later this year. East coast tollers say three-mode readers would be a huge advance toward regional interoperability arrangements, and that the big three have each said they have such a product in development and are close to releasing the news.

IBTTA, the toll industry association says in a letter to the US House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (transport committee) that the US government needs to remove the barriers to tolling interstates and desist from placing legislative obstacles in the way of movement toward national electronic toll interoperability (known as IOP.)

Three toll industry heavyweights the E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG), the Alliance for Toll Interoperability and IBTTA have come together formally pledging to work together toward the goal of national toll interoperability. Senior officers of the three organizations are signing a two page Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation (MoUaC) in which they say each of the three want to:

- identify and establish processors, systems and standards to advance interoperability and all-electronic tolling

The OmniAir Consortium is announcing completion of development and testing of an Electronic Payment Services National Interoperability Specification (EPSNIS) which pronounces easily as 'Epsniss'.

The pilot operations of four license plate interoperability hubs are set to begin October 24 and run through January 20th. Six tollers  - E470 in Colorado, Florida Turnpike Enterprise, Maryland, North Texas Tollway Authority, Oklahoma Turnpike, Washington State DOT - will supply all the hubs license plate data on a daily basis and expect a response with matches of account information before the next daily cycle.

Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire have agreed to treat one another's toll violators according to local toll enforcement rules. The agreement provides for end-of-the-line sanctions when motorists who have used tollroads fail to pay tolls, ignore late notices and violation fees.

The board of the Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI) this week unanimously agreed to their selection committee's recommendation that the three month pilot program go ahead with all four companies that qualified earlier. The four to operate the pilot hubs are ACS, Cofiroute, FSTech and Secure Interagency Flow (Egis and CS, CS America previously InTrans).

Four companies have been shortlisted in the procurement of toll interoperability hubs by the Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI): ACS, Cofiroute, Federal Signal and an Egis/CS-Intrans joint venture named Secure Interagency Flow. Eleven groups had proposed so this means seven were dropped.

Ed Regan, Wilbur Smith Associates' Chief Wonk and Futurist gained major attention at the recent IBTTA conference on interoperability in Dallas TX presenting a bold scenario to 2025.