ACS

A toll collector at the Ohio Turnpike told us a couple of weeks back that the fancy new Automatic Toll Payment Machines (ATPMs) they've been introducing are "buggy," that motorists have trouble understanding them, that they've shorted out in rainstorms and their money bins have filled with rainwater. He said he personally had been required to "babysit" the machines.

A Xerox ACS official tells us veteran toller Alan Allegretto is joining them to be a Leader Toll Collection Operations working directly to Ken Philmus. His formal title will be Vice President Transportation Solutions

Senior ACS officials tell us that the ACS brand could be phased out quite quickly in favor of Xerox, their new parent company. For now it is "ACS, a Xerox company" (see new logo below) but soon all ACS products and services will be sold under the Xerox brand.

Shareholders of Xerox and ACS both gave their approval today to the copier company's buy of ACS, the leading customer service provider  for electronic tolling in the US. The vote was 96% in favor among Xerox stockholders and 86% among the owners of ACS.

Sept 28 Xerox announced it had reached an agreement to buy ACS for $6b of stock and cash. Then for almost three months nothing more was heard, fanning speculation recently that the deal was in trouble. Not so they say.

Yah gotta love the nonsense that gets thrown around in discussion of toll technology over the Xerox buy-up of ACS.
 
John Fortt billed as a senior writer for Fortune and a specialist in technology and innovation says of the deal in a report in Fortune Brainstorm we picked up on CNN/Money:

Xerox is buying ACS, the companies announced this morning. Both companies are listed public companies, and the buy is for $6.4b in stock and cash. ACS is involved in tolling through purchase of a business unit that came from Lockheed Martin in the 1990s.

ACS State & Local have won two of the three major toll systems contracts just announced for the Triangle Expressway in North Carolina - Roadside Toll Collection and Back Office Systems. Washington Division of URS won Operations Services.

Charlie Mitchell former general manager at TRMI started work today as VP Sales at ACS Transportation Solutions (ACS-TS). Mitchell, who is in his early 50s, had been at the smaller, well-regarded Hudson Valley NY company for about 15 years.

At ACS-TS he'll focus on the northeast. ACS Transportation is based in Germantown MD.

Their biggest contracts are back office operations for E-ZPass in New York, New Jersey and several other states.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-08-31

North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) signed a project development agreement today with an ACS-led group that gives them a right of first refusal on building the Outer Banks' Mid-Currituck bridge as a longterm toll concession. Environmental permitting is under way. The development group will bear the bulk of the costs of remaining project development including:

Michael Huerta group president of transportation at ACS (Affiliated Computer Systems) is being replaced by Dave Amoriell, from IBM and Lockheed. Lynn Blodgett, ACS president and chief executive officer is quoted: "We are getting an exceptional and distinguished leader in Dave. His considerable experience and vision will allow him and our Transportation Solutions Group to address the complex transportation challenges facing governments around the world.

A group led by ACS Infrastructure has been scored highest by staff of North Carolina Turnpike Authority in an assessment of private sector proposals for a possible concession to develop the Mid-Currituck toll bridge in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Ken Philmus is the new managing director of transportation systems and services at ACS. Appointed a senior vice-president he'll be responsible for managing the company's huge E-ZPass customer service centers, among other things.

Joseph P Doherty is new group president of all the government business units of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), the largest customer service provider for the E-ZPass electronic toll system. Doherty is a 20 year veteran of the US Navy, but more recently spend ten years at Computer Sciences Corp where he rose to preisdent of the Americas Division.  

The government business group of ACS where toll systems support is located has its major offices in Washington DC and the Maryland suburbs.

Michael Huerta still rules tolls

ACS, the Dallas based government services group with a strong toll division in Washington DC is buying big in satellite/wireless based location finding. The company has completed the purchase of Transportation Management Systems (TMS) a business unit of orbital Sciences Corp, they announced today.

TMS is a leading supplied of GPS (satellite) based fleet management systems.

ACS of Dallas TX, the company that does E-ZPass in New York, New Jersey, and several other states has announced its Appomattox Courthouse meeting. All the directors opposing chairman and major shareholder Darwin Deason have hauled up the white flag. The bloody ACS civil war is at an end.

There's a splendid stoush at the top of ACS. Darwin Deason, board chairman and a major shareholder has formally called on all his fellow directors to resign, saying they have lost shareholder (read: Deason) support. Deason will present a slate of his own directors at the next annual general meeting in May, he says.