E-ZPass

CBS' talk show people built the best part of two shows this week out of banter around a supposed toll violation by David Letterman, the late night gabber.

Earlier this month Fortune staff presented their list of the hundred "greatest things about America."

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America: "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."

Kapsch TrafficCom IVHS Inc (Kapsch) has been chosen over TransCore to supply the next generation tag-reader system to the E-ZPass group of 24 toll agencies of the E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG). In a one page announcement just released the IAG says: "Kapsch TrafficCom IVHS, Inc.

The E-ZPass Inter Agency Group (IAG) is close to a final decision on a new tag-reader system to replace the 1990s technology of the present battery powered transponders. The procurement process for a new system started in 2005 making it one of the most protracted or exhaustive equipment selections in the history of US tolling.

One official apparently in the know told us the decision is "imminent."

E-ZPass and Florida's SunPass have established a working group on interoperability and the executive director of the E-ZPass Group PJ Wilkins has said it should be possible to have this working by the end of this year.

MTA Bridges and Tunnels in New York City is beginning a swap-out of 1.2 million E-ZPass transponders. They're sending out new transponders (also known as tags) and a postage-paid envelop for customers to return their old transponders that are judged to be nearing end of battery life. The 1.2m being taken out of service represent 35% of the 3.4m transponders MTAB&T had on issue at the end of January - attached to 2.1m accounts.

Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) will drop the transponder tolling brand FAST LANE and adjacent Citizens Bank signs around October 1st next year when its sponsorship contract with the bank expires. The state is going mainstream and adopting the E-ZPass brand-name.

Kapsch the big European-based toll systems company is buying Mark IV IVHS, sole supplier of transponders and readers to the huge E-ZPass group of tollers in America.

Retired Mark IV tolls chief exec Martin Capper may have left behind the world of E-ZPass but he has found it impossible to let go of his favorite brand's purple color.

Jim Crawford, the blunt spoken executive-director of the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group (IAG) will step down from his position at the country's leading electronic toll collection cooperative when his employment contract expires in late May 2010. The search has begun for his successor.