The ETC system for HGV on motorways in Germany: first lessons after system opening

The Federal Republic of Germany has decided on the introduction of a new road charging system for the use of its 12.000 km of motorways by heavy goods vehicles over 12 tons. The current system (the Eurovignette) will be replaced in August 2003 by an automatic system, which will take into account the number of km travelled and the class of the vehicle. After an international call for tender, the Ministry of Transport has awarded the contract for the design, development and operation over 12 years to the TOLL COLLECT consortium which is made of DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom and COFIROUTE. The contract entered officially in force on the 20th September 2002. Users who want to use the automatic system will have to install in their vehicles an on board unit (OBU). Other users (non frequent users) will be required to make a 'reservation' before entering on the toll motorway. To avoid fraud, 4 types of enforcement methods will be introduced. The 'Toll Collect' system shall be in operation by the end of August 2003. According to the German ministry requirements and to the future European guideline, the German ETC system will be interoperable with the CEN compliant DSRC based ETC systems which have been or will be implemented on European motorways; this is made possible through the DSRC interface of the OBU and the CESARE 2 / CARD-ME 4 data transaction protocols. This paper presents the motivations for the road infrastructure financing through users charging, the description of the main features of the project after its completion; in addition it will provide the first experience gained a few weeks after opening and the perspectives for implementation in other European countries. For the covering abstract see ITRD E126595.