| Technology Profile
Accurate vehicle
classification
is key to tolling
infallibility
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inquiry service
073
Bringing tolling enforcement
into the 21st century
The key to public acceptance
of technology that has some
form of financial
implication is accuracy.
Electronic payment systems
play an ever-increasing role in
our lives, whether they are used
for online purchases or cashless
transactions on the move. In the
ITS sector, examples of
applications include paying for
infringements detected by
automated enforcement systems
or for the use of toll facilities.
Both applications have
beneficial outcomes. Automated
enforcement is intended to
improve road safety, while
tolling and road pricing schemes
provide funding streams for
infrastructure upkeep or help to
manage congestion and
pollution. However, they are
often regarded by customers –
road users – as distress
purchases and when a fine or
the applied charge is incorrect, a
service or facility operator is
seen to be compounding the
transaction’s tedious
inevitability or ‘unfairness’.
Knock-on effects
If a customer cannot then easily
gain remediation, his or her
perceptions of the justness of
the charge, the scheme to which
it pertains or anything similar is
adversely affected. This has
serious implications for the
political acceptability of
future deployments. The
opportunities to improve road
safety or provide sustainable
infrastructure funding can be
severely curtailed.
In tolling applications,
incorrect charges are typically
the result of misclassification of
vehicles by type. The conventional
wisdom is to suggest the
setting-up of large customer
service centers. Effectively,
this conveys an admission of
fallibility as standard which
| Need to know
Why Imperial’s vehicle
classification systems
will help toll enforcement
> PCI and PDS2-compliant
> Front-end compatibility
with all ALPR cameras
> Back-end compatibility 33
different payment engines
> 100 million transactions
processed annually
> Highly adaptable software
to enable new regimes, eg
emissions-based charges
> Comprehensive managed
services including
automated offense notices
hardly puts the operator in a
positive light. It is also very
labor-intensive and expensive.
Complexity made simple
The tolling sector needs to look
beyond its traditional group of
suppliers and consider
successful solutions from
elsewhere. Rather than accept
fallibility as inevitable, it should
each year process upwards of
100 million transactions worth
over £20 million (US$24.2
million). At the front end,
Imperial can interface with all of
the major automatic license plate
recognition (ALPR) camera
suppliers. At the back end, it
currently interfaces with 33
different payment engines,
including Mastercard and
Worldpay as well as more
specific national-level partners.
Individual needs are
addressed with a standard,
highly configurable software
product. This is a result of the
complexity of the environment
in which Imperial already
operates but means, for example,
that should a customer such as a
local authority need to introduce
emissions-based charging, an
effective solution can be
delivered in a matter of days.
This speed of response and
the accuracy and dependability
of Imperial’s software’s
classification performance have
been demonstrated repeatedly
in numerous real-world
applications. The cost efficiencies
which can be realized through
more accurate classification
are further supported by a
comprehensive range of managed
services. These include automated
generation and mailing of offense
notices and other correspondence,
as well as – where necessary
– call center facilities for
resolution-handling.
look to put in place more robust
solutions that give operators and
customers greater confidence.
A first step is to address
misplaced notions of complexity.
While vehicle classification is
regarded by many traditional
tolling systems suppliers as
difficult and is presented as
such to scheme operators, it is in
fact anything but. It involves,
typically, dividing vehicles into
perhaps half a dozen different
categories. Contrast that with
the task faced by a national-level
service provider in the parking
enforcement sector, whose
classification solutions may
have to deal with 70-80 different
contravention codes.
Global reach
Imperial is a major presence in
the UK parking enforcement
market but its electronic back
office solutions have direct
application in the tolling sector
worldwide. This includes both
free-flow tolling and cordonbased
schemes such as for
congestion charging, or clean air
and low-emission zones.
The company’s solutions are
PCI and PDS2-compliant, and
Imperial Civil Enforcement
To learn more about this advertiser, please
visit: www.magupdate.co.uk/ptti
ILLUSTRATION: METAMORWORKS/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
September/October 2019 Traffic Technology International
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
/ptti
/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
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