German tolls: they're ready to try again...
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TOLL COLLECT, the consortium comprising DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom and French tolling operator Cofiroute, is claiming that its on-board units (OBUs) have proved themselves after a two-week trial involving 41 trucks from 25 companies from Germany and the Benelux.
Christoph Bellmer, chairman of the management board, says: "The OBUs have been shown to work well in practice, from installation through to invoicing 99.6% of the 139,000km covered in the trial have been correctly accounted for. We have clearly demonstrated this."
Before the launch of the German truck toll system on 1 January 2005, Toll Collect plans to have installed 500,000 toll accounting units in CVs from Germany and neighbouring countries.
It says it has already received over 170,000 orders. The German government had threatened to cancel its contract following a series of delays to the launch of the OBU system including the recall of 20,000 OBUs because of a software fault (CM 8 January).