Electronic Toll Collection systems are developing in the different countries with multiple different specifications. This situation creates problems not only for the user who, particularly in Europe, travels on different motorways, but also to the motorway operators who are tied to the supplier they choose at the first time, and to the suppliers which have not a sufficient and sufficiently stable market to amortize their developments. Interoperability and compatibility between equipment, systems and procedure will benefit the different concerned parties. In Europe, two complementary initiatives are taken to avoid these problems: (1) standardisation at all levels of the systems and firstly at the transmission level. This is the responsibility of CEN TC278 (Road Transport Telematics); and (2) design, on top of standards, of an interoperability specification (GSS) by a group of 3 main suppliers (SAAB COMBITECH, BOSCH, CEGELEC CGA).
Abstract