Ecotaxe Truck Tax in France: VITRONIC to Equip Fixed Enforcement Gantries / Machine vision firm is the only German company with major involvement in the nationwide project
VITRONIC Machine Vision Ltd. Posted 01/13/2012
VITRONIC GmbH from Wiesbaden, Germany, will supply key components for all fixed enforcement gantries for the nationwide truck charging system to be implemented on 15,000 km of French roads. The multi-million euro contract is part of the prestigious Ecotaxe project. VITRONIC was selected by French THALES group which is in charge of the enforcement system. This project marks a major milestone for the German tolling and traffic enforcement expert.The introduction of a distance-based tax for trucks is the most important traffic project implemented in France for decades. From mid-2013 onwards, all vehicles over 3.5 tons in weight will have to pay a tax on national roads. The fee will be collected by means of an onboard GPS satellite system. VITRONIC has been selected to equip more than 170 fixed gantries with an innovative automatic enforcement solution. The latest generation TollCheckerfreeflow systems will monitor about 1,000 road lanes all across France. The VITRONIC system, based on technology proven for the first time in Germany for truck tolling since 2005, provides fully automatic vehicle detection, classification and identification by license plate in free-flowing traffic.
“I am proud that after tolling projects in Germany, Australia and Eastern European countries, we can again contribute to the implementation of a large-scale road user charging project. This proves that we have been on the right track in strengthening the quality, performance and cost efficiency of our technology”, says Dr. Norbert Stein, General Manager of VITRONIC. “The superior technology of the TollChecker systems ensures maximum benefit for customers.” In particular, Dr. Stein mentions the high vehicle identification rates made possible by the use of LIDAR technology, the industry leading license plate reading rates, as well as the implementation of the monitoring with just a single gantry. Developed already since 2001, VITRONIC’s solution is the first single gantry tolling system worldwide.
VITRONIC's direct customer for the “Ecotaxe Project” is THALES COMMUNICATIONS & SECURITY, a company of the French THALES Group that is in charge of the overall enforcement system. THALES COMMUNICATIONS & SECURITY is part of Ecomouv’, the project company controlled by the Italian operator Autostrade per l’Italia, which was awarded the contract for the overall project by the French government. VITRONIC and THALES have been partners for many years in a large variety of projects. “VITRONIC is an important partner for us, and we highly appreciate their reliability and excellence in innovation”, says Patrick Bauchart, Head of the Revenue Collection Systems Domain at THALES.
