Picture this: has ORT's time come?

Technology companies and systems integrators have invested heavily in open road tolling (ORT) systems. The traditional ORT business model assumes that customers have pre-paid accounts and that all the vehicles will be equipped with RFID tags transmitting unique account numbers as they pass through the toll collection read zone. Exceptions include enrolled electronic toll collection (ETC) customers who pass through toll collection points with a positive tag read and true violators. Exceptions are detected and managed using a combination of automated vehicle identification technology, image capture systems and back-office enforcement management processes. The ORT model includes a movement towards real-time toll collection using advanced chipsets, faster telecommunications and web services. Distributed vTolling enables distributed exception handling. Camera-based image processing and license plate recognition enables the ability to locate the most frequent violators. Rental vehicle toll collection is a problem area with many violators. American Traffic Solutions has developed a new product called PlatePass that acts as a clearinghouse for toll road operators and rental vehicle owners. PlatePass is the first image based tolling offered that enables license plate-based payment based on enrolment.