One of the leading providers of fuel and service cards in Europe, Union Tank Eckstein GmbH & Co KG (UTA), has released the new interoperable UTA One transponder that will allow users to pay for road tolls in all participating EU countries.
The new UTA One transponder has been developed to comply with the European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) system, and the onboard unit (OBU) initially supports the toll systems in Belgium (including the Liefkenshoektunnel), France, Italy, Austria, Poland (A4), Portugal and Spain.
In its next stage of deployment, Germany and other European countries will be added to the UTA One using an ‘over-the-air’ update. The number of countries will continue to rise, because UTA will continuously expand its offerings as additional toll systems are launched within the EETS ecosystem. The new automatic update option, along with the integration of all transfer standards of the European toll environments (GNSS and DSRC), make the new toll transponder unit particularly future-proof.
UTA says the benefits for forwarding agents and transportation companies are that they will soon be able to use a single OBU to travel across Europe with all fees are charged to one invoice. As a full mobility services provider, UTA also handles administration and evaluation, allowing customers to use just one partner for all cross-border transportation issues. Logistics companies will also benefit from a user-friendly ordering and registration process, which allows them to select the toll environments they require.
“In order to be able to offer our customers the best possible solution for interoperable electronic toll services (EETS), we have thoroughly tested the new UTA One prior to its launch,” explained Volker Huber, UTA’s CEO. “Thorough testing on miles of real-life trips to Strasbourg, Calais, Brussels, Aachen, Bolzano, Innsbruck and Salzburg has shown the toll solution to be reliable.”
UTA has also launched a fee processing service for the new Slovenian DarsGo free-flow tolling system that was introduced on April 1 and applies to all vehicles with a permissible total weight of more than 3.5 tons.
The electronic truck tolling system was deployed by Norwegian company Q-Free and its local partner Telekom Slovenije. DarsGo applies on all motorways and expressways across Slovenia, totaling 373 miles (600km) of highway, with toll fees based on vehicle class, EURO emission category, and distance covered.
The new DarsGo OBU enables barrier-free processing and replaces the old payment methods of ABC toll boxes or Dars-Cards. UTA customers use their Full Service Card, which is linked to the DarsGo OBU and automates the invoicing process, providing barrier-free toll processing.
Huber commented, “Slovenia plays an important role for many companies as a transit country to southern Europe. We are therefore delighted to be able to provide our customers with several excellent ways of preparing for the launch of DarsGo.”
