Cross-boarder lorry traffic is faced with the decision to either install multiple OBUs into the vehicle or to use the often very time consuming manual systems. In closed, barrier systems like in Italy or France, this means waiting in possibly long queues at the toll plaza, loosing valuable journey time.

Also, the European Commission has expressed very early, that a situation in which intra European traffic requires multiple OBU's is not tolerable. This position has been stated very clearly in Directive 2004/52/EC. Furthermore, this Directive obligates all member states to use only DSRC (5.8GHz), GNSS and CN Technologies in the establishment of new ETC systems. They must also be designed so that interoperability with existing systems is ensured. It is expected that this Directive will be up-dated soon.

The development of interoperable tolling systems in Europe is an evolutionary process, in which major EC sponsored projects like CESARE and RCI have already supplied valuable input to future interoperability concepts.  We are very well positioned  at present as well as the future situation. Our interoperable OBU's, like the TRIPON-EU, support two contractual concepts for the administrative handling of cross-boarder traffic: the multiple contract concept and single contract concept.