Swiss Customs with FELA being the main contractor, introduced 2001 the distance-related Heavy Vehicle Fee in Switzerland. Introduction was trouble free and properly working from day one. The fee applies to all vehicles for freight transport with a total weight above 3.5 tonnes. The total fee is calculated according to:

• total distance travelled on all Swiss roads
• the maximum authorised total weight of a vehicle/trailer
• and the tariff depending on the vehicles emission class

For domestic vehicles, installation of the TRIPON-CH OBU is mandatory. Foreign vehicles can apply for an OBU at any time. Without installed OBU, drivers have to use the manual booking system installed at all border entry and exit points.

TRIPON-CH OBU

The OBU records the total travelled distance with input data from the vehicles tachograph. Entry to and exit from Switzerland is detected by a DSRC transaction. GPS records the travelled distance and entry and exit events in parallel for fraud detection. A low power sensor system records movement data even if the OBU is completely cut of the vehicles connections. Trailer attachment is monitored by the OBU and must be self declared to get the correct total weight for the fee calculation.

Trough registration of the TRIPON-CH OBU for the Austrian motorway tolling system operated by ASFINAG, the same OBU can be used in Austria as well.

Domestic Vehicles

Domestic vehicle owners transfer the collected data, called the logfile, once per month by using a smart card to read out collected data from OBU. The haulier forwards the data to the operator as a formal declaration of the road usage, either using the chip card itself (by mail) or electronically (by Internet). In the back end system, data is validated and if necessary corrected and then used for calculating the monthly fee.

Foreign Vehicles

If a foreign vehicle is equipped with an OBU, then data will be collected exactly the same as for domestic vehicles. Unlike domestic vehicles is the collected log file transferred automatically at every exit from Switzerland by using DSRC as a data transfer channel. The respective fee is charged directly to the hauliers HVF account.

Vehicles without an OBU have to use the manual booking system. This process is made rather easy with the provision of a registered identification card (ID card). The fee must be paid at the latest on leaving Switzerland, either cash or by providing a fuel or credit card.

Enforcement

The Swiss solution implemented by FELA relied on extensive fraud detection mechanisms built into the OBU. The OBU status display visible from outside is still a unique yet extremely efficient method for checking the proper use of OBUs. Later in the implementation fix installed automatic enforcement as well as portable enforcement was added.