Taiwan ETC wins ITS World Congress award

2015/10/13

Taiwan’s homegrown electronic toll collection system was honored with an industry award at Intelligent Transport System World Congress Oct. 7 in France, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Boasting 99.97 percent tolling accuracy and 94 percent usage rates, the multilane free-flow system processes a daily average of 14 million transactions. The recognition is the latest in a series of global acknowledgements for ETC, following the U.S. R&D 100 Award nomination in July and excellence award by International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association in August.

Douglas Hsu, chairman of ETC operator Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co., said the French honor is testament to the large-scale efforts involved in constructing, implementing and operating the system, as well as the ROC government’s intelligent transportation vision.

“ETC is a landmark achievement in Taiwan’s public-private partnership development,” Hsu said. “System switchover took just 10 months after the radio frequency identification technology was adopted in 2012. As of today, the country’s entire freeway network is under the ETC umbrella, with 6.3 million vehicles utilizing the service.”

The advanced tolling system was recently included in the MOEA’s promotional portfolio for integrated system exports, and forms a key plank in the government’s goal of tapping business opportunities topping US$300 billion worldwide.

According to Hsu, several prospective buyers have shown keen interest in the project. “Various [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] members, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines, have made enquiries about purchasing the system,” he said, adding that a project is already underway to install ETC on National Route 1A in Vietnam.

“Other countries like Australia, Canada, India and Italy are also interested in collaborating on RFID and electronic tolling technologies.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=237610&ctNode=2194&mp=9)