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Road Tech's way to `foil' the German toll
Page 13
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• International operators keen to avoid paying the planned German motorway tolls should invest in a driver's lunch, according to a leading transport software and telematics expert.
The tolls, due to be levied in November, use a predominantly telematics-based charging system, but it can be beaten by a simple cheese sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil, according to Derek RIMIV01; boss of Road Tech Computer Systems. And he has challenged the system's operators to prove him wrong.
Beaver is fiercely critical of the German system's over-reliance on onboard telematics units in order to calculate tall fees. He insists that simply placing a foil-wrapped sandwich over the dashboard-mounted CPS antenna of a truck's on-board monitoring unit (OBU) will render it "invisible" to the network of GPS satellites used to determine its position on the motorway, and distance travelled, upon which an operator is ultimately charged a toll.
Furthermore, despite being effectively undetectable, Beevor claims the OBU's transponder would still be able to emit a short-range signal that could be picked up by the enforcement agencies scanning the motorway for 110Vs running without an OBU fitted—so it would not be pulled over in a spot check. "You can even eat the cheese sandwich," he says, "and it still works!"
Beevor has now challenged the German system operators to prove him wrong. "If they deny that my cheese sandwich method of avoiding toll pay
ments will work because they have other methods of detecting vehicles, then they are also admitting that the on-board computers were unnecessary and will have to explain why they developed a toll system that forced the transport Industry to install unnecessary and proprietary telematics equipment!"
The proposed German toll collection system—due to go live on 2 November—is overreliant on complicated and expensive telematics, maintains Beaver, who believes that cheaper alternatives will work just as well. And he asserts that the alternative to fitting a truck with an OBU—pre-booking at dedicated terminals at motorway
junctions—is both cumbersome and likely to cause frustration and delays. He predicts: "From 2 November, half the trucks in Germany won't go anywhere near the motorway because they can't work it out and the other half will Just ignore it altogether, "it's a daft, silly idea. They've got plenty of technology brit that doesn't mean they need it."