When successfully implemented, road-user charging can encourage travelers to shift to alternative modes of transport and thus cut environmental pollution, improve traffic flow and management, and raise funds for investment in better transport infrastructures. Its long-term potential is even greater. Not only can transport authorities use the granular customer information generated by road-user charging to continually improve services—they can actually turn the system into a platform for other forms of customer-driven charging, from electronic ticketing on mass transit to parking and even retail payments.
In most geographies there are, of course, significant public concerns about privacy and civil liberties to overcome before road-user charging can be implemented. The technologies at work are by definition intrusive—but they don't have to be unacceptably so. What's more, a road-user charging system that does manage to gain public trust can leverage drivers' self-interest to achieve much broader economic and environmental goals.
Accenture has been involved in several major public transport improvement initiatives that employ aspects of successful road-user charging—the Netherlands' groundbreaking system of electronic fare collection and the transformation of customer relationship management at a national toll road operator among them.
User acceptance has been central to success in all these initiatives and two capabilities in particular have been key to winning public trust:
- A clear understanding of the individual customer experience—to deliver a system that is simple, swift, secure and beneficial for all users.
- The right balance of technologies—integrated and architected on an open platform that can respond to constantly evolving customer needs.
London and other big cities have recognized the potential of road-user charging, and more and more transport authorities worldwide are poised to follow their example. All seek essentially the same goal—reduced traffic congestion. All, moreover, must find a combination of enabling technologies that not only work, but that can also overcome public suspicions about privacy, convince users that road-user charging is not just another tax and reassure local businesses in the areas affected that it won't hurt them. Yet all also have subtly different individual requirements—differences that necessitate a precise, focused approach.