The tolling industry has enjoyed growth – steady in some regions and significant in others, and tolling forms an important part of many country’s transportation infrastructure. A more user-pays orientation to road usage, both tomorrow and further into 2030, is going to look four to five times bigger than it is today.
Transportation serves us best when all modes are connected and when thinking about the future of tolling, it is necessary to take a closer look at the trends reshaping the transportation industry today.
I’ve summed it up in just five main trends, although I’d gladly welcome you to comment with any trends I’ve left off.
Make room and share.
The arrival of the sharing economy, and with it, the likes of Uber, Hailo, and Lyft, has marked an important shift in the way travelers think about and consume transportation services. A move towards collaborative consumption, with access rather than ownership playing a key role, means transportation service providers all over the world, including tolling agencies, must make sense of this new reality and adjust to the new breed of multi-modal traveler.
Hello automation.
Alongside this, trends such as urbanization, the shifting models of vehicle ownership and growing customer expectations, together with the arrival of automation, will dramatically change the way tolling is designed and operated in the future. The impending arrival of automation is set to reshape not only toll facilities but also the entire transportation industry. Google and Ford, the two leaders in autonomous vehicles, are designing vehicles that don’t require a driver to be engaged in the driving activity. In fact, it is their belief that a car that requires potential driver action is inherently more dangerous than a completely autonomous vehicle. Despite many legal and technological hurdles to clear, it is not difficult to imagine a world where the vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, or a constant and automated communication of a car’s location, may one day be used for tolling purposes.
More cars, fewer licenses.
Studies have shown that Millennials, Generation Y and Generation Z, are slowly moving away from car ownership. And while the number of cars on the streets continues to grow, in the last ten years the number of people under 35 with a driver’s license has decreased. Young people are more likely to travel by shared means and what follows is a greater prevalence of public transit and cars for rental on our streets and, inevitably, on toll roads.
Promote don’t demote.
As growing urban populations put a strain on existing public transport infrastructure and roadways usage patterns, in urban centers, such as London or Amsterdam, congestion charges and local mobility programs discourage the use of vehicles in the city center. Instead, recognizing the impact that the sharing economy has had on people’s travel preferences, many local authorities promote the use of multi-modal transportation solutions.
Convenience and choice.
Travelers want to be able to order a vehicle on their smartphone; enter their travel coordinates, which may include a toll, in order to get to a train station that has a reserved seat that will get them to the city center. Choice and convenience, as well as cost, are starting to play an increasingly important role when it comes to making travel decisions– a trend that tolling agencies must take into consideration when thinking about the services they offer.
The steady progress of the sharing economy and the need for integration of different transportation modes, driven by consumer demand, means that tolling agencies need to become part of the connected mobility system. With multi-modal transportation at the core of future mobility services, tolling could easily become part of the wider mobility-on-demand trend. It would not only be a great opportunity for tolling agencies to become increasingly relevant to a broader transportation community, but also a chance to appeal to a wider number of commuters, which may not typically consider a toll road as part of their journey. And while integrating tolling into the overall transportation system might seem like a challenging idea, the good news is that it plays to tolling agencies’ strengths.
Integrated travel cannot happen without a reliance on a single-account-based system for all travel needs.
Tolling agencies are already well equipped when it comes to running such a system – they were one of the first agencies to implement a centralized account-based system and turn anonymous drivers into account-holding customers. Such expertise could help them play an important role in reshaping the way mobility services are delivered to travelers in the near future.
Recognizing industry trends and the needs of increasingly multi-modal customers can bring tolling agencies numerous new ways of creating revenue. And while the move towards connected mobility marks a certain departure from the way toll roads were traditionally operated, the opportunities are there to seize and the time to act is now.
Go ahead, get connected.
Matt Cole has held numerous positions in multiple locations for Cubic.
Positions include European head of Finance, CTS vice president of Worldwide Financial Operations, managing director of CTS Asia Pacific, senior vice president, Worldwide Strategy and Business Development and prior to becoming president he was deputy and executive vice president Worldwide Strategy and Business Development.
During this time he has been instrumental in helping the business grow on three continents, as well as entering into adjacent transportation markets. Matt led the launch of the company's NextCity strategy in 2011 and, as president, is overseeing its execution. Prior to joining CTS in 2003, Matt held various financial positions with large public and private companies such as British Airways, Schlumberger, First Choice and Endemol.
As a respected industry thought leader, Matt regularly participates in global events that drive the conversation toward smart cities – the international vision of making the world’s premier cities more livable.
In 2016, he was recognized as a Top 10 Disruptor by the Eno Foundation and was named to Mass Transit magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” list.
Throughout Matt's tenure at Cubic, he has had substantial responsibility for helping customers achieve their objectives and was instrumental in the negotiation of the Future Ticketing Agreement with Transport for London, the award and mobilization of the Opal Card contract in Sydney and the acquisition of ERG's businesses in Sydney and North America.
Matt is a Chartered Certified Accountant and also holds an MBA from Oxford Brookes University.
