Toll service provider Axxès and technology company Continental announced that they will cooperate regarding tolling services for commercial vehicle fleets by using data that is available in the next Continental version of the smart tachograph, the VDO DTCO 4.1. Axxès will use the opportunity of plug and play connectivity to also offer value-added services (VAS) for compliance and operations. Both companies emphasize that these technological innovation makes on-board units (OBU) for toll collection superfluous by using tachograph data and the new plug and play device VDO Link.
To make this happen the data are transferred form the smart tachograph to the Axxès cloud via the Continental Road Usage Service (CRUS) platform by using Continental’s VDO Link, a smart connectivity device that is plugged in the tachograph front interface. Axxès, based in Lyon, France, states that the connectivity through the VDO Link and the multitude of driver and vehicle data available in a tachograph open up a whole new field of value-added services that Axxès says it will explore for its customers. Frédéric Lepeintre, CEO of Axxès: “This new solution is very easily accessible, and at the same time it is a lot more accurate, unambiguous and secure. It also opens new business fields for our customers and partners, because the tachograph toll is natively connected through our existing APIs to our new customer portal,
which provides the full range of fleet management services.” Tachograph toll is just in time for retrofitting to second-version smart tachographs. The European Commission’s Mobility Package makes it necessary to retrofit heavy vehicles with new second-version smart tachographs. The deadline for this is the year 2025. By adding the tachograph toll to the picture, Axxès believes the “investment in
retrofitting may open additional benefits for commercial vehicle fleet operators”. Ismail Dagli, head of the business area Smart Mobility at Continental, emphasizes the great plans the technology company has for supporting toll service providers: “For Continental, the tachograph toll is not the finish line but rather a first step in the transition from OBU to OBE.”