Who shall support the drivers to avoid being fined?

2017 January 23.

Even if the awareness of the toll payer is increasing, there are many drivers who- due to their carelessness or neglecting the existing alarm functions- have to pay toll fines that could have been avoided. Through elimination of the most common mistakes and sources of negligence considerable sums could be saved which, in the light of the level of fines imposed by the authorities (from 140.000 up to 165.000 HUF), could guarantee the survival of smaller companies. In this respect, the toll declaration operators have a big responsibility in this area, their role in providing information and support may also be relevant for their market position. 

„The Toll Declaration Operator is a service provider who forwards the data received both from the GPS tracking device of the vehicle and from the onboard unit in direction of State Motorway Management Company.” – this is the simplified determination. The role and the responsibility of the Toll Declaration Operators has changed in recent years since the introduction of the electronic toll payment system: The operators have to provide complex solutions, both in the area of services and product development, in order to be able to give as much support and protection as possible.

The Hungarian-owned company, i-Cell Kft.,  has been acting as Audited Toll Declaration Operator since the introduction of the system on 1 July 2013. The company provides route ticket services actually running into hundred of millions of forints and operates more than 35000 OBU devices that are suitable for toll payment.

„Since the introduction of the e- toll payment system we have been following closely the problems of our partners. Our supporting systems are being continuously developed  around 3 main pillars based on our several yeras of experience  (information, service- and product development), in accordance with the changing customer needs. We have created customer-specified  training materials for drivers, fleet managers,owners, and since last year we offer our partners local trainings, both for teams and individuals. In addition, we have created training videos about the appropriate use of OBU S550 that had more than 30.000 visits till now. This shows that there is a strong demand for support and information, specially focusing on the drivers, that is, on the end user” – Károly Farkas, head of administration of i-Cell Kft., emphasized.

The OBU S550 device suitable for toll payment has been developed further by the company in recent years in order to inform the driver about the possible operational errors not only with light, but also with acoustic signals, no matter if the errors are caused by technical problems or by  insufficient credit balance. Thanks to the system update , there is no more need to switch off and on the device while crossing the border, the number of axles can also be set online,moreover, the users can check the voltage of the internal battery of vehicle and the onboard unit.  In addition to these services, our users can fully check the operation of the OBU device, no matter whether they have an old or a new device.

As the world of logistics is always changing and the consignments are on the road around the clock, service providers have to support – together with the further training, training courses and the development of the OBU S550 devices– the company leaders, the fleet managers as well as the drivers on site with a servicing ecosystem that is available around the clock.

„Our callcenter and online Helpdesk respond to requests around the clock  and with the  www.obu.ifleet.hu portal we have created a self-developed webbased user interface. On this platform every function of the OBU devices can be continuously checked via a PC or through a mobile application, in 9 languages in total, so that the drivers easily get the required information also on the road, thus helping them to pay as few fines as possible, that could have been easily avoided.- Károly Farkas added.

 On this website the user can track, for instance, the time of the last purchased route ticket, the route tickets of the  vehicle, the validity of the SIM card as well as the position of the vehicle in a map view. Through the web interface the user are able to check more devices at the same time, so that additional information and further details to the devices are available for the whole vehicle fleet.