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Home > UNITED KINGDOM > Showroom
TELEPASS: PAYING WITHOUT WASTING TIME
Roma - (Ign) - A small plastic container, just a few centimetres wide, which you almost forget you have, perhaps attached behind the rear view mirror. A small jewel of technology, which allows you to pay motorway tolls without even stopping, can provide access to restricted traffic zone in the city, or can be used to pay for a parking space at the airport, a major railway station or metro interchange. All these functions are provided by Telepass (www.telepass.it), the small revolutionary electronically controlled system invented and patented by the technicians of the company Autostrade per l'Italia, Italy's largest motorway company. Autostrade, in fact, not only manages over 3500 km of motorways, but for many years has also been focusing on new technologies, realising a vast fibre optics communications network, and also designing this small and ingenious device for avoiding queuing in traffic.
The original idea was somewhat limited, although extremely ambitious. It was to design a radio communications system which made it possible to record a vehicle passing a motorway toll station and then debiting the amount due to the customers current-account. The first device was produced in the late 1980s, was extremely bulky and, after its launch on the market in 1990, was reserved for an initially limited number of drivers who used the motorway for reasons of work. But the idea immediately attracted the public: in 1992 the users had become 60,000, in 1996 they numbered over 300, 000. In the same year, the Italian standards body, UNI, established specific technical regulations for this type of apparatus, allowing the Telepass to be used by any type of driver. This led to Telepass Family, which could also be used by those who drive on the motorway for personal reasons. In 1988, the number of Telepass customers reached the one million mark, and in 2005 there were almost 5 million.
In the meantime, the heavy device invented in 1989 had been transformed into a small plastic box, containing constantly developing technology. Today there are various types of apparatus, the most sophisticated of which also includes a display for reading information and a port allowing the use of smartcards or connection to a computer. There is no longer a supply lead connected to the vehicle battery, and the possible functions have been extended enormously. The main use is naturally linked to motorway traffic. Thanks to Telepass it is in fact possible to pass the exit barriers at a moderate speed, without having to queue and without having to stop. This makes it possible to achieve significant savings in time by the motorway user, reduced toll collection costs for the motorway companies, but also lower petrol consumption and, consequently, less pollution. It has been calculated that thanks to Telepass, an average motorway user saves around six hours of his time every year, corresponding to six hours' less wear on the vehicle, 6 hours' less petrol consumption and six hours' less pollution. But another important application of Telepass regards city centre access and parking. The vehicles authorised to access the historic centres of major Italian cities are in fact now fitted with a small Telepass device with a dual function, valid for the motorway, if the customer so desires, and able to record the passage into the city centre by means of a radio controlled system. Similarly, the same system is starting to be applied in large car parks, replacing the traditional collection of the ticket, followed by payment at the cash desk and insertion of the ticket on exit, with a much more practical and simple radio controlled identification and subsequent debit of the cost.
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