This snapshot, taken on 09/08/2007, shows web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search boxes may not work in archived websites.

Annex B: Issues for Consideration

Print

The Department would welcome responses that include comments and analysis that address key challenges for TDP charging. These challenges include:

Confidence

  1. How to ensure government confidence in the systems, services and revenues collection processes (e.g. accuracy, resilience, reliability and availability)
  2. How to ensure users' confidence in the system and its charges, including its reliability, accuracy and fairness
  3. How to protect users' privacy

Compliance and Enforcement

  1. How to undertake compliance / enforcement on a national scale
  2. How to detect, enforce and recover from non-compliant use and fraud
  3. Options for handling occurrences of device failure in relation to compliance and enforcement

Communicating with Users

  1. How meaningful price signals might be provided to users to influence congestion (prior to, during, or following a journey)
  2. How to deal with occasional users (including international users)

Design Issues

  1. How to make the solution scalable for handling all vehicles
  2. How to support interaction with existing local congestion charging schemes (including tolled roads and crossings)
  3. How to ensure compliance with the European Commission Directive on interoperability of electronic road toll systems (2004/52/EC)
  4. Handling the management of account churn in an environment where there are 2m new vehicles registered, 2m vehicles scrapped, 10 million changes of ownership each year and typically 1.5m vehicles in the trade at any time
  5. The potential for a personal device that, when specifically linked with a vehicle in some manner could provide the functionality and support necessary to enable TDP via this device. The device would be user centric but linked with vehicle specific data in some way

Procurement Issues

  1. How to ensure an open, competitive market in systems and services to deliver charging and ensure consistency of user experience, user choice and value for money for the taxpayer.

In addition to the above, submissions addressing TDP charging concepts could also provide the following information:

  1. An outline business model illustrating how organisations would have a viable case for participation in the context of collecting revenues for public bodies (local and / or national government)
  2. Key uncertainties and risk factors about the concept and its deployment (e.g. technology gaps, missing standards)
  3. Key cost drivers inherent in the concept
  4. The feasibility of taking the concept from its current state of development to a nationally deployed system in a timescale defined by the proposers
  5. The potential value of / purpose of a demonstration or other research activity based on this concept.

In addition, responses proposing potential demonstration activities should recognise that there is a finite budget within the overall programme for the demonstration component and hence should indicate:

  1. The potential number of vehicles / volunteers that could be involved and other factors that help influence or modify the scale of the activity eg
    • the amount of data to be processed and its value
    • number of personnel and facilities that could be involved
    • other parties that might need to contribute
  3. Whether, and if so how, accuracy and end-to-end over and undercharging performance will be determined or other key performance indicators.
  4. How (any) enforcement processes could be incorporated
  5. What facilities might be expected to be provided by DfT
  6. Where respondents see their possible role(s) within the 'Value Chain' presented in Figure B-1

Figure B-1 Road Charging Value Chain Model

Figure B-1 Road Charging Value Chain Model