Two providers of electronic toll collection and preclearance services to the commercial trucking industry have announced a new interoperability service called PrePassplus that will enable truckers to use one transponder for both weigh station preclearance and electronic payment of tolls. The cooperative pilot program between Heavy Vehicle Electronic License Plate (HELP) Inc and the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA) is expected to be operational in summer 2002.
The HELP-NYSTA agreement will enable participating carriers to comply electronically with state safety and credential requirements at nearly 200 PrePass weigh stations nationwide. At the same time, HELP's partnership with NYSTA will enable participating carriers to pay tolls electronically at nearly 400E-ZPass toll plaza facilities in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, and West Virginia.
ACS will be providing HELP and NYSTA integrated billing and service center functions that will make the pilot possible. ACS State and Local Solutions, a provider of business process and technology outsourcing systems to more than 230 state and local government, developed and operates the customer service center for the NYSTA and is the system integrator and operator of the PrePass system.
Discussions are underway to expand the pilot in subsequent phases to meet growing carder expectations, including new transponder functionality, border crossing applications, and interoperability with other toll authorities.
New technology introduced by Mark IV has made the project possible. Current ETC and preclearance transponders use different protocols. Mark IV Fusion CVO transponders combine in one device the IAG's toll protocol with the TDMA protocol used by HELP. Mark IV provides the backbone technology infrastructure for the E-ZPass system.