Road User Charging (RUC) is a means of contributing to road construction and upkeep as a complement to other financing sources. RUC systems also facilitate implementation of mobility management policies on roads and in cities, such as congestion control in city centers or encouraging the use of more sustainable vehicles.

On a worldwide level there are many different RUC technologies, ranging from physical payment at traditional poll booths to the use of DSRC devices such as Vía-T or free-flow systems based on license-plate recognition. This technology, however, does suffer from some flexibility constraints. Roadside infrastructure needs to be set up and the number of fare policies that can be set up is limited too.

Use of GNSS technology for RUC systems overcomes all these flexibility constraints. GMV and Bip & Drive —a mobility services payment platform and Spanish number one in the e-tolling sector— have therefore put their heads together to run a joint pilot scheme for implementing an RUC system based on the distance covered, tapping into GNSS capacities and smartphone communications.

The pilot schemes, to be conducted on a controlled environment of over 100 km of highway, will input priceless information for identifying the key aspects of technology, operation and user experience. These will then serve
as reference for setting up a system of this type for real and, in the future, for rollout within the vehicles themselves once fitted with the necessary communication and positioning capacity.