E-TOLL for company fleets of passenger cars - what is worth knowing about it? How to prepare?

On October 1, e-TOLL - a modern toll collection system based on satellite positioning technology (GNSS) - has been in force on some national toll roads. Although it was originally supposed to apply only to heavy goods vehicles with a GVW of 3.5 tons, from December it will also become mandatory for... passenger cars. What does this mean for your company?

The e-TOLL system is the result of changes announced by the European Commission. It is about the gradual abolition of barriers and obstacles related to toll collectionin individual federal states. Manual handling of tolls will be replaced by automated solutions, which is to result in the complete elimination of toll gates on motorways. It is expected that individual national systems will be integrated into one service within the next 5-6 years.

Who is e-TOLL for?

Most expressways in Poland can be used free of charge - this applies to all vehicles, regardless of their total weight. Paid sections account for a small percentage, about 730 km. I am talking more specifically about motorways managed by the state unit - GDDKiA:

From October 1, traffic on these sections requires payment of an electronic toll via the e-TOLL system (previously viaTOLL), which will apply to all traffic participants on December 1 (and not, as before, only persons traveling in a vehicle or combination of vehicles with a DMC over 3.5 tonnes). On the same day in Poland all gates are to be switched off and then dismantled.

Due to the new billing rules, drivers should already think about integrating their vehicles with the e-TOLL system, because the lack of a ticket for a journey can be very expensive (free riders will pay up to PLN 1,500). Payment checks are to be carried out by police cars equipped with cameras identifying vehicles by their registration number. The changes will be particularly felt by drivers and owners of company passenger car fleets, which were previously excluded from the new obligation.

E-TOLL - revolution or evolution?

In theory, the e-TOLL system looks very intuitive: the car driver (or fleet owner) sets up an account on the government website, then installs the application on the phone and makes automatic payments with it. However, it is worth realizing that we are talking about software that requires the Internet and a working smartphone to work.

A dead phone or a mobile network failure are just some of the situations that expose traffic participants to a high fine. What's more, the application requires launching each time as soon as we find ourselves on a toll road section, which for many drivers may simply be an impractical solution.

So what's the alternative? Most petrol stations are to allow the purchase of a paper ticket from 1 December. Of course, also in this case, one should take into account a considerable difficulty in the form of long queues at the cash registers. Standing in traffic jams for several hours will cause many problems, especially for users of fleet vehicles with a strictly defined work schedule.

From the point of view of automating and streamlining journeys, the most appropriate and cost-effective solution, especially in the case of car fleets, is purchasing a location device (OBU or ZSL) and using vehicle monitoring applications - this type of comprehensive solution offers, among others Flotman brand.

Flotman software - fleet journeys under control

Flotman software is designed for comprehensive monitoring of a fleet of company vehicles. Through it, it is possible to control such parameters as:

But that's not all. Flotman, as one of the first operators in the country, obtained a positive result in tests admitting to the e-TOLL system.

– Thanks to the possibility of convenient configuration of telematics devices with the e-TOLL system, each owner of a fleet of company vehicles can easily manage journeys on toll motorway sections. Undoubtedly, it is currently the best and most convenient solution when it comes to improving transport processes in domestic transport - advises Tomasz Małaczek, Sales Director, Member of the Management Board of Flotman Sp. z o. o.

What does this mean in practice? Well, every vehicle user using Flotman tracking devices can easily configure them with the government system used to collect fees for toll journeys. The location data is transferred to the Ministry of Finance, which calculates the toll payable on their basis. This is a great convenience for drivers who will not have to enter a gas station or run a government application to buy a ticket.

Flotman allows you to choose one of two methods of transferring location data to e-TOLL:

Do you manage a company fleet? Learn more about the operation of OBU, ZSL,e-TOLL devices and the Flotman application!