Emovis, part of Abertis Mobility Services, was recognized as the 2023 Private Sector Innovation award winner for its Smart Enforcement program by the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA).

A common challenge for all tolling programs is collecting payments from unregistered users. This often leads to high management costs, revenue leakage and challenges to reputation. In response to this, emovis collaborated with Abertis’ Innovation Lab, a program that promotes projects aimed at finding solutions for smart roads and integrated mobility, for connected, autonomous and electric vehicles. Together, they launched a Smart Enforcement program in December 2020 that has since been introduced in Chile and the United Kingdom.

Smart Enforcement integrates with external third parties to track motorists’ new addresses. This increases accuracy and toll compliance and reduces the work and expense of undeliverable mail. In addition, the business intelligence team alongside the engineering department built predictive algorithms that optimizes actions for maximizing payment probabilities and cutting debt collection costs without affecting any revenues.

Smart Enforcement has generated solid results:

• an increase in toll compliance to over 97% especially as previously untraceable customers are now located
• a 19% reduction in recovery costs
• a 33% reduction in customer disputes and 30% reduction in unregistered users not paying their tolls without any enforcement activity
• a 25% improvement of the enforcement “cost to revenue ratio¨ meaning authorities obtained more monetary value for each dollar they spent in enforcement.

By incorporating automated machine learning, Smart Enforcement is able to ensure continuous adaptation to new user behaviours and data. Decision-making can be refined based on the results obtained through previous user behaviour and while considering recent user changes such as physical address, personal data and payment details.

“The innovation is impacting the financial side while dramatically improving perception and reputation,” said Christian Barrientos, CEO of Abertis Mobility Services. “Thanks to our colleagues’ efforts, we are able to predict payment behaviour, redesign the recovery process and provide customers with new communication channels.”

IBTTA’s Toll Excellence Awards recognize the very best projects and programs the international tolling industry has to offer. Winners whose creative, innovative and positive programs set a new standard of excellence are recognized during the IBTTA Annual Meeting and Exhibition. This year’s event takes place in Seattle and emovis was recognized at a session on October 9^th.

About The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA)

IBTTA is the worldwide association for the owners and operators of toll facilities and the businesses that serve them. Founded in 1932, IBTTA has members in more than 20 countries on six continents. Through advocacy, thought leadership and education, members are implementing state-of-the-art, innovative user-based transportation financing solutions to address the critical infrastructure challenges of the 21st century. For more information, visit www.ibtta.org.

Emovis, a global leader in toll-based mobility solutions, published this week the results of the 2023 edition of its annual customer survey. The survey, which collects data from Emovis’ clients across the world, revealed overall client satisfaction with remarkable performance in areas like innovation, which was valued as “Excellent” or “Above Average” by 85% of the firm’s clients.

The survey, which gathers data from every client including National Highways,Mersey Travel and Oregon Department of Transportation also highlighted Emovis’ strong management performance, excellent client relationships and having skilled team members.

Emovis, currently present in 12 countries worldwide, also achieved an impressive rise from the previous year (up 13% to 64) in their Net Promoter Score (NPS), a metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction in a scale ranging from -100 to +100.

Other areas which were highlighted in this year’s results include: client relationships, with strong scores in teamwork, quality of meetings held with clients, ease of contact and availability, and responsiveness. Importantly, Emovis’ clients also singled-out accessibility to the top management team.

Clients expressed their satisfaction with Emovis’ ability to understand and address their unique circumstances, emphasising the company’s dedication to delivering tailored solutions. “These survey results validate our efforts to consistently deliver excellence in our management performance, client relationships, and team capabilities. We are grateful for the trust our clients place in us and remain dedicated to exceeding their expectations,” said Christian Barrientos, CEO of Abertis Mobility Services.

Award- winning contact centre services

These achievements come together with Emovis’ recent success at the prestigious UK Contact Centre Awards 2023.

The UK National Contact Centre, which recognizes excellence and high performance in the contact centre industry, shortlisted Emovis in six categories and achieved awards in three.

The company won the Gold prize for the Resource Planning Manager of the Year; the Bronze prize for Contact Centre Support Manager of the Year, and a “Highly Commended” recognition in the Change Maker category.

Emovis was also shortlisted for Contact Support Manager of the Year, Outsourced Team Manager of the Year, Significant Contributor (Small Contact Centre), and Contact Centre Support Team of the Year (small).

The UK Contact Centre Awards are known for maintaining the highest standards of excellence and integrity in the industry.

More information on our solution at Emovis Customer Care Service.

Oklahoma is the latest U.S. state to explore the potential of pay-per-mile in collaboration with Emovis, one of the world’s leading providers of sustainable toll-based mobility solutions. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently announced a six-month, pay-per-mile pilot progam called Fair Miles Oklahoma that will launch in July. The Oklahoma state legislature mandated the study in 2021 as guidance for future policy changes.

The rise in consumer adoption of fuel-efficient vehicles is a positive development for public health and the environment. However, it also has an impact on highway funding that is largely reliant on federal and state gasoline taxes. Emovis’ pay-per-mile solution helps to offset the decline in revenue from the growing number of fuel-efficient vehicles on the roads. This ensures all vehicle owners contribute fairly to tax revenue.

“To maintain funding for roads and bridge maintenance and construction, Oklahoma is one of many states proactively exploring a pay-per-mile program that could replace the current fuel tax model in the future,” said Dawn Sullivan, ODOT Deputy Director. “Participation in this study provides Oklahoma drivers the opportunity to be part of Oklahoma’s transportation future.”

As part of the pilot, Oklahoma will be able to assess the benefits and identify potential hurdles. Drivers who volunteer to be part of the pilot through the Fair Miles Oklahoma website will have  several Mileage Reporting Options (MRO), including  an on-board device (OBD-II)  and telematics (if provided by the vehicle manufacturer). The pilot will involve project management, implementation, participant onboarding, mileage collection, account management, reporting and data analysis.

Upon completion of the pilot, ODOT will draft a comprehensive report for state lawmakers, which will describe the results and lessons learned for future policy decisions.

Oklahoma joins four other states that have previously rolled out the Emovis pay-per-mile solution: Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

“Our partnership with Oklahoma is further validation of Emovis’ continued leadership in pay-per-mile programs in the United States,” said Christian Barrientos, CEO of Abertis Mobility Services. “We look forward to assisting the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and its consultants in evaluating pay-per-mile as the state continues to be at the forefront of national transportation solutions.”

About Oklahoma Department of Transportation

ODOT is an innovative and responsive leader in the transportation field and is accountable in meeting the transportation needs of citizens, business, and industry in the safest, most proficient manner possible.

The agency manages more than 12,000 center-lane miles and nearly 6,800 bridges with resources primarily funded by motor vehicle fuel taxes, state appropriations, and federal transportation funds. ODOT also aggressively competes for federal grants.

For 20 years, ODOT has worked from an 8-Year Construction Work Plan, dedicating resources to the state’s most critical infrastructure needs. The first plan focused on structurally deficient bridges. Since then, Oklahoma’s bridge ranking jumped from one of the worst states to one of the best. While ODOT continues its work on bridges, its current work plan includes adding or enhancing safety shoulders on more than 1,000 rural, two-lane highways and improving more than 4,000 lane miles of highway pavement to a state of good repair.

• Abertis Mobility Services (AMS) is the industrial partner of IMMENSE, an innovative mobility project based on a Traffic Demand Management (TDM) scheme aimed at having more livable cities in favor of increasing the use of shared transport and active travel modes such as cycling, in exchange of less use of private vehicles.
• For the implementation of the actual pilot, AMS will test a new satellite distance-based fee (DBF) solution in the cities of Munich (Germany) and Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona, Spain) and an app for users participating in IMMENSE.
• AMS will test a DBF solution pilot with dynamic pricing in an urban environment, building on a great experience in this type of solutions from Road Usage Charging programs in the states of Washington, Oregon, Utah and Virginia in the United States.
• The pilot project will be executed by a consortium bringing together CARNET, the project leader, and with the collaboration of Cima Engineering & Environmental, S.L., the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC), City of Munich and Esplugues de Llobregat City Council.

Barcelona, 12 April 2023 – Abertis Mobility Services (AMS), one of the world’s leading providers of smart mobility solutions, is taking part in an innovative urban mobility project to develop a satellite distance-based fee (DBF) solution that will be tested in the Low Emission Zones of the cities of Munich (Germany) and Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona – Spain). The program, which is financed by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union and other partners, seeks to promote intelligent, connected mobility, and expand the use of shared transport and active travel.

AMS will develop this product as an industrial partner of IMMENSE, a project that aims at defining innovation strategies in traffic demand management in cities to discourage and reduce the use of private vehicles and promote sustainable transport, with the aim to have more liveable cities. Specifically, it is a Traffic Demand Management (TDM) scheme so that the cities involved in the pilot can simulate traffic strategies based on the information provided by the solution, together with an app that enables users to control their use of road infrastructures. The proposed solution, which will have a 2-month pilot phase and will involve around 1,000 citizens, will test a demand-driven pricing strategy, where users will be informed on the payment defined by a fixed fee to access the low emission zone, and a variable fee depending on the number of kilometers travelled, the level of usage and congestion at the time of access.

TDM schemes have a significant and positive impact on public life, reducing congestion and pollution, while promoting safety and improving air quality, the environment, and the health of inhabitants.
The project, which will involve the cities of Munich and Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona), will consist in the implementation of a simulated satellite DBF solution pilot in a city, covering the back-office management and the development of the app for the citizens. The company has experience in the implementation and operation of this type of schemes with the implementation of Road Usage Charging programs in the states of Washington, Utah, Oregon and Virginia in the United States through its subsidiary Emovis. This satellite tolling framework is a system that allows drivers to pay for the actual use of the road network, with an exact calculation of the kilometers driven.

Reduce congestion in cities and use public spaces effectively

The project aims to help city authorities in Esplugues de Llobregat and Munich and support the effectiveness of their Low Emission Zones. The developed tools are set to simulate a scenario where congestion is reduced by a 10% and 25% for Esplugues de Llobregat and Munich respectively depending on the availability of alternative routes within the affected areas.
In the medium and long term, IMMENSE will also make it possible to free up at least 10% of public space for the use of shared transport and active travel modes, among others, due to the optimization of the use of road infrastructure and the increase in revenues of the dynamic fare system.
The implementation of this pilot is planned for 2 months, from September to November 2023. During this period, the complete system will be tested with approximately 1,000 users in the cities of Esplugues de Llobregat (Spain) and Munich (Germany), with an integrated system platform and end-user application, capable of managing urban traffic demand through a dynamic pricing strategy.
To attain a final solution that could be both scalable and useful to a broad range of cities, IMMENSE welcomed into the partnership the municipalities of Munich and Esplugues de Llobregat as they both have different consolidated TDM schemes, including Low Emission Zones and vehicle access regulations.
In addition, IMMENSE will serve as a platform for city authorities to simulate, report, evaluate and, in a hopeful future horizon, implement TDM schemes.
IMMENSE will also generate Big Data, providing a comprehensive framework to improve and implement bespoke TDM strategies, thus ensuring a high potential for replication and scaling in different European contexts. This supports the EU’s launched mission of “100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”, while contributing to EIT Urban Mobility’s vision of “creating mobility that enables people and goods to move affordably, quickly, comfortably, safely and cleanly, while accelerating solutions and the transition towards a user-centric, integrated and truly multimodal transport system.”

Cleaner cities for the whole community

IMMENSE is aligned with EIT Urban Mobility’s strategic focus of building public support to implement and maintain TDM schemes that change citizens’ travel patterns. However, these solutions may face social opposition as established mobility patterns are questioned. The benefits of IMMENSE and the implementation of models with gamification in the tool overcome this problem, as they increase public support for congestion charging mechanisms in different urban areas represented by City Demonstrators.
TDM schemes like IMMENSE are extremely effective in providing good transportation options for all citizens and communities. For example, by promoting greater use of active modes of transport, the programme will also ensure access to cleaner, safer, more affordable, and equitable travel options.
According to Christian Barrientos, CEO of AMS, “we believe that all agents and players of the mobility ecosystem must promote a paradigm shift in urban traffic management, implementing Traffic Demand Management (TDM) schemes, to improve air quality, discourage and reduce the use of private vehicles entering the city center“. He explains that IMMENSE is an excellent example of this and hopes that the program “will open the door for many European cities to improve their own infrastructures and traffic management options and, more importantly, have a great positive impact on the life of their communities.”
Dr. Maria Tsavachidis, CEO of EIT Urban Mobility, said: “With IMMENSE, Esplugues de Llobregat and Munich will deploy and test dynamic road pricing for traffic demand management. Their experiences may open the way for many other European cities that are urgently trying to reduce private vehicle traffic. Changes to the transportation system have a direct impact on citizens, businesses, and communities. Therefore, citizen participation and awareness during testing are key to ensuring acceptance and a wider scale of these solutions.”

About Abertis Mobility Services

Abertis Mobility Services (AMS) is a world leader in sustainable mobility solutions for cities and interurban transport systems currently operating through its subsidiary Emovis in 12 different countries. AMS has over 40 years of experience in designing, implementing, and managing innovative, state-of-the-art electronic toll solutions. The company partners with road authorities, municipalities and local authorities, and private companies that operate toll infrastructure. AMS is also the competence centre of the Abertis Group, a world leader in the management of toll infrastructures.

Aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Environmental, Social and Governance Development Goals, AMS focuses on reducing its carbon footprint and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace.

About EIT Urban Mobility

EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, aims to accelerate solutions and transition towards a user-centred, integrated and truly multimodal transport system. As the leading European innovation community for urban mobility, EIT Urban Mobility works to avoid fragmentation by facilitating collaboration between cities, industry, academia, research, and innovation to solve cities’ most pressing mobility challenges. Using cities as living laboratories, your industrial, research and university partners will demonstrate how new technologies can work to solve real problems in real cities by transporting people, goods, and waste more intelligently.