It looks as if the German plan to use GPS for freight vehicles, a much less ambitious plan than outlined by the UK Minister for Transport, has already run into difficulties:

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/go/risks/22/94/4

German toll system unusable
Debora Weber-Wulff
Thu, 09 Oct 2003 20:25:05 +0200

A German consortium called TollCollect, consisting of global players such as the Deutsche Telekom and DaimlerChrysler has been trying for some time to create a "modern toll collection system" using GPS, among other things. The German Government decided today to postpone the introduction of the system, at a cost of millions of Euros, because it doesn't work.

It was to be fully automatic. Trucks (and only trucks were to pay the toll) were to have an OBU (On-Board Unit, and of course a different one than all the other countries using such devices. Some trucks would need 3-5 of the things, depending on the routes they take). The OBU is to have a GPS receiver and a mobile transmitter, so that when the truck is moving it's position can be determined. When the truck drives over highways that are not toll-free for trucks, the toll is to be calculated and sent by mobile transmitter to a central office, that bills the shipping company direct.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

For this purpose, lots of new masts were erected (as if we don't already have enough of this nonsense in Germany), and a beta test was arranged. Shipping companies complained that they were charged toll, although they were using the non-toll road that ran near a toll road. [GPS tolerance miscalculated? Maybe the German mapmakers made some mistakes?]. Others reported happily that they were charged no toll, although they were using a toll road. Some truckers reported the OBU busting its circuit breakers when the ignition in the truck was started.

The problem is, that no one knows what the cause for the problems is. Maybe it is the map update system, which updates the map in the OBU about 500-1000 times a month [that is around once an hour, or more, according to my calculations! - dww]. And of course, the OBUs can't be produced fast enough so that all the trucks that cross Germany have one by 1 Nov, the date
(already moved before) the toll was to have gone into effect.

Foreign truckers were to use a special system of 3500 terminals that are installed at truck stops throughout Germany. Or, toll could be paid in advance "by Internet". Reports are, that this doesn't work, either, and takes an enormous amount of time.

The minister for transport, Manfred Stolpe, has often been asked why German didn't use a low-tech system like Austria (they sell little stickers called Vignettes) or Italy (they put people in toll booths at specific points on the highways). Stolpe says, he wanted a high-tech solution that would work for decades.

Perhaps using a current mobile techonology and old-fashioned notions of high-tech was not really a great idea? Germany has now sunk over 730 Million Euros into the project. The toll of 12.4 (euro)cents per kilometer was to bring in 2.8 billion Euros a year into cash-strapped Germany, with the consortium raking in a fifth of the take.

There has also been scandal from the get-go in 2001, where by amazing coincidence a German-led consortium won the bid, although other bidders could show that they had experience in actually building such a thing. And then the government gave them a special liability dispensation, so that the consortium doesn't have to pay a fine for missing the start date, which has been moved before.

So here we have a fine mixture of mismanagement, high-tech woes and government games. The EU in Brussels is beginning to sniff into the affair, as it is beginning to smell like fish left on the counter for a week.

At least it gives Germans something to complain about to take their minds off the unemployment figures!

[German language articles:]
http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID1769140,00.html

Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff, FHTW Berlin, FB 4, Treskowallee 8, 10313 Berlin Tel: +49-30-5019-2320 http://www.f4.fhtw-berlin.de/people/weberwu/

It would be smart if some brave individual started a GPS removal service for cel phones and whatever else they decide we should have without our written consent.