© Valery Matytsin/TASS

Automated system for weight and dimensional control of transport (ACWGC) can be integrated into “Plato”. With this initiative came the company “RT-invest the Transport System” (RTAS), which is the operator of the system “Platon”. The company believes it appropriate to implement the project by combining the two systems: about half of the planned framework of ASUGG geographically coincide with the control points of Plato. In addition, it is possible to configure a part of existing equipment for the two tasks and to use already trained staff.

In 2016, RTAS have implemented a pilot project, ACWGC in Tatarstan with the purpose to establish, whether technologically compatible the two systems and whether the operation of the equipment “Plato” in terms of weight control. According to General Director of “RT-invest the Transport System” Anton castle, the pilot was extremely successful and received the support of the region .

“Standards of weight and dimensional control is established at the legislative level. Federal road Agency (Rosavtodor) has long adopted the decision on creation of automated system of control of these standards on Federal roads. First and foremost it is needed by the carriers, so they support the creation of ACWGC. According to our calculations, we are able to save the state up to 40% of capital costs. In addition, our function as an operator will simply spread to another system,” said Castles. According to him, TITS in this plan is much simpler, as the company incurs operating costs on the content of “Plato”, so to add to the system operation of several frames is much cheaper than to build ASUGG from scratch. It is also possible to combine not only the frame design, but also data center, call center, software, and even the center of the automated fixing of administrative offences (CAFAP).

“Now comes the stage of the initiative, then negotiations will be held and will understand the amount of capital expenditures. The conclusion of negotiations is expected before the end of spring of the current year”, — said the head of “RT-invest the Transport System”.

How does weight control

Automated system for weight and dimensional control is a set of structural elements: a frame control design with weights under the road, equipment photos and video, communication channels and power supplies.

“Technically, ACWGC is organized as follows: in the roadbed under the frame at a certain depth is sewn a strip of scales (strain gauge sensors). When car drives, there is a pressure axis for these sensors, and the weighting on each axis, and the vehicle stop is not necessary, — said Locks. — Further, if there is a violation of existing regulations to limit the load on the axle fixed number, is a side photograph, metrological stamp and sent to the authorized body for consideration (from July 2017, this function will be transferred from traffic police to the Rostransnadzor)”.

ACWGC is a project that works for the safety of the roads. According to the head of RTAS, the system will not bring any money, in terms of revenues, except fines, which will eventually end. Later there’s a delayed effect: the roads cease to deteriorate rapidly, money for their maintenance should be less and a portion of the savings can be spent on the construction of new roads and unique buildings, thereby giving impetus to the development of the industry. The experience of Vologda oblast (pilot project of the Federal road Agency): only three points of weight control has collected a number of fines, and riding by a margin of almost stopped.

“The penalties are such that a trip by a margin of can cost six-month works. Consequently, all start to work “vbeluyu” because of the “rough” work is getting very difficult,” — said the head of the RTAS.

What is the fee of the state operator of the system “Platon”

CEO, RTAS told what the funds received under the concession agreement with the Federal road Agency. The “Plato” was completely created by the private and debt financing, and support its performance and modernization require significant expenditures. Under the terms of the contract, the company — operator of the “Plato” is required to support the system in full technical readiness, with the General index of at least 99%. According to the castle to meet the specified parameters, it is necessary to bear regular operating costs, which consumed a large part of the payment to the operator.

“The money goes to three main areas: loan maintenance and payment of taxes; capital expenditures, which we continue to carry on the construction of frame structures of control on Federal roads across the country; regular operational costs (maintaining two data centers, communication costs for million on-Board units, channels to the framework and offices, service offices 138, diagnostics and operational repair of equipment frame structures, routine replacement of equipment, maintenance of cars mobile control).

Also one of the significant points capital costs — the cost of producing on-Board devices (now produced more than a million hardware devices, their cost is about 7 billion rubles). It is worth noting that on-Board units for the Russians are free of charge (on the basis of the contract of uncompensated use). A Deposit for the device make only non-residents.

“The ratio of system availability of 99% is a very high figure, which we must endure, which means that all elements of the system must work flawlessly. If the targets set by the decree of the RF government, the operator will not be executed, imposes large fines. Rosavtodor daily checks everything on the hard list of indicators. It is our responsibility to the state customer,” explained Locks.

The payback period for the creation and maintenance of the system “Platon” is 11.5 years, said Castles.

The tightening of control.

The system of charging “Plato” is developing together with its users — from this point of view, the legislation should be flexible at the same time to create conditions for equal competition in the market, says Anton Locks.

“The cancellation of the singularity of fines, I believe it is the right decision, as some unscrupulous carriers prefer to pay the fine and not pay for road usage, based on the fact that it is cheaper to pay the fine once, than faithfully to pay,” — he explained.

The Ministry of internal Affairs and Rostransnadzor also support this initiative. Now this is the only article in the administrative code, providing for violations, a single penalty per day. “For example, when you go on the public transport lane and passing in one morning with three cameras, you get three tickets,” explained Locks.

In turn, the system operator is ready to implement some technological innovations. For example, now posted a draft resolution of the government of the Russian Federation on automatic completion of route. This feature will help to eliminate fraud with the on-Board devices when the driver turns on and off the device depending on the proximity of the monitoring framework, to pay for short sections of the route.

RTAS on schedule deploys the control system, said Castles. So, by the end of the preferential regime April 15 will be set to have 300 monitoring in the regions with the largest network of Federal roads, and by the end of July that number will increase to 481. The operator of the “Plato” can’t stand the penalties, it is the functions of governmental bodies. Resolution on administrative liability on the basis of photo – and video fixing of traffic police writes, by July it will go to the Federal Agency for transport supervision, which is fully ready Federal CAFAP. All fines go to the Federal budget.

What is still needed “Plato”

The system Platon is a huge database for analysis, it contains data on approximately 680 thousand cars of residents and 125 thousand foreign cars.

“It’s obvious a national resource, which, of course, becomes the basis for the development of any of telematic services and may be used in other areas of public administration: operational-search activities, identifying customs violations, combating gray market”, — said the head of the RTAS.

According to him, one of the important directions of use of the system is the interaction with public authorities. Today the main consumer of information “Plato” is the tax service. In accordance with the Tax code RTAS gave the tax authorities a complete record of the data about payments in the context of vehicles for the years 2015-2016. In addition, the system operator receives daily requests from the interior Ministry, the Federal bailiff service and other bodies, on the basis of which various checks.

This year, the company — operator of the “Plato” intends to create seamless integration, thanks to which tax and other authorities will be able to request and obtain from the system any data related to their functional activity.

Not less important direction is the development of telematics services on the basis of “Plato”. For example, using data from the onboard devices to “smart car insurance” and monitoring the movement of vehicles in the interests of their owners.

The Ministry of RTAS, to implement the service insurance it is necessary to measure more than 20 parameters, on the basis of these data it is possible within three to four months to identify the behavioural scenarios of the driver.

“Plato” in the Customs Union

The head of the company — operator of the “Plato” said that in a similar system of charging interest many post-Soviet countries, particularly Kazakhstan. Now RTAS consults for their Kazakh colleagues. However, while the government of Kazakhstan has not made a final decision. “Having studied the experience of implementing the toll collection system in Europe, in the world, we came to the conclusion that if the length of roads in the state exceeds two thousand kilometers, then the only option is a satellite navigation system with the appropriate control infrastructure. Otherwise the project will never pay off,” he explained.

For example, if in small countries, such as Poland, Belarus, Czech Republic, you can apply radio frequency modification, in the case of Russia and Kazakhstan, where it is about 50 thousand km and 23 thousand km, while the alternatives simply do not exist.

One of the options for beneficial interaction of the system “Platon” with other possible systems of the countries — neighbours of Russia can become the transit within the framework of EurAsEC. For example, the onboard devices installed on the Russian vehicle would have continued to work in Kazakhstan.

According to castle, from a technological point of view, to provide a combination of the two systems is not a problem.

“Running two systems for satellite navigation, it is possible to ensure integration and non-stop travel across the border. These decisions on the surface, and it is to this need to move, because this is the future, he said. — Obviously, these trade barriers, especially in the Eurasian Union should be overcome not by some organizational means, namely through technology. This will create facilities for the work of the international carriers”.