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Photos: Germany's road charging tech
On the autobahn, checking out the truckers

By Tony Hallett

Published: Friday 02 February 2007

For two years Germany has had an electronic road-charging system for heavy goods vehicles on the autobahn.

One way the scheme is policed is by these vans, 300 of which roam the country's major routes.

BAG (or Bundesamt für Güterverkehr in German) is the Federal Office for Heavy Goods Transport. The scheme is a mix of satellite technology - GPS, though a future move to Europe's Galileo system is likely - roadside cellular networks, wireless LANs and point-to-point infrared.

Toll Collect runs the road charging. It is a joint venture whose major partners are DaimlerChrysler and Satellic, a unit of Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems services business.

Photo credit: Tony Hallett