City Transport & Traffic Innovation Magazine speaks to Dr YC Chang, managing director of Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co., Ltd (FETC), a Taiwanese company that specialises in the development and operation of electronic toll collection (ETC) systems.
Established in 2004, FETC was formed as part of a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) of Taiwan. The company operates under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model, providing distance-based tolling services on highways across Taiwan.
FETC is best known for its role in implementing Taiwan’s multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) ETC, which replaced the country’s manual toll collection systems with automated, contactless tolling using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Thus ETC system has been lauded for its efficiency and accuracy, allowing vehicles to pass through toll points at high speeds without stopping, thereby reducing congestion, improving traffic flow, and lowering emissions.
Over the years, FETC has expanded its technological offerings by integrating artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing, and other advanced solutions into its tolling and traffic management systems. The company has been instrumental in promoting the concept of ‘Tolling-as-a-Service’ (TaaS), which delivers tolling services in a modular, customer-centric format that can also contribute to smart city initiatives.
Beyond Taiwan, FETC International, a subsidiary of FETC, has been involved in multiple international projects, including those in Thailand, Malaysia, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, providing consultancy services and implementing ETC systems.
In addition to tolling, FETC has diversified its portfolio to include smart parking solutions under the brand ‘uTagGO’, which enhances parking convenience and integrates with the broader smart mobility ecosystem. Through its innovations in both tolling and parking services, FETC aims to create sustainable, technology-driven solutions for transportation management, both domestically and internationally.
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What were the biggest factors in helping Taiwan migrate from manual to multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) tolling?
Government policy: To enhance road efficiency and fairness in road usage, and to ensure sustainability and high capability in technology, operation, and finance, the Freeway Bureau of Taiwan’s MOTC adopted the BOT model and PPP in 2003 to invite the private sector to implement and operate ‘distance-based’ ETC. The government remains ‘technology-neutral’ regarding tolling technology. In this project, the government played a crucial role in setting guidelines and validation and verification standards.
Migration period: The government did not expect to remove all manual toll stations and replace them with the new system overnight. Instead, it designed a two-stage migration plan to implement MLFF. Additionally, the project only advanced to the phase of distance-based MLFF once the ETC adoption rate reached 65%. Therefore, there was a period where manual tolling and electronic tolling (single-lane free-flow) coexisted. This transition allowed the private sector to develop its systems while enabling the public to adapt to the new tolling methods.
Trustworthy system: Taiwan’s current MLFF ETC system boasts a 99.98% tolling collectable rate and a 99.999999% billing accuracy rate. In 2023, FETC processed more than 6.2 billion transactions, with only three billing errors, further enhancing public trust in the system.
Hassle-free service: Motorists are the end-users of the service, so providing multiple payment options and service points is crucial. Taiwan more than 10,000 service points where motorists can pay or top-up toll fees.
How do inter-city mobility services, PPPs and digital technologies combine to advance toll collection nationally in Taiwan and regionally across the Asia-Pacific region?
We have witnessed a significant increase in the adoption of MLFF and all-electronic toll collection across the Asia-Pacific region. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the need to avoid physical contact, and the maturity of tolling technologies, financial sustainability, growing vehicle volumes, and increasing acceptance of road user charging have all contributed to the rise in electronic toll collection. Moreover, many governments have recognised the potential of toll collection systems as foundational elements of the country’s digital infrastructure, enabling traffic management, road pricing, weigh-in-motion, and smart city applications.
Dr YC Chang, you have been instrumental in introducing cutting-edge technologies such as RFID, AI, big data, and cloud computing into Taiwan’s MLFF tolling network. How transformative have these innovations been for the usage rate, toll collectable rate, and vehicle detection rate?
RFID was a game changer when we implemented MLFF in Taiwan. Initially, FETC used infrared on-board units (OBUs) for toll collection, but adoption was low due to the high cost. We identified the potential of RFID tags as a cost-effective and easy-to-install solution and later introduced it to the MLFF system, helping Taiwan fully transition to distance-based ETC.
We have employed AI and big data to enhance license plate recognition, vehicle classification, axle counting, and back-office functions, which have all increased overall accuracy and toll collectable rates. We have even integrated environmental factors, such as weather, into AI models to predict the lifecycle of roadside units and optimise maintenance patterns.
However, digital technologies alone do not account for the success of Taiwan’s ETC system. FETC set up a series of business service requirements internally in areas such as business and service operations, technology, and systems. For example, we established the processing time for RFID tag installation and response times for motorists checking transaction statuses. We constantly evaluate and compare available solutions to improve the tolling experience.
Has Taiwan’s ETC ecosystem improved traffic flow, reduced congestion, lowered emissions, and enhanced road safety?
Absolutely. The speed of vehicles passing through toll gantries has increased from 0–30km/h to faster than 110km/h, and throughput has increased 2.6 times since the removal of manual tolling. Unsurprisingly, there is no longer congestion at toll booths, as they have all been removed. Travelling from northern to southern Taiwan now saves an average of 30 minutes per trip. The savings in energy and carbon emissions amount to approximately US$80m per year.
Additionally, the ETC ecosystem has created more than 1,000 jobs. During the concession period, the government saved around US$200m in construction costs and approximately US$36m per year in operating expenses, totalling more than US$645m in fiscal savings.
What is TaaS and how is FETC pushing this concept forward?
I believe that ETC should not be merely a system but a service. TaaS is a concept borrowed from XaaS (Everything-as-a-Service), meaning that tolling can be offered as a service. Each function and module of a tolling system can be packaged as a single service and delivered to customers. Subscription models and other new business approaches are becoming trends. Moreover, data generated by the tolling platform can be used for broader applications, such as providing personalised services to motorists.
FETC has taken the ‘as-a-service’ model from tolling and applied it to smart parking. What can you tell our readers about uTagGO?
Owned by FETC International, uTagGO is the brand name of its smart parking service, designed to enhance the overall driving experience by making parking smarter and more convenient. On one hand, uTagGO assists drivers with intelligent parking features such as real-time vehicle and parking data display, one-click searches for optimal parking, and multiple payment options, including exclusive eTag parking payments and QR code payments. On the other hand, FETCi offers ‘uTagGO for Business’, a comprehensive smart integration service platform tailored for parking lot operators. This platform caters to various needs, including existing and new parking lot operators, community buildings, schools, hospitals, markets, and government agencies.
What’s more, uTagGO for Business provides a customised parking management platform that leverages AI and big data technology for efficient planning, high licence plate recognition rates, equipment fault prediction, and real-time parking space and rate suggestions. The collaboration aims to create a seamless and convenient smart parking network across Taiwan, aligning with uTagGO’s brand value of ‘Navigate Your Own Path’.
The platform has already been adopted by 1,700 parking lots in Taiwan, showcasing its potential impact. uTagGO’s vision is to continue expanding its parking network and collaborating with more businesses to create a comprehensive parking ecosystem. The company’s commitment to sustainability is reflected in services like AI-driven fee optimisation and initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, contributing to Taiwan’s smart transportation and sustainability goals.
Does FETC see tolling and smart parking as complementary services?
To ensure fairness, orderliness, sustainability, the funding sources of road maintenance, and ESG, Taiwan follows road user charge principles in both tolling and smart parking:
Tolling: The collected toll fees are the main funding sources for highway maintenance, construction of highway facilities, R&D, and related services. However, the road pricing scheme is flexible, based on distance, time, vehicle type, location, holidays, etc. Taiwan does offer complimentary tolling under certain circumstances:
(1) Each vehicle is offered 20 free kilometres per day, except on long weekends and holidays.
(2) Passing through horizontal highways, which reach suburban areas and may be the only interconnecting roads, is temporarily free.
(3) During specific time periods, such as 00:00–05:00 on holidays or long weekends, to reduce daytime congestion.
Smart Parking: Parking fees are also a source for road maintenance and the construction of new parking facilities. In Taiwan, urban planning does not require motorists to buy parking spaces along with a house. With more than 8.5 million registered vehicles and approximately 15 million motorcycles in Taiwan, parking spaces are considered limited. Previously, when roadside parking was free, many spaces were forcibly occupied by vehicles, and charging for parking became necessary to set the record straight.
Similar to tolling, parking fees can be charged differently based on time and demand. In residential areas, Saturday and Sunday are usually free of charge, while in business districts, parking is generally free after 5pm.
FETC established its own subsidiary, FETC International, in 2017 to explore and develop global business. Can you speak about some of FETC’s international projects and achievements?
Thailand: FETC International won the tender to design, build, and maintain the ETC and traffic management system on the newly built motorways M6 and M81 in Thailand. We constructed the first gantry on the M6 highway at the end of 2023 and will continue to align with the government’s schedule to complete the project. This system is unique as it integrates electronic tolling and traffic management into a so-called ‘smart highway’, breaking down silos between different infrastructure systems.
Malaysia: FETC International has undertaken several consultancy projects in Malaysia. For example, we provided a health check to the largest concessionaire in Malaysia and offered advice on improving the efficiency of its ETC system.
Tell us about the automatic licence plate recognition (ALPR) solution FETC has deployed in Thailand and why it is so innovative…
With more than 20 years of dev-ops experience, and as an operator, FETC understands the challenges of recognising correct licence plate information, such as blurred images caused by heavy rain or tilted or falsified licence plates due to human factors. FETCi has developed a well-trained AI-based ALPR model that comprises various ALPR datasets and more than 300 AI logics, which can manage complex Thai licence plates, including stacked letters, complicated alphanumeric characters, and coloured backgrounds. The FETCi AI ALPR solution also includes add-on features such as lidar or image-based automatic vehicle classification and model, make, and colour recognition for vehicle identification and axle/wheel counting to correctly identify vehicle types.
Notably, FETCi has created the most advanced business intelligence and rules for AI ALPR and transaction validation, leading to the highest accuracy rate. In addition to developing a vehicle and image library containing vehicle signatures and labels as an auxiliary tool for licence plate review, FETCi has built a multi-layer cross-check architecture to ensure high-quality results.
What have been some of FETC’s biggest and most important technology developments?
Our innovations extend beyond RFID and ALPR solutions. We continuously advance our MLFF systems by exploring new technologies. For instance, in a recent project, we successfully introduced 5G and cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (CV-2X) along with RFID to obtain real-time data on location, weather conditions, traffic information, and toll account balances at speeds of 180km/h through an MLFF gantry in Taiwan.
In another project, we are installing micro weather stations and vibration sensors at multiple gantry sites to collect real-time data, including humidity, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and air quality. We combine this weather data with information generated from Taiwan’s civil IoT platform (an open platform collecting meteorological data across Taiwan) and an historical lightning observation database. Through AI modelling, we can predict weather conditions at gantry sites, provide warnings to motorists and operations/maintenance personnel, prevent casualties, and optimise maintenance routines.
In Taiwan, the concession period for the ETC BOT with the government ends in 2025. How are talks between FETC and the government progressing? Will the government renew the contract or introduce new terms?
The Taiwan ETC concession lasts for 18 years and four months, concluding in December 2025. FETC is in discussions with the government about signing a renewal agreement, as we have the first right to negotiate new terms. According to Taiwan’s PPP law, the renewal period cannot exceed the original contract length. The contract renewal period is one of the key topics of current discussions.
What’s next for FETC in terms of future projects and technology developments?
Taiwan MLFF ETC project: We aim to ensure that the new contract terms benefit motorists in terms of service offerings. FETC plans to enhance current ETC services, upgrade legacy ETC equipment, and maximise the benefits of the ETC system. Additionally, we will seek to bring large-displacement motorcycles into the scope of ALPR (currently, large-displacement motorcycles are not allowed to use highways in Taiwan) under the new contract. If the contract is successfully renewed, it will be Taiwan’s first case where a large-scale BOT contract is renegotiated successfully upon the expiration of its term.
AIOT Smart Highway: As previously mentioned, we have implemented sensors and micro weather stations in existing MLFF tolling gantries to forecast weather and monitor real-time conditions such as air quality and earthquakes. This helps optimise maintenance routines and ensure the safety of motorists and the operations/maintenance team. We plan to introduce the same solution in Thailand.
Technology-wise, to adapt to rapidly changing market needs and diverse demands, we will expand our strategic technological partnerships and enhance existing solutions with AI and artificial intelligence of things (AIOT), increasing the diversity of our product portfolio. For example, we plan to integrate 3D lidar and AI machine vision into our roadside solutions to optimise vehicle recognition accuracy.
In countries where highways are extensive and fibre networks are unavailable, we will use 5G networks for AIOT data transmission and ensure secure network transmission through software-defined networking. This represents a new approach to tolling development.
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