Automatic toll collection fails & strands German rubbish
Discussion
No it's not about Beemers 
. It's a salutary tale for future road toll systems.
After a shaky and expensive start, it seems as if the automatic toll-collection system for trucks on the German Autobahn (freeway or turnpike, depending on if you are a car or a truck) is more or less working.
Unless you happen to be the Ferdinand Münnich Waste Disposal company in Lippstadt. Our local newspaper, the Neue Westfalische Zeitung, reported on the 10 July 2007 that their truck fleet was immobilised, pretty much from one second to the next, as the newspaper put it, at about 10 am on 19 March.
At that point, the company received phone calls from six of its drivers who were somewhere in Germany on the Autobahn. Their on-board toll machines were turned off, because the company's credit limit was exceeded. The company performs its toll transactions using the "Log-Pay-System", as do many companies which are continuously underway. This system extends credit for tolls automatically through a bank called the DVD-Bank until specific payment dates. DVD-Bank works with a collection agency, Creditreform, to protect itself from insolvent companies.
Apparently at Creditreform there was suddenly an "arrears advisory" concerning the firm. That was automatically forwarded to DVB-Bank, which shut off credit immediately and that in turn led Toll Collect to shut off the on-board systems so that the trucks could not roll further. It took a day to clear up the problem; meanwhile the truckers had to wait in Autobahn rest areas.
Apparently it was a mistake. However, Creditreform apparently doesn't (want to) take responsibility for the information it distributes. The bank is apparently saying that credit is a privilege, not a right, and trust in the customer (Münnich) was temporarily lost through the information from Creditreform until the problem was sorted out.
The company Münnich is trying to recover costs. As the paper put it in its subtitle "the involved (organisations) are washing their hands in their innocence".
Streaky
. It's a salutary tale for future road toll systems.After a shaky and expensive start, it seems as if the automatic toll-collection system for trucks on the German Autobahn (freeway or turnpike, depending on if you are a car or a truck) is more or less working.
Unless you happen to be the Ferdinand Münnich Waste Disposal company in Lippstadt. Our local newspaper, the Neue Westfalische Zeitung, reported on the 10 July 2007 that their truck fleet was immobilised, pretty much from one second to the next, as the newspaper put it, at about 10 am on 19 March.
At that point, the company received phone calls from six of its drivers who were somewhere in Germany on the Autobahn. Their on-board toll machines were turned off, because the company's credit limit was exceeded. The company performs its toll transactions using the "Log-Pay-System", as do many companies which are continuously underway. This system extends credit for tolls automatically through a bank called the DVD-Bank until specific payment dates. DVD-Bank works with a collection agency, Creditreform, to protect itself from insolvent companies.
Apparently at Creditreform there was suddenly an "arrears advisory" concerning the firm. That was automatically forwarded to DVB-Bank, which shut off credit immediately and that in turn led Toll Collect to shut off the on-board systems so that the trucks could not roll further. It took a day to clear up the problem; meanwhile the truckers had to wait in Autobahn rest areas.
Apparently it was a mistake. However, Creditreform apparently doesn't (want to) take responsibility for the information it distributes. The bank is apparently saying that credit is a privilege, not a right, and trust in the customer (Münnich) was temporarily lost through the information from Creditreform until the problem was sorted out.
The company Münnich is trying to recover costs. As the paper put it in its subtitle "the involved (organisations) are washing their hands in their innocence".
Streaky
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