October 30, 2015 RT-Invest Transport System LLC delivered the first on-board units to the “Platon” Service Centre in Saint Petersburg. HGV owners registered in the toll collection system will be able to receive ordered on-board units throughout the country within the next week. The operator of the system will deliver the required number of on-board units to the User Service Centres “Platon” within this period. The devices are an alternative to the registration of toll tickets and one of the two ways of compulsory payment from November 15, 2015, to offset the damage caused to Russian federal highways by HGVs exceeding 12 tonnes of gross vehicle weight.
“We have opened various user registration channels in advance: Customer Portal on the website of the system and service centres. At the moment, the system has registered more than 170 thousand HGVs exceeding 12 tonnes of gross vehicle weight. Based on the requests for the necessary number and place of receipt of on-board units, they are transported to the offices of the system throughout the country. Current inquiries by the number of on-board units are over 100 thousand pieces, which is completely covered by the first produced lot. We advise all carriers to register in advance. We provided all conditions. The on-board unit can be obtained at any office of the system, regardless of the place of registration of the company. The production of the next batch of on-board units has already been launched. Let me remind you that the users of the system receive the on-board unit for free,” explained Alexander Sovetnikov, General Director of RT-Invest Transport System LLC.
The on-board unit is one of two ways to offset the damage caused to Russian federal highways. World experience shows that a maximum of 15% of the total number of users in the first few years of toll collection systems choose on-board units as a way of paying a fee, the rest use toll tickets or their variations. The users of the “Platon” system will be able to obtain toll tickets through the customer portal on the website of the system, using a mobile application or toll collect terminals, as well as in one of 138 customer service centres.
The on-board unit is a 100% domestic technical project, produced taking into account the best foreign experience. The on-board unit software guarantees the protection of data on the movement of the vehicle through the encryption of information, which completely ensures the preservation of the trade secrets of users.
This technical device allows using the GLONASS/GPS satellite navigation technologies to determine the route of the HGV movement along the federal highways. It passed certification as a means of measurement, and was properly tested. The on-board unit is the property of the state and is issued free of charge to users of the toll collection system. Service maintenance is carried out by the operator of the system at no cost during the warranty period established by the manufacturer as 3 years.
The use of the device is convenient because in the presence of funds on the personal account of the HGV owner, the calculation and writing-off of the fee is carried out automatically for the distance actually travelled. To obtain the on-board unit, the HGV owner must register in the register of the toll collection system and conclude on-board unit free use agreement with the operator by providing the required set of documents. The conclusion of the contract and the issuance of the on-board unit take place during a personal visit of the HGV owner or authorised representative to the customer service centre. The addresses of the offices and the location of toll collect terminals can be found on the official website of the platon.ru system or by calling the 24-hour hotline: + 7 (800) 550-02-02 (for calls in Russia), + 7 (495) 540-02-02 (for calls from abroad).
