Dutch satellite tracking for cars

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Maybe Hanno can tell us more.

The current system is based on paying high taxes on new cars (some 45%!!! of the total price) and an annual road tax fee based on vehicle weight. Even if you drive 0 km per year, one pays the same amount as someone with the same car driving tens of thousands of kilometers per year.

So what?

Well, we live in one of the most densely populated countries in the world: 16+ million people on 16,000 square miles. In 2007 well over 7 million passenger cars were registered. Our road network is suffering badly from congestion. The Dutch government intends to introduce a different form of payment for mobility. The idea is to introduce a "pay per use" system, i.e. not vehicle ownership will be the basis for payment, but the use of a vehicle. Currently, work is underway to implement plans for charging for the use of all roads: lorries will be charged from 2011 and all vehicles from 2016. The scheme will be GPS-based, requiring around 10 million units by the time charging starts for cars.

There are other options to track vehicles instead of GPS: many driver´s have mobile phones and they are being tracked to ensure network connectivity. The same tracking could be used for payment of road usage.

HTH,
Hanno