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Her Majesty's Customs and Excise has announced the details of the companies and suppliers selected to go through to the next stage of the procurement process for the delayed UK's Lorry Road User Charge scheme.
The ten companies have all been issued with Preliminary Invitations to Negotiate (PITNs) allowing them to progress to the next stage of the process. Their numbers are expected to be substantially reduced following an evaluation of their bids by Customs and Excise officials over the next three to four months after a final Invitation to Tender is expected to be issued in January 2005. Final contracts are due to be awarded by the end of that year.
The ten companies are: Accenture; Autostrade SPA; BT plc; Capita Group plc; DaimlerChrysler Services AG; IBM; Serco plc; Siemens plc; T Systems International; and Tracs Consortium.
The Lorry Road User Charge (LRUC) will apply to all lorries using UK roads, irrespective of nationality but is expected to be 'revenue neutral' for UK-based haulage operators who will benefit from a fuel duty repayment scheme. The scheme is expected to make use of GNSS and/or microwave communications linked to a digital OBU. Recent moves by the EU suggest that the equipment will be incorporated within the new digital tachograph now under development.
Concerns over the precise nature of the technology and its robustness have already led to a decision to delay LRUC from its original start date in the UK of 2006 to 2007/8. Government sources indicate that the technology will have to be capable of providing varied charges according to road type and perhaps time of day in addition to the more usual criteria of size of vehicle and distance travelled.
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