Anyone who does delivery work in Europe knows how much of a pain it can be when countries aren’t aligned in their regulations and legislation. Toll payments can be especially troublesome, as drivers have to navigate a variety of different requirements in different countries. Making matters worse, despite regulation calling for alignment in 2004, many member states still haven’t integrated electronic payment systems.
Luckily, companies that work within and alongside the industry understand the issue, and there are some good products on the market to help solve it. In this article, we’ll sum up AS 24’s PASSango system, focusing especially on its highly sought after EuroPilot feature.
PASSango
AS 24 has offered this system to drivers in the industry since 2017. Essentially, it provides a way for them to automatically adjust their toll payments to the requirements of the country they’re in.
PASSango fits vehicles with a sensor to detect when they are passing through any electronic toll booths. GPS data is also cross-referenced with taxable network maps where they’re available. While managers might need to understand the complexities of the system, for hauliers, it’s simple. Payment regimes and requirements are automatically worked out as you drive
AS 24 offers four versions of the system:
France only
France Iberic, covering France, Spain and Portugal
Europe all-in-one, covering the above countries as well as Belgium, Austria, and soon Germany
And EuroPilot, which offers additional services on top of the all-in-one version
While all variants are useful, many in the transport industry have got a lot of benefits from the final one.
EuroPilot
A dream for anyone involved in delivery work, EuroPilot complements the already impressive PASSango with some neat bells and whistles.
Firstly, it provides a huge amount of data, all accessible and manageable through the phone app and the customer service portal. This includes precise GPS and regular updates, as well as sorting vehicles by their individual registration number.
Secondly, and even better for drivers, it gives users access to a state-of-the-art swift updating route mapping service. Drivers input the details of their vehicles and the system simulates an optimal route based on this data. If you’ve ever had to deal with a GPS system trying to lead you over a weight-restricted bridge, we don’t need to explain how useful this could be.
Benefits
EuroPilot has huge potential to significantly improve the efficiency of delivery work. Managers can track a vehicle from the beginning of its journey to the end, and can even compare the actual route taken to the ideal simulation. This enables them to check drivers’ performance against the system’s calculations.
More than this, having better route predictions allows firms to give clients better ETAs, helping planning at all levels, and AS 24 has a team on hand to help with analysing and evaluating all the data EuroPilot produces.
Finally, each customer gets a unique price, calculated based on factors like how many PASSango boxes they have installed, how many countries they visit, and average monthly usage.
We hope that this has shown you some of the potential benefits of AS 24’s system for delivery work. If it has, now might be a good time to consider investing in it.
Norman Dulwich is a Correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the leading online trade network for the road transport industry. Connecting logistics professionals across the UK and Europe through their website, Haulage Exchange provides services for matching delivery work with available drivers, and is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange in the UK.
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