Recent Kapsch News from SAToll alliance reportedly opening up global prospects for SA technology
By: Irma Venter
15th April 2011
Traffic Management Technologies (TMT), the South African partner of Austrian toll technology firm Kapsch, says the Gauteng toll road project has created opportunities for the Cape Town-based company to roll out its home-grown technology internationally.
The joint venture between Kapsch and TMT won the R6,22-billion contract to design, build and operate the electronic toll collection system for the Gauteng open-road toll system, set to become operational later this year.
Theirs was the least expensive tender, with the most expensive coming in at R15,29-billion.
The 17% black-owned TMT is 57%-owned by Kapsch.
Criticism raised against the Gauteng toll project has included the assertion that most of the money earned at the toll gantries will leave South Africa, as Kapsch is not a local enterprise.
However, TMT executive director Douglas Davey says this is not true.
“My estimate is that 25% of the money will leave the country. A third of the work is being outsourced to TMT. So, we are doing a considerable portion of the work, and we employ only South Africans.
“Also, a lot of work is being outsourced to other local companies, such as security and tele- communication firms. It is in everyone’s interest to do most of the work here, as it provides hedging against currency movements.”
Davey adds that Kapsch’s investment in the company was necessitated by a lack of interest from local finance houses to invest in home-grown engineering enterprises.
“We were looking for finance to develop a range of products, but we found it very difficult to secure what we needed. We needed capital to grow, so we approached Kapsch to invest in TMT. It gave us the funds we required to grow the company.
“We looked at listing – but how do you do that before you have the scale you require? [We] have only now [achieved this scale] through the recent growth associated with this and other traffic management projects.”
TMT is responsible for a number of aspects of the open-road tolling system, with most related to the handling of violations, from tracking and tracing the vehicles concerned to the collection process.
“We are delivering the equipment and software – something which is very marketable worldwide. We hope to secure more international contracts,” says Davey.
“We have, in fact, already received international interest in these products.”
Davey notes that TMT’s technology, called iForce, is unique as it fully integrates toll collection support services.
Project Update
Government is currently in the process of review- ing the toll fee structure as announced by the South African National Roads Agency Limited, following a public outcry over the proposed tariffs of 66c/km without discounts.
“The contract was awarded in October 2009. We are in the commissioning process of a contractual arrangement. The software is complete,” says Davey.
“The system is configurable, so there are no issues if the fare changes.”
The Kapsch investment in TMT has also triggered the completion of iControl, a product which has already been fortunate enough to secure development funding from the Depart- ment of Trade and Industry, says Davey.
This TMT product, not developed for the Gauteng toll system, is a traffic management control and information system, able to do advanced adaptive control at traffic-signal- controlled intersections.
If this sounds too complex, think of iControl as a radar monitoring system that can literally see all vehicles approaching a traffic light and then decide whether to hold green, for exam- ple, to allow the biggest mass of traffic through first.
“The system can decide for itself the best way to optimise traffic flow to reduce congestion,” explains Davey.
“There is virtually nothing like it in the world.”
Davey says TMT is also involved in the implementation of an automated fare collection system for the Johannesburg Rea Vaya bus rapid transit system, in partnership with Belgium firm Prodata.
TMT and Prodata are to design, build and operate the system in a contract worth around R200-million.
In the end, says Davey, TMT has, in the space of nine years, developed from a one-man company to one employing 650 people, boasting an annual turnover of R350-million.
“We wanted to develop products and services and export them. We wanted to replace imported technology. We have succeeded.
We develop our software in-house. We do research and development. We design, build, operate and integrate, and a third of our staff are technical people.”
Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu