Satellite tracking scheme to charge motorists £1.30 a mile

Motorists face charges of up to £1.30 a mile as part of the government's new congestion-busting plans to use satellite tracking technology to monitor vehicles. But the scheme would require £10bn to fit all cars with on-board tracking devices and government research conducted by a panel of independent experts warns the annual cost of running the system would be around £3bn.

Transport secretary Alistair Darling unveiled the car-tracking scheme in his Future of Transport white paper and said that simply trying to build our way out of congestion is no longer an option. The scheme would raise around £9bn a year in revenue and lead to £12bn in time savings for the UK economy through reduced time stuck in traffic jams, according to the government.

Deloitte Consulting provided the government a model of the system architecture required for a national and local interoperable road-charging scheme. Charges would range from 2p a mile to £1.30 a mile depending on the road and time of day.

It would involve all cars being fitted with an on-board unit (OBU) that can be tracked by satellite, or by microwave receptors or electronic beacons on the roadside. Drivers would set up a road-charging account with one of a selection of payment service providers such as utility companies, which would register the vehicle details and the OBU.

On the road, the OBU would automatically record which charge zones or charge roads the car used, the distance travelled and time of day. This would be transmitted to a central Communications Gateway, which would pass the details to the on-road service provider who would calculate how much it was owed. This would be forwarded to the data clearing operator. At this point all personal details would be removed with just the OBU number and charge forwarded to the payment services provider, who would then bill the driver.

Automatic number plate recognition technology would also be used for the enforcement of charges.

Darling said in a statement to the House of Commons: "The Road Pricing Feasibility Study concludes that a national scheme has the potential to cut congestion by about a half as well as providing environmental benefits. It says that road pricing is becoming technically feasible in the next 10 to 15 years. But for a scheme to work it would need general public acceptance and a great deal of preparation work over a number of years."