WRITTEN ON June 10th, 2005 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized

from Kable’s GC Weekly newsletter

Transport secretary Alistair Darling should take a long drive down the autobahn, preferably in a lorry.
If he wants an example of how not to plan a road charging scheme, Germany’s effort to reduce congestion and emissions for its heavy goods vehicles is a good start.
Germany was planning to set up a road charging scheme for lorries, with payments ranging between 9p and 14p per mile depending on the size of vehicle and its emmissions. The scheme depended on the ‘black box’ and satellite tracking model which is being considered in the UK’s proposals. Payments were to be made online or at service station terminals.
The project suffered sixteen months of delay. It was widely recognised that the technology was simply not up to the task. Also, the project was hit by ongoing rows between the vehicle associations and the consortium of IT companies involved in running the system.
Worse still, in the first days of the scheme going live, the toll terminals couldn’t cope with cash payments causing chaos.
The German experience shows that with a project of this kind, perhaps even more than in other areas of the public sector, getting the involvement of key stakeholders is absolutely critical.
Of course, the German system was just for lorries. A much more expansive scheme as the Department for Transport is proposing is likely to raise all these issues and more.
It’s encouraging that the department is taking a long term and incremental approach to the planning and implementation. But to set up a national scheme would be hugely ambitious, and some sober consideration of whether a project of this scope is really necessary and achievable is urgently needed before the UK goes any further.

Damn right. What lessons have we learned from ID systems and NPfIT to date? Proper full consultation. Listen to critical friends, dont – as the Home Office did last week – ask industry to help turn round public opinion on controversial government plans. As if the public cared a fig for what Atos, EDS, CGEY, IBM, or Oracle think is a good idea. If you want to change public opinion Bob Geldorf, Bono and the Archbishop of Canterbury are better allies. Or for this one, perhaps Jeremy Clarkson.