Dartford Crossing IT could cost £42.3m

The Highways Agency is planning a contract for an IT system to support charging services for vehicles using the Dartford Crossing, tunnels and a bridge across the river Thames. To be known as the Dartford Free Flow Charging (DFFC) scheme, the project is expected to cost £42.3m, according to a pre-tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union. The current operation at the Dartford Crossing involves toll booth services, but as part of the new scheme electronic road user charging will be introduced. "There is currently an old fashioned toll system and drivers pay the charge to a person in a booth," a spokesman for the agency told GGC. "Free flow charging is to help traffic flowing through the crossing and ensure the safety aspects of the crossing, such as stopping abnormal loads." The notice says the contractor will implement vehicle detection solutions, which will be used as the basis to enforce the scheme and make charges. The supplier will be expected to design, test and introduce a scalable IT system, including custom and commercial off-the-shelf software and the provision of the physical infrastructure to support the DFFC service. Back office processes will include processing payments and discounts, enquiry and complaint handling, account registration and management, and the management of tags. Channels for customers to pay, register and make enquiries could include the internet, a contact centre and text messaging. An enforcement operations service will include the issue of all penalty charge notices and the management and processing of all enforcement related queries, representations, appeals and debt recovery. According to the notice, the Highways Agency could contract with a single supplier to deliver all the services, a consortium or with a prime contractor which will use sub-contactors. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.