Now you can easily and quickly calculate toll costs for any route across North America, Australia, New Zealand Brazil and 19 countries in Europe through the Tollsmart Toll Calculator apps for iPhone & Android and desktop.
Tollsmart was the first app to calculate the cost of tolls across all tunnels, bridges and toll roads in the the US, Canada & Mexico and is rapidly expanding coverage across Europe and other parts of the globe as well.
Commercial customers rely on the Tollsmart Developer APIs and Data Licensing services to estimate and recoup toll expenses and make smarter routing decisions.
GREAT FALLS, Va., June 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tollsmart, LLC, a leading provider of detailed toll information on over ten thousand tolling locations across several continents, today announced that it is providing its toll price data to Google Maps for drivers in the US.
With this information, people using Google Maps will be able to view the cost of tolls in advance of a trip, and be able to make smarter driving decisions that factor in time, distance AND costs.
"We launched Tollsmart in 2015 with the mission to help make the world smarter about tolls, and this represents a huge milestone toward that goal. With over 1 billion users across the globe, Google Maps is one of the most popular navigation apps on the planet so we're excited to deliver valuable toll prices information to Google Maps customers, especially as more tolling facilities convert to cashless tolling which can be confusing to drivers," stated Tollsmart's CEO and Cofounder Jim Kovarik.
Commenting on the announcement, Tollsmart's CTO and Cofounder Dr. Leonid (Leo) Iogansen said "Tolling systems are often local and can be quite complex and so accurately estimating toll prices across entire continents is a significant challenge which requires a great deal of technology and innovation."
Read the full press release here.
Just in time for spring, the team at Tollsmart is excited to announce that we've further expanded our coverage of European toll facilities across all of Northern Europe with the addition of eight new countries including Norway, Sweden and the UK. This release for the first time includes tolls for congestion zones, which are fees charged for entering city centers in London, Stockholm and Gothenburg, as well as fees for ferry crossings.
The team at Tollsmart was honored recently by being invited to participate in a process to review innovative technologies for the upcoming congestion pricing program in New York City. Congestion pricing is a way of charging tolls for vehicles that enter certain parts of a metropolitan area and is slated to be implemented in Manhattan's central business district beginning in December of 2020. Tolls will be charged for vehicles that drive south of 60th Street, with certain exceptions such as the FDR Drive and West Side Highway.
Although similar congestion-based tolls have been implemented in several cities across the globe, this is a seminal event in the US tolling industry as New York will be the first city in North America to utilize this complex type of tolling, and many other cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC are watching closely and may soon follow NYC's lead.
Given the short window of time for rolling out this new method of tolling and the space limitations of NYC streets, the agency responsible for implementing the program (the MTA) has begun exploring new technology that can be applied quickly without requiring the installation of a great deal of physical infrastructure. As part of this evaluation they have invited a handful of innovative technology firms in the tolling industry - including Tollsmart - to create proof-of-concepts and prototypes and submit them to the MTA for evaluation via a process known as an RFI (Request for Information).
We wasted no time as our talented technology team got to work and quickly created a prototype built on our innovative Toll Tracker™ technology which utilizes GPS signals to track when users pass through tolls and applies the appropriate fees. The use of GPS as a tolling technology is getting increased attention given that over 80% of adults in the US now carry GPS-enabled smartphones and a growing percentage of new automobiles have GPS installed as part of their embedded navigation systems. In fact in a recent article the co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar Robin Chase argues that GPS is the 'technology that could transform congestion pricing'.
Whether GPS is embraced by the MTA as part of the platform for NYC congestion pricing is yet to be determined, however the possibilities are exciting and we're excited to be among the companies the MTA has reached out to in their evaluation. Meanwhile if you are in the New York City area or will be traveling there you can test out the prototype we built for the MTA as we've made it publicly available in our free Toll Tracker™ app for iOS in the App Store. Simply download the app and drive south of 60th Street in Manhattan and it should indicate when you have entered into the (proposed) congestion zone, and if you give it a try let us know what you think by dropping us a line at feedback@tollsmart.com.
Happy Driving!