Insurance goes tolling
New players have entered the European tolling industry. In Italy the Unipol insurance group, through its company AlfaEvolution Technology S.p.A., registered as an EETS provider. In Norway, the toll service provider Fjellinjen Utsteder AS was acquired by Fremtind Forsikring AS, the insurance branch of the banks Sparebank 1 and DNB.
AlfaEvolution Technology received the registration as EETS provider from the Italian Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport in July 2020. With this registration the company is authorised to offer EETS services in Italy and across Europe after accreditation in the respective toll domains. The accreditation with the Italian toll chargers is already in progress.
In August 2020 Fremtind Forsikring announced the acquisition of service provider operations with 750.000 tolling customers from Fjellinjen, the toll charger in the Oslo region in Norway. The majority of the customers are consumers in Oslo and surroundings. Fremtind Forsikring announced that an objective is to simplify toll payments for their customers.
The approaches selected by AlfaEvoluation Technology and Fremtind Forsikring are quite different. The Italians have registered as a new player in the tolling industry, and the Norwegians have acquired the largest toll service provider in the country. They share, however, a focus on the toll payment services for light vehicles. It will be interesting to follow how they can combine insurance and tolling services and how they position themselves in the tolling market.
It is not new that financial institutions play a role in tolling. In Spain, banks have been issuers of on-board-units for the Spanish tolling system for many years, and have played a key role in increasing the market penetration for electronic tolling. With insurance companies entering the tolling market this year, the potential for a bigger market impact is large.
Source: Eriksroed Consulting
