Overview
ISO/TR 6026:2022 - Electronic fee collection - Pre-study on the use of vehicle licence plate information and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technologies - provides a comprehensive analysis of using licence plate number (LPN) information and ANPR in electronic fee collection (EFC). The technical report describes the legal, technical and functional contexts for LPN-based EFC, delivers a gap analysis against existing EFC standards (based on the European Electronic Toll Service - EETS - model), and proposes a standardization roadmap to address identified gaps. Annex A gives real-world examples of LPN-based tolling schemes.
Key technical topics and requirements
ISO/TR 6026:2022 addresses these core topics:
- Legal context and licence plate characteristics - regulated plates, country identifiers and issues such as illegal or altered plates.
- LPN and ANPR fundamentals - LPN properties, ANPR recognition workflows, image acquisition and processing, and recognition limitations.
- Use cases and business processes - registration, recognition, charging, enforcement, exception handling and system interactions.
- Technical interfaces (TI-1 to TI-7) - definition of interfaces for toll context, user registration, user list exchange, recognition, billing, data retrieval and enforcement.
- System components and challenges - ANPR components, central management, image authentication, communications, HMI and performance/accuracy considerations.
- Gap analysis and roadmap - standardization gaps (e.g., interface specifications, performance metrics, security, vehicle register interfaces) with recommended actions and a roadmap for standards development.
Practical applications and intended users
ISO/TR 6026:2022 is designed for organizations deploying or standardizing LPN/ANPR solutions in transport and tolling:
- Toll chargers (TC) and toll service providers (TSP) implementing LPN-based tolling or augmenting GNSS/DSRC systems.
- Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) vendors and integrators building ANPR systems, image acquisition hardware and central management platforms.
- Vehicle registration authorities and enforcement agencies exchanging LPN data for billing and compliance.
- Standards bodies, policymakers and system architects defining interface specifications, performance tests and security requirements.
Common use cases: roadside tolling, congestion charging, parking payments, enforcement workflows, degraded-mode trip reconstitution and hybrid EFC systems combining ANPR with GNSS or DSRC.
Related standards
- References the EETS model and highlights alignment opportunities with the ISO 17573 series (EFC system architecture, vocabulary and data dictionary). ISO/TR 6026:2022 helps prioritize standardization work and informs development of interface, testing and performance standards for LPN-based EFC.