ASECAP

ASECAP Presidency

The ASECAP Steering Committee and General Assembly in Turin on 27 May 2012 endowed the association with revised By-Laws. In accordance with these By-Laws, the Steering Committee unanimously elected the following personalities:

• Mr. Klaus SCHIERHACKL, ASFINAG Chief Financial Officer, remains ASECAP President for the period 2011-2013, confirming his election as ASECAP President on 29 May 2011 in Brussels

• Mr. Jean MESQUI, ASFA Executive Director, has been elected as first Vice President of ASECAP, for one year (period 2012-2013)

• Mr. Øyvind HALLERAKER, representing Norvegfinans, has been elected second Vice President of ASECAP, for one year (period 2012-2013)

• Mr. José Luis FEITO, ASETA President, became immediate Past President of ASECAP, for one year (period 2012-2013)

History

Evolution

The Association was first established in 1973 when the representatives of the French, Italian, Austrian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Norwegian concessionaires decided to have regular meetings, under a structured organisation, namely by the creation of the SECAP, the European Secretariat of the tolled motorways concessionaires. SECAP was serving as a privileged forum to exchange knowledge and experiences on the various issues related to the road transport for those companies working in the same sector.

At the beginning of the nineties, with the progressive implementation of the internal market and the fast development of the European integration, SECAP members understood that the Secretariat needed a new orientation and structure and decided to build a real Association capable of interacting with the European institutions and to express by a single voice the positions and requirements of the European motorways concessionaires.

ASECAP officially became an association on February 8th 1993: its members were the founding seven, namely France (ASFA), Italy (AISCAT), Spain (ASETA), Austria (ASFINAG), Greece (TEO), Portugal (APCAP) and Norway (NORVEGFINANS). These seven members were operating at that time a tolled network of around 16,000 km.

Between 1997 and 2002, the ASECAP network grew at a fast pace: Belgium (N.V. Liefkenshoektunnel), Denmark (the Sund & Baelt Holding A/S  –  Sund & Baelt brings together A/S Storebaelt, which owns and operates the fixed link between the two big Danish islands Zealand and Funen, and Øresundsbro Konsortiet, which owns and operates the fixed link between Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmö in Sweden), as well as several Central and Eastern European countries, including Hungary (AKA) and Slovenia (DARS) which have since joined the EU,Croatia (HUKA) and Serbia (PE “Roads of Serbia”) joined ASECAP during that period. In 2002 the tolled network represented by ASECAP overtook 22,000 km.

Another important enlargement was processed between 2003 and 2005. ASECAP welcomed two new Full members: United Kingdom (M6 Toll) and the Netherlands (N.V. Westerscheldetunnel), and an Associate member from Morocco (Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc).

On January 1, 2007, Germany (Toll Collect GmbH) joined ASECAP. Toll Collect is an entity in charge of collecting tolls on German motorways.

In March 2007 ASECAP welcomed one new Full member, namely Poland (Autostrada Wielkopolska  SA), and two Associate members, namely the Czech Republic (KAPSCH T.S.) and the Slovak Republic (Narodna dialnicna spolocnost – Nationa Motorway Company). Autostrada Wielkopolska represents its own interests but also those of 2 other Polish concessionaires, namely Stalexport Autostrada Malopolska and the Gandsk Transport Company, within the ASECAP bodies.

In December 2007, ASECAP grew to 21 members since the Irish Tolling Industry Association became a Full ASECAP member. National Toll Roads represents the Association within ASECAP bodies.

N.V. Liefkenshoektunnel stepped down as a member of ASECAP in January 2010.

SECAP and its Presidents:

1975 – 1979  Arduino Cerutti
1979 – 1980  Jean Miller
1980 – 1981  Charles Rickard
1981 – 1984  José Luis Cerón
1984 – 1988  Antonio Augusto Figeiredo da Silva Martins
1988 – 1989  Aleksa Ladavac
1989 – 1991  Jean Miller
1991 – 1993  Karl Just

ASECAP and its Presidents:

1993 – 1995 Giuseppe STANCANELLI (AISCAT, Italy)
1995 – 1997  Josep Manuel BASAÑEZ (ASETA, Spain)
1997 – 1999  Gérard MORANÇAY (ASFA, France)
1999 – 2001  Giancarlo Elia  VALORI (AISCAT, Italy)
2001 – 2003  José Luis FEITO (ASETA, Spain)
2003 – 2005  Rémy CHARDON (ASFA, France)
2005 – 2007 João BENTO (APCAP, Portugal)
2007– 2009  Fabrizio PALENZONA (AISCAT, Italy)
2009 – 2011 José Luis FEITO (ASETA, Spain)
2011 – 2013 Klaus SCHIERHACKL (ASFINAG, Austria)

Mission

ASECAP is the European Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures, whose members’ networks today span about 45.000 km of motorways, bridges and tunnels across 20 countries.

ASECAP’s purpose is to defend and develop the system of motorways and road infrastructures in Europe applying tolls as a means to ensure the financing of their construction, maintenance and operation.

Moreover, ASECAP exchanges among its members information regarding the construction, maintenance and operation of toll infrastructure, and promotes and organises study meetings for its members on technical, administrative and financial issues aimed at the deployment of efficient traffic management, providing to the end users a high quality road service at an appropriate cost. For that purpose, it also collects technical and statistical data and participates in select projects.

ASECAP maintains relations with relevant international organisations, the EU institutions and the industry’s main stakeholders, protecting the interests of ASECAP members regarding the deployment of a holistic cooperative transport approach.

Future Orientations

Over the next few years, ASECAP intends to concentrate on the following main objectives:

1) Improving the service to the user

2) Enhancing safety

3) Protecting the environment

 

1) Improving the service to the user

In return for the toll paid, the road user is entitled to the best possible service offered by the concession holding companies, by whom he is regarded primarily as a customer.

With this in mind, the motorways companies’ objectives are twofold :

• To keep traffic flowing in all situations (as regards weather, etc.) in appropriate safety and driving conditions. The companies do this with the support of their surveillance patrols (who intervene in case of accidents) and their maintenance teams for salting, snow clearance, road maintenance, and so on);

• To offer a variety of services aimed at the comfort and safety of the user:

• Rest areas at appropriate intervals. Surrounded by grass and trees, these areas are provided with lavatories and, most often, with picnic tables and playgrounds for children;
• Service areas at appropriate intervals. These offer lavatories with baby changing tables, service stations and shops, restaurants and sometimes hotels, telephones, fax machines and so on. Certain service areas are designed specifically for trucks and have rest rooms, TV, showers, etc.;
• A repair service that the user can contact from emergency telephones along the motorway. The repairers can reach the driver within 20 minutes; the price is calculated on the basis of a guaranteed flat rate tariff, with no surprises for the client;
• The provision of road information by means of variable message sign and, on certain roads, FM motorway radio stations;
• Various means of paying the tolls: cash, foreign currency, credit cards,”hands free” electronic payment.

In this context, ASECAP will concentrate its efforts on three main priorities:

• Providing a high level of service throughout the entire European Toll Motorway Network;
• Developing and refining in-car information facilities in order to inform the driver, practically continuously and in real-time, about traffic conditions;
• Implementing Electronic Tolling interoperability through the different European networks, in accordance with Commission Decision 2009/750/EC on the European Electronic Toll Service (EETS).

The interoperability of the Electronic Fee Collection was the aim of four important ASECAP projects, co-financed by the European Commission, the so-called CESARE projects (Common EFC System for an ASECAP Road Tolling Europen System).

2) Enhancing safety

Motorways are four times safer than ordinary roads. The concession holding companies guarantee safety and a maximum service to the users in return for the tolls they pay.

Over the last 25 years, improvements to safety systems have reduced the number and seriousness of accidents:

• Installation of crash barriers in the central reservation and to the right of the carriageway;
• Edge marking (painted lines, delineators, etc.) enhancing the visibility and clarity of the carriageway;
• Protuberant paintings, visible at night in rainy weather, warning of exits;
• Draining pavements, eliminating aquaplaning and spray, and also reducing surface noise by 4 to 5 db.

Thanks to the patrols who keep the roads under surveillance around the clock, and the emergency telephones located every 2 km, incidents are now reported within 4 minutes.

All these endeavors have reduced significantly the rate of fatal accidents on ASECAP’s motorways, where in fact the EU objective of halving the number of road deaths between 2001 and 2010 has been achieved and even surpassed.

Further progress can be expected in terms of:

• Improvements in safety equipment;
• Changes in user behaviour, partly due to the awareness campaigns regularly carried out by the concession holding companies;
• Dealing with incidents more quickly, involving facilities that make use of the latest technology and intelligent systems whose deployment remains insufficient.

3) Protecting the environment

Like other forms of infrastructure (airports, high speed train, and so on) motorways have an impact on the surrounding environment, mostly with regard to noise, air and water pollution, and so on.

While the automobile industry, for its part, undertakes action to reduce pollutant emissions in particular, the concession holding companies for their part monitor the situation on their networks and take the necessary measures accordingly, in order to protect the environment more effectively.

ASECAP has been working on this major issue and it will continue to do so, namely in the following fields:

• Water: Sealed sedimentation tanks now make it possible to control the risk of pollution to groundwater and watercourses;
• Noise: Draining pavements and noise screens, together with the introduction of more stringent town planning rules, help reduce the nuisance;
• Fauna, flora and biotopes: The companies are eliminating the divisive effects of motorways with, for example, special crossings for game and other mammals;
• Insertion in the landscape: From the initial impact studies to the opening of the road, the engineers and landscape designers of the concession holding companies now work together in order to integrate the motorway into the surrounding countryside without damaging it and, as far as possible, showing it in its best light. Using special techniques for treating “natural” areas, they now know how to sustain the biodiversity of flora on motorway embankments. Similarly they also know how to protect and even reconstitute wetlands.

Internal Structure

COPERs

ASECAP has four Permanent Committees (COPERs), each dealing with one of the domains of ASECAP interest defined by the ASECAP Steering Committee:

COPER I:
Domain: Tolling, charging, concessions
Chair: Mr Bruno de la Fuente, ASETA

COPER II:
Domain: Safety, security, environment, sustainability
Chair: Ms Malika Seddi, ASFA

COPER III:
Domain: Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) research / deployment actions
Chair: Mr Marko Jandrisits, ASFINAG

COPER IV:
Domain: Transport statistics / analysis
Coordinator: Mr Stéphane Verwilghen, ASECAP Secretariat

These Committees analyse the EU transport realities taking into account the ASECAP interest and submit to the Executive Committee and Steering Committee their coordinated proposals for ASECAP action plans. For this purpose, the COPER chairs rely on a team of Vice-Chairs and have access to a pool of experts from ASECAP’s full and associate members.

Moreover, with the agreement of the Steering Committee, the Executive Committee may set up working groups, as platforms for expert discussions about specific issues of interest to the association or its members, on a long-term basis.

Executive Committee (COMEX)

The Executive Committee is composed of the President of the Association, the first and second Vice Presidents and the immediate past President, as well as the Permanent Representatives of two full members of the Association. Moreover, the Secretary General and maximum four COPER chairs also form part of the COMEX, but participate in its meetings without voting rights. With a view to decisions to be taken by the Steering Committee, the COMEX examines all actions falling within the Association’s technical and political domains of interest and decides on proposals for action plans and for the establishment and composition of committees, sub-committees, technical structures and working groups required to support the objectives of the Association.

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is composed of the full and associate members of the Association, but only full members have voting rights. Disposing of the broadest powers to authorise all actions and political decisions that are not reserved to the General Assembly, the Steering Committee decides on all the political and strategic topics belonging to the domains of ASECAP interest and sets the related priorities. It also elects every year the Association’s President and Vice Presidents, as well as the two full members’ Permanent Representatives who are member of the COMEX.

General Assembly

The General Assembly is composed of all the members of the Association, full and associate. Supporting partners are invited to attend as observers. In addition to the competences reserved to it, the General Assembly decides on all the questions submitted by the Steering Committee in the context of the Association’s activities.

Organisation Chart

ASECAP PRESIDENT:
Klaus SCHIERHACKL

ASECAP email address: presidency@asecap.com

 

ASECAP FIRST VICE PRESIDENT:
Jean MESQUI

ASECAP SECOND VICE PRESIDENT:
Øyvind HALLERAKER

ASECAP IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT:
José Luis FEITO

ASECAP SECRETARIAT:

Kallistratos DIONELIS
General Secretary
T: +32 2 289 26 20
E: secretariat@asecap.com ; k.dionelis@asecap.com

Stéphane VERWILGHEN 
Policy Advisor
T: +32 2 289 26 24
E: s.verwilghen@asecap.com

Séverine PUISSANT
Budget & Administration Management
T: +32 2 289 26 21
E: s.puissant@asecap.com

Romina CONTI
Administrative Assistant
T: +32 2 289 26 20
E: r.conti@asecap.com

Carole DÉFOSSÉ
Communication & Information Officer
T: +32 2 289 26 23
E: c.defosse@asecap.com ; info@asecap.com

FAQ’s

WHAT IS TOLL?

1. Toll is the revenue collected by a company, and considered as assets of its budget, from all or a category of the users of a road infrastructure or a road network, for one or several of the following purposes:

• To finance
• To build
• To maintain
• To operate
• To improve

the above mentioned road infrastructure or road network.

2. Within ASECAP, most members are responsible for each and every of the above responsibilities.

3. Within ASECAP, toll is in principle distance-related. Even though in some cases it is time-related for certain categories of users, all ASECAP members consider that toll should, in the future, be primarily distance-related, even if other criteria could be taken into account in its calculation.

WHY THE TOLLS?

ARE THE TOLL FACILITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR CAUSING OR INCREASING TRAFFIC CONGESTION?

IS IT TRUE THAT THE TOLLS REPRESENT ADDITIONAL TAXATION FOR THE ROAD USERS?

WHERE DOES THE MONEY PAID FOR THE TOLLS GO?

ARE THE TOLL FACILITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR CAUSING OR INCREASING TRAFFIC CONGESTION?

The answer of the modern tolled motorways is negative.
In addition, the European Motorways member of ASECAP work firmly towards an interoperable EFC (Electronic Fee Collection) system, which will further facilitate the traffic and will increase significantly the average traffic speed through the toll plazas.

IS IT TRUE THAT THE TOLLS REPRESENT ADDITIONAL TAXATION FOR THE ROAD USERS?

The answer is simple for real tolls: the road users pay a toll to the concession holding company for the use of a specific infrastructure and the facilities and services provided. The same users also pay taxes to the State. However, tolls cannot be considered as additional taxation for the users, because State revenues from taxes are also used to finance other social goods, while the tolls constitute a direct user payment for the quality services he or she receives when using the road network in question.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY PAID FOR THE TOLLS GO?

The modern road operator does not simply offer a “transit service” to the road users, but a real “product”, which needs a series of investments.

The toll revenues are effectively re-invested in order to improve the tachnical qualities of motorway infrastructures and to guarantee, among other things, a higher level of road safety, the respect of the legislative and regulatory framework for the protection of the environment, the provision of a series of services linked to info-mobility (i.e. information in real time about traffic evolution, meteorological conditions, tourist and cultural events happening in the region).

Joyning Asecap

The members of the Association are either full members (one per country) or associate members. The Association may also develop links with supporting partners.

• Full and Associate members
• Supporting Partners

Full members

Full members are associations of companies or companies holding at least one tolled motorway section or a tolled construction in Europe and whose income derives principally from collecting tolls paid for by the users.

Associate members

Associate members are national associations or groups of toll motorways or concession holders operating in non-European countries adjacent and directly connected to the European members of the Association by land or by the Mediterranean sea, or – under certain conditions – companies in charge of collecting a distance-related user charge from the road users.

Membership application procedure

The applicant should send a letter of interest to the ASECAP Secretariat with a proper description of its profile.

How to become a supporting partner?

What are ASECAP supporting partners?

ASECAP members are either full or associate members. Membership of the association is subject to a number of criteria related in particular to the collection of distance-related tolling under concession schemes, and requires the agreement of the ASECAP Governing Bodies.

In addition, ASECAP may also develop links with so-called supporting partners, a category which covers a broad range of organizations that are not entitled to membership as such but have a direct interest in the development of motorway policy.

What’s in it for me?

ASECAP, the European Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures, is the sole organization in the field of tolling concessions with a Pan-European dimension. Its members’ network of about 45 000 km of motorways, bridges and tunnels, across 20 countries, forms a large part of the Trans-European Road Network.

Besides direct networking opportunities with Europe’s road infrastructure operators, ASECAP supporting partnership will offer you first-hand access to strategic information on motorway development policy and technical, administrative, financial and statistical data relating to the construction, maintenance and operation of toll motorways, bridges and tunnels. Moreover, you will be invited to take part in the ASECAP pool of experts, whose members contribute, when relevant, to the technical work undertaken by ASECAP’s committees in domains such as tolling and charging, concessions, safety and security, sustainability, intelligent transport systems, research and innovation and related projects.

The terms of cooperation between the supporting partner and ASECAP are fixed on a case-by-case basis by the ASECAP Governing Bodies, taking into account the partner’s activities and capacities, as well as the interest and added value of the partner’s involvement for the association as a whole.

How to apply?

If you want to become a supporting partner of ASECAP, a written and duly signed application should be submitted to the Secretary-General of ASECAP. Subsequently, the ASECAP Governing Bodies will assess whether there are no conflicts of interest and deliberate whether they accept your organization as a supporting partner of the association.

Contact:   

Mr. Kallistratos Dionelis

ASECAP Secretary-General

Rue Guimard 15

B-1040 Brussels

Belgium

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From  www.asecap.com/english/

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Документы:

• Статистический бюллетень ASECAP за 2012 год