Parkopedia, a leading connected vehicles services provider, and Uproad, a leading mobile tolling payment system, announced the integration of their platforms, automating the toll payment process for millions of drivers in the US.

US drivers complete nearly 6 billion journeys along the country’s nearly 9,500km of toll roads, bridges and tunnels every year, according to the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), which also concluded that toll roads and bridges tend to be safer, better maintained and less congested route options for drivers.

Uproad toll alerts and payments via smartphone are currently available in 19 US states, with further coverage to be added later this year. The partnership enables seamless access through tollways by unifying Parkopedia’s in-car payment platform with Uproad’s digital toll payment system, eliminating the need for a tolling transponder.

Drivers only need to register and agree to terms and conditions once to enable license plate recognition to identify the vehicle every time it passes through a toll, triggering the automated and effortless payments that drivers now expect from their connected vehicles. Real-time notifications are also sent to the driver for each event, allowing for transaction transparency and ease of management.

In the future, Parkopedia’s in-car payment platform will be an enabler for the global transition towards smart cities, where tolling systems for zone entry and exit or road use are set to become the industry norm. Drivers of connected vehicles will expect an automated, all-digital customer payment experience for all tolling stations and chargeable zones as standard.

In addition to tolling, Parkopedia’s vehicle-centric payment platform allows drivers to pay for both on and off-street parking, as well as EV charging, and ‘pay-at-the-pump’ fueling, all via the vehicle’s infotainment system.

The platform solves the time-consuming and expensive task of aggregating a large number of service suppliers and payment providers for automakers, uniting them into a single integrated solution. Unique Single Sign-On capabilities, with full Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security compliance, allows for consistency across all merchants and all commerce domains, bringing together a plethora of payment service providers without additional enforced customer authentication at the point of sale.

Uproad is the latest addition to Parkopedia’s portfolio of leading payment services in the US and Europe, joining recent additions such as parking operators Passport, APCOA and OPnGO, as well as fueling partners ThinxNet and CarPay-Diem, further expanding the reach of the Parkopedia Payment Platform since its launch last year.

Parkopedia is used by millions of drivers and organizations such as Audi, Apple, BMW, Ford, Garmin, GM, Hyundai Kia, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Sygic, TomTom, Toyota, Volkswagen, and others. Parkopedia helps drivers find and pay for parking, EV charging, fueling and tolls in 15,000 cities across 89 countries. Parkopedia is also developing highly detailed parking maps and corresponding algorithms to help drivers and self-driving vehicles navigate to an open parking space indoors.

Uproad, a modern, mobile tolling payment system, is a consumer startup within The Kapsch Group, an international transportation systems company. Uproad offers account transparency, Toll Alert and a Trip Calculator, enabling drivers to get real-time notifications when they’ve passed a toll and budget for road travel. Drivers can also track tolling expenses.