Paying for the Highway, Electronically

In Italy, Telepass is synonymous with fast toll payment on the highway. Originating in the early 1990s, this is an Italian engineering feat, based on a technology born within the Olivetti Group contained in the device designed by Giugiaro, which quickly spread throughout Europe. However, drivers had to wait until now to get a truly European Telepass. This month, the CEO of the company Gabriele Benedetto (Bocconi undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Bocconi graduate degree in Administration, Corporate Finance and Control, in 2004 and 2006, respectively) announced that the French, Spanish and Portuguese tollways have finally been rendered compatible with the payment system in use in Italy.
"Actually, the European Telepass for truck drivers, the heaviest users, covers nine EU countries and has already been in existence for some time," says the 36-year-old managing director of the company, which is controlled by Atlantia. "Starting March 28, we will also market the new European Telepass to car drivers, who will thus be able to pay tolls automatically in France and Spain, and for parking space as well. We hope we'll soon to be able to sign agreements with countries such as Switzerland and Austria, but there there's an infrastructure problem there, because they don't have tool booths and use the vignette system, whereby you put a sticker on your windshield."

➜ The European Telepass is only the latest of a string of innovations you are leading. The others concern the evolution of Telepass Pay, a digital payments company that opens up unprecedented business opportunities.
Yes, I must say that the transition was already under way when I was appointed CEO. I remember that, just during an informal meeting I had with Telepass shareholders when I had not yet joined the company, I told them I thought that, potentially, they were the biggest player in micropayments, since this is a company that is second only to PostePay in terms of numbers of transactions, and comes before Nexi, albeit with a lower total volume of transactions. Perhaps it was my view that made Atlantia understand the potential of Telepass and put me at the helm of the company. Today, with Telepass Pay, which is formally a fintech company that deals with electronic money, we have a new company that combines two activities: one dealing with payments and the other with mobility, since it integrates all the services that matter to car owners, as well as any other mobility user.

➜ With respect to highway tolls, digital payments is a much more competitive market. How do you defend yourself from competitors?
First of all, we are increasingly expanding the services that are integrated as part of our Telepass Pay app. In addition to those that have been included for a long time, such as congestion charge payments, airport parking, meter parking, we will integrate others, from gas filling to car sharing, from paying vehicle taxes to taxi hailing, down to local public transportation. Our intent is to spread and make everyone appreciate the Telepass style of payment, the one that allows you to pay in an invisible, safe, quick, practical way, without showing cards, type in pins or store passwords.

➜ In all this, would Telepass earn on transaction commissions, or just from fees? In other words, what is the business model of Telepass Pay?
Our luck is that ours is a consolidated business model that originated in 1990, but that it is now extremely current. We earn a small margin on each transaction, and therefore our revenues come from intermediation. Our earnings come from a variable monthly fee, which depends on the services used. Also in this sense we do not feel like we are aggregators, but consider ourselves closer to the Anglo-Saxon model of selling convenience, i.e. experience. With a feature, however, that is unique to us and appreciated by merchants: we reimburse tolls, rentals or parking to highway operators in advance with respect to the customer's day of billing.

➜ Is there a market that, more than others, is giving results that exceed your expectations?
The management of private company fleets. It is a rapidly developing sector and we offer the convenience of integrating different services, from toll to fuel, and we also provide companies with a simpler and more effective reporting and billing system, which for instance enables them to be easily reimbursed for the VAT paid on highway tolls, as the new Italian budget law contemplates.

➜ There has long been talk of a possible alliance between Atlantia and auto manufacturers to include Telepass in all cars as they leave the plant. What's the truth on the matter?
We have ongoing discussions with carmakers, in particular our discussions with the FCA Group are well on track, but also French brands are interested. We have also tried with German manufacturers, but they are trying other roads for now. We do not want to be manufacturers of devices. What we would like to do is to be able to access vehicles and integrate our card in their systems, so as to be able to mirror our app on on-board displays, thus opening the way to all the connected services that already exist and the others we are developing for this purpose. For example, one day as you turn off your car's engine you'll start paying the parking meter, which will automatically stop the moment you restart the car and drive away. Wouldn't it be terribly convenient