FLEETS will not have to contend with multiple tolling systems when local authorities gain the right to impose congestion charges on road users. Confirmation that the windscreens of fleet vehicles will not be peppered with different tolling tags to enter different city centres coincided with the news that Edinburgh and Leeds will host the Government's next road tolling trials.

Eric Sampson, research director at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, said: 'Ministers have said very clearly that they want one piece of equipment capable of working around the country.' This does not mean that one consortium will win the contract to supply tolling technology to all local authorities, but simply that all tolling technologies must be compatible.

The technology behind road tolling, from scanning cars to issuing bills to drivers, will be at the heart of the Leeds and Edinburgh trials following research into driver reaction to tolling carried out in Leicester last year. Earlier trials of road charging technology at the Transport Research Laboratory focussed on motorway tolling.