ATI appoints David Machamer new chairman, JJ Eden becomes chief executive

The board of the Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI) in a teleconference Monday accepted the resignation of J J Eden as chairman to date with his departure from North Carolina DOT. It voted to appoint the present vice-chair David Machamer of Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to replace Eden when he joins the private sector.

Eden who was the founder of ATI as head of toll operations at the North Carolina DOT is moving to head a new the toll group at AECOM, the large international engineering firm head officed in Los Angeles.

On taking up that job, probably in September, at ATI Eden will become chief executive of ATI with the title of president through 2011, or as the board determines. The position is an unpaid, part-time job and answerable to the board - which is comprised solely of representatives of toll agencies.

Grady Rankin a colleague of Eden at NCDOT as the state turnpike's chief financial officer and secretary/treasurer of ATI proposed the transition arrangements in a 2-page memo to the ATI board. (see link at bottom)

The memo said it was important to maintain ATI as toll operators organization and to exclude vendors from decisionmaking so the organization could be supplier- and technology- neutral.

Therefore with Eden joining a vendor he needed to be off the board and subject to its decisions.  His formal status would be similar to PBS&J which does work for ATI.

Rankin said Eden's services are needed for the immediate future because maintaining momentum was "critical."

The incoming chairman David Machamer told us the Rankin reorganization proposal was accepted unanimously. Everyone wanted continuity - no interruption to a bunch of initiatives the ATI has under way.

J R Fenske of NCDOT remains as ATI director of membership and programs.

A new vice-chair to replace Machamer will be decided later.

List of initiatives

ATI activities, our summary:

- Trial national clearing house: ATI will be issuing an RFP in August for vendors to operate a trial national clearing house for interstate toll transactions that they hope will be operational before the end of the year. A selected company or companies are being asked to handle real toll transactions - transponder and license plate image based tolls, collect the tolls from motorists and remit funds due to the appropriate toller.

- Violation enforcement reciprocity initiative: a committee is working to draft terms of state legislation to give teeth of interstate collections.

- Collaboration with American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators: early efforts to inform motor registries of tollers' needs with a presentation called Tolling/DMV 101.

- I-95 Corridor Coalition violation enforcement reciprocity: provides $20k to pay a legislative attorney to work on model legislation, and NC and VA DMV commissioners discussing the first agreement.

- E-ZPass/SunPass interoperability pilot: in discussion but delayed

- 3M, Federal Signal and PIPs tests of an 'invisible ink' technology: ATI will help find a pike for tests

- Federal Signal initiatives: switchable transponder for HOT lanes and possible multiprotocol reader

- possible federal mandate for interoperability: ATI briefing USDOT/FHWA on industry progress, much of ATI work relevant to possible road pricing or VMT fees.

Rankin memo:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/RankinMemo.pdf

TOLLROADSnews 2010-07-14