“The pipeline’s always full of companies looking to provide technology and the trend of niche companies being acquired will continue” Tracy Marks
Tracy Marks, the new President of TransCore, talks to Jason Barnes about how he sees the company and the industry shaping up over the next few years.
In August this year, Tracy Marks took over the presidency of139 Transcore, succeeding John Simler, who has moved on to other roles within parent company 7018 Roper Industries.
A 19-year veteran of the company, Marks describes himself as having been groomed for the job. Previously responsible for TransCore’s Southern region in the US, he also took on a series of roles, including the top job at United Toll Systems, as part of moves which were carefully choreographed to prepare him for where he is now. The appointment marks the end of a beginning some years in the planning but opens the way to redefine TransCore and, it is intended to move into new or expanded markets in both the technological and geographic senses.
Significantly, and unlike his three predecessors who all came from financial backgrounds, Marks is an engineer by training. As a result, he professes to have a hard-earned understanding of customers’ and tolling’s technological needs. That, he says, affords him a slightly different perspective and will be useful in guiding TransCore. Marks sees the company as far more than just a tolling company and is gearing his new charge up for a more sustained, global presence, building on moves made over recent years but accelerating over the next 12 months or so.
TransCore has already been challenging perceptions that it is a US-focused company, he continues. Marks points to significant presences which have been built up in recent years in the Middle East and other locations, such as Puerto Rico, and describes the company’s international ambitions as “opportunistic, but smart”. And its presence in a domestic tolling market beset with the difficulties of reconciling many, often small and bespoke solutions is far from being a disadvantage: “There are perceptions that the US tolling market is a closed shop but there are similar perceptions of the rest of the world from within the North American market. It’s very hard to break in because of the huge number of legacy deployments. ‘Compatibility’ is a huge obstacle to the adoption of better, lower-cost solutions.
“It’s not the manufacturers in the US who have kept the market closed. It’s the customers – many of which are now mature agencies responsible for significant revenues – who have written the systems specifications. Vendors were responding to their needs in line with market forces. Now, current transportation bill legislation in the form of MAP-21 is pushing national interoperability within four years and you’re going to see more innovation as a result.”
Nonetheless, the technology toolbox is larger than it’s ever been, with new solutions poised to make their effects felt. TransCore, Marks says, is taking a dual approach. It is working to improve RFID transponder technology whilst also recognising that that technology may not be around forever. That means investing heavily in leapfrog technologies.
“We’re looking at a broad range of potential solutions and scenarios,” he says. “We don’t see a long-term need for toll plazas, for instance – in fact, drivers may not even know where the tolling points are. What we envisage is a safer, flowing environment with technology which evolves in place.
“We’ve always had a very active R&D programme, something which has increased rather than diminished. We’ve had hits and we’ve had misses but that’s what it’s all about – if this were an easy game to be in, you’d see many more players. Ultimately, if we devise successful solutions which are significantly less expensive then everyone wins. The important thing is to go after customer need. There’s no point to developing something in a silo and then going looking for a problem it can address.”
Marks: “Take Houston as an example, there are far more RFID readers on freeways than there are tollways there. The232 Texas Transportation Institute has an award-winning RFID-based travel time information system in place. TransCore is one of the biggest integrators of Bluetooth-enabled devices – a cheaper way of accomplishing the same task than Automated Vehicle Identification for travel management – in the locality. Incident detection is also a big part of our business, and in the Houston area our wrong-way driving detection technology has already saved many lives. That’s our job – utilising technology for customers and taking advantage of new technologies.
“Another big focus for me is making the industry realise that tolling is just a portion of what we do. We also have significant expertise in ITS – in signal control, traffic management and traveller information. California DOT’s state-wide traffic control system and New York’s award-winning adaptive traffic signal scheme provide ready examples of what we can do. I want to continue to do what we do very well but make it more visible.”
That doesn’t mean that tolling will be neglected. It remains a very visible and important part of the portfolio and Marks is keen to observe that the sector sees players come and go, whereas TransCore has been consistent: “Tolling’s a complicated business and a lot of companies, even big ones, dip in and out of it in the mistaken belief it’s an easy way to make money. Go to an IBTTA meeting, and you’ll see that there are only three or four major competitors. In the ITS field, the number is in the hundreds but then ITS is a much broader market.
“But the distinctions between tolling and ITS are becoming blurred. HOT lanes provide an example of that: real-time condition monitoring allied to charging. Technology, including consumer electronics, is going to increase that blurring.”
The last few years’ tolling sector acquisitions and consolidations, whilst headline-grabbing, are nothing new,
he feels.
“It underlines that tolling is a tough sector. One thing’s for sure: the pipeline’s always full of companies looking to provide technology, some of which will complement TransCore’s offerings and needs. You’ll certainly see the trend of niche companies being acquired continue. We’ll also see further strategic alliances. But what we’re seeing now is no different to what we’ve seen over the last 20 years.”
“It’s very difficult to define our multi-faceted customers as an ‘industry’, much less to pick out an all-pervading issue. Our Middle East customers’ burning topics might not be the same as for those in the US, for example.
“If I were to pick out one issue in our domestic market, it would be tolling interoperability. We’re starting to see some practical things happening. Our customers are governed by boards which have to approve funding and the technological discussion is in many ways just the tip of the iceberg. The question to answer has to be ‘What’s in it for the tolling authority?’ and the response has to include something on return on investment. As a systems integrator, interoperability might be TransCore’s preoccupation but our customers also have to contend with congestion, ageing infrastructure, finding ways of expanding their networks and many other issues besides. Tolling authorities have to make decisions over whether to upgrade existing infrastructures or go all-new, and I think we have some interesting times ahead of us over the next few years.”
In August this year, Tracy Marks took over the presidency of
A 19-year veteran of the company, Marks describes himself as having been groomed for the job. Previously responsible for TransCore’s Southern region in the US, he also took on a series of roles, including the top job at United Toll Systems, as part of moves which were carefully choreographed to prepare him for where he is now. The appointment marks the end of a beginning some years in the planning but opens the way to redefine TransCore and, it is intended to move into new or expanded markets in both the technological and geographic senses.
Significantly, and unlike his three predecessors who all came from financial backgrounds, Marks is an engineer by training. As a result, he professes to have a hard-earned understanding of customers’ and tolling’s technological needs. That, he says, affords him a slightly different perspective and will be useful in guiding TransCore. Marks sees the company as far more than just a tolling company and is gearing his new charge up for a more sustained, global presence, building on moves made over recent years but accelerating over the next 12 months or so.
Periodic refresh
“It’s useful and refreshing to periodically step back and look at what and how you’re doing things,” he says. “That’s going to be a key task for me over the coming year. There are a lot of resources within TransCore, key people with expertise we can leverage, but historically the company has tended to be regionalised and resources stayed within their various regions. You’re going to see a lot of mobility of those resources in the coming months as we look to position them to our best advantage.”TransCore has already been challenging perceptions that it is a US-focused company, he continues. Marks points to significant presences which have been built up in recent years in the Middle East and other locations, such as Puerto Rico, and describes the company’s international ambitions as “opportunistic, but smart”. And its presence in a domestic tolling market beset with the difficulties of reconciling many, often small and bespoke solutions is far from being a disadvantage: “There are perceptions that the US tolling market is a closed shop but there are similar perceptions of the rest of the world from within the North American market. It’s very hard to break in because of the huge number of legacy deployments. ‘Compatibility’ is a huge obstacle to the adoption of better, lower-cost solutions.
“It’s not the manufacturers in the US who have kept the market closed. It’s the customers – many of which are now mature agencies responsible for significant revenues – who have written the systems specifications. Vendors were responding to their needs in line with market forces. Now, current transportation bill legislation in the form of MAP-21 is pushing national interoperability within four years and you’re going to see more innovation as a result.”
Pushing innovation
“I’m obviously biased, but TransCore has already been responsible for some significant technology shifts. We’ve worked to make transponders far less costly than original incarnations. We’ve also produced low-cost multiple-protocol readers and sticker tags. The north-eastern US, where there has been a long-term contract in place in the form of the Inter Agency Group [IAG] and E-ZPass, resulted in little need or space for innovation but it has gone on elsewhere, such as in Florida and the south-western US. I’d draw analogies between the IAG and much of what is happening internationally, in that dated standards seem to be stifling competition and new thinking.”Nonetheless, the technology toolbox is larger than it’s ever been, with new solutions poised to make their effects felt. TransCore, Marks says, is taking a dual approach. It is working to improve RFID transponder technology whilst also recognising that that technology may not be around forever. That means investing heavily in leapfrog technologies.
“We’re looking at a broad range of potential solutions and scenarios,” he says. “We don’t see a long-term need for toll plazas, for instance – in fact, drivers may not even know where the tolling points are. What we envisage is a safer, flowing environment with technology which evolves in place.
“We’ve always had a very active R&D programme, something which has increased rather than diminished. We’ve had hits and we’ve had misses but that’s what it’s all about – if this were an easy game to be in, you’d see many more players. Ultimately, if we devise successful solutions which are significantly less expensive then everyone wins. The important thing is to go after customer need. There’s no point to developing something in a silo and then going looking for a problem it can address.”
Technology shifts
Getting technology and perceptions out of silos is a preoccupation. TransCore, like some of its peers, pushes back strongly against assertions that it’s ‘only’ a tolling system supplier.Marks: “Take Houston as an example, there are far more RFID readers on freeways than there are tollways there. The
“Another big focus for me is making the industry realise that tolling is just a portion of what we do. We also have significant expertise in ITS – in signal control, traffic management and traveller information. California DOT’s state-wide traffic control system and New York’s award-winning adaptive traffic signal scheme provide ready examples of what we can do. I want to continue to do what we do very well but make it more visible.”
That doesn’t mean that tolling will be neglected. It remains a very visible and important part of the portfolio and Marks is keen to observe that the sector sees players come and go, whereas TransCore has been consistent: “Tolling’s a complicated business and a lot of companies, even big ones, dip in and out of it in the mistaken belief it’s an easy way to make money. Go to an IBTTA meeting, and you’ll see that there are only three or four major competitors. In the ITS field, the number is in the hundreds but then ITS is a much broader market.
“But the distinctions between tolling and ITS are becoming blurred. HOT lanes provide an example of that: real-time condition monitoring allied to charging. Technology, including consumer electronics, is going to increase that blurring.”
The last few years’ tolling sector acquisitions and consolidations, whilst headline-grabbing, are nothing new,
he feels.
“It underlines that tolling is a tough sector. One thing’s for sure: the pipeline’s always full of companies looking to provide technology, some of which will complement TransCore’s offerings and needs. You’ll certainly see the trend of niche companies being acquired continue. We’ll also see further strategic alliances. But what we’re seeing now is no different to what we’ve seen over the last 20 years.”
Hot topics
More blurring is evident when it comes to defining the ITS industry’s biggest issues. This isn’t timidity, according to Marks, but more an appreciation of complexity.“It’s very difficult to define our multi-faceted customers as an ‘industry’, much less to pick out an all-pervading issue. Our Middle East customers’ burning topics might not be the same as for those in the US, for example.
“If I were to pick out one issue in our domestic market, it would be tolling interoperability. We’re starting to see some practical things happening. Our customers are governed by boards which have to approve funding and the technological discussion is in many ways just the tip of the iceberg. The question to answer has to be ‘What’s in it for the tolling authority?’ and the response has to include something on return on investment. As a systems integrator, interoperability might be TransCore’s preoccupation but our customers also have to contend with congestion, ageing infrastructure, finding ways of expanding their networks and many other issues besides. Tolling authorities have to make decisions over whether to upgrade existing infrastructures or go all-new, and I think we have some interesting times ahead of us over the next few years.”
