ERTICO – ITS Europe is pleased to continue its ‘Partner in the Spotlight’ interview series, an initiative launched to showcase the work and impact of ERTICO Partners across the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) landscape. This series offers a platform for our Partners to highlight their innovations, share insights, and demonstrate how they contribute to shaping the future of smart mobility.
In this second edition, we feature Be-Mobile from the Service Provider sector, which aims to drive digital mobility solutions. Be-Mobile is at the forefront of developing intelligent traffic and mobility technologies that support safer, greener, and more efficient transport systems.
In the interview, Bart Lannoo, Director of Smart Mobility, shares the company’s vision for dynamic, data-driven mobility. He highlights how the ERTICO Partnership supports their European ambitions through collaboration and access to key ITS networks:
"Be-Mobile is a smart mobility service provider, developing high-tech solutions for traffic (including traffic information, analytics and management) and mobility rights (including mobile parking payment, granting access rights and toll collection). Its proven software platforms connect driver communities through multiple service providers with infrastructure operators, to pave the way to smoother daily mobility by dynamically matching individual guidance needs from travellers with collective capacity from infrastructure providers. Leading service providers, such as www.4411.be and www.flitsmeister.nl, are part of the Be-Mobile group. Although Be-Mobile – founded in 2007 and based in Belgium (Ghent) – is mainly active in the Benelux with its 4411 and Flitsmeister community apps, its software platforms are used at an international scale with businesses in Denmark, Germany, France and so on."
What motivated your organisation to join the ERTICO Partnership, and what key benefits have you experienced since becoming a member?
Be-Mobile joined the ERTICO Partnership to increase its EU visibility, to get in touch with relevant ITS partners, and to join EU-funded projects. We experienced that ERTICO provides lots of networking opportunities, and has several tools in place to connect with different ITS stakeholders from Europe and beyond. However, Be-Mobile also joined the ERTICO Partnership to increase its access to EU funding opportunities as a partner in Horizon Europe and CEF projects. Although Be-Mobile was involved in a few promising project proposals, we were not yet successful in getting EU grants through the partnership. We admit that the partnership is much more than EU funding, but it remains an important tool to stimulate collaboration within innovative domains and to open up new market domains for future business opportunities.
From your perspective, what makes the ERTICO partnership unique in the intelligent transport systems space?
ERTICO is unique by the different platforms it runs or started in the past (like TISA, TN-ITS, DFRS and many more), the network of ITS stakeholders, the impressive track record of successful EU-funded projects, and last but not least, the experienced employees and advisors directly working for the Partnership.
What policy changes or initiatives would you advocate for to accelerate digital innovation and improve mobility infrastructure?
We strongly believe that tools like dynamic road user charging and urban access rights are the way forward to distribute traffic more evenly, better manage traffic flows and increase liveability in general. It perfectly fits with our company vision to dynamically match individual traveller needs with available capacity from infrastructure providers, including road and parking operators, cities, and even ports and logistic hubs. Of course, it takes political courage to take these – often – unpopular measures, but in the long run, they will be crucial to support a sustainable mobility plan.
Another timely topic is road safety. At Be-Mobile, we have the ambition to create a road safety hub on a European scale, that connects data from multiple input sources (community apps, roadside infrastructure, mobile hardware devices like connected traffic cones) and sends targeted warnings to multiple driver communities (cars, trucks, bicycles). By proactively announcing dangerous situations, including both real-time events (like traffic jams, priority vehicles, and vulnerable road users) and long-term disruptions (like roadworks, road closures), we can make a difference in traffic safety. By guiding travellers around disruptions during their journey, we want to keep traffic flowing safely and smoothly.
With the introduction of Denmark’s CO2 differentiated, kilometre-based tolling scheme, what lessons have you learned about integrating environmental objectives into mobility policies?
It is EU directive 2022/362 that gives countries the guideline to use a CO2 parameter in the calculation of toll costs for heavy goods vehicles with the aim of greening the fleet. Countries that are currently rolling out GNSS-based tolling (Denmark, the Netherlands) include this parameter from the start of the toll domain. Countries that already had a toll domain (Germany, Austria) are introducing a change in the calculation, or are planning to do so, e.g., at the time of a contract revision. At Be-Mobile, we already made an adjustment to the business rules for toll cost calculation by introducing the CO2 parameter. One of the recent lessons learned, is that some countries will return (part of) the collected toll revenues to the logistics sector by subsidizing more environmentally friendly trucks. In that perspective, GNSS-based tolling systems are regarded both as a tool to finance road network maintenance and as a means to achieve environmental goals.
How do evolving regulatory frameworks across different countries impact the deployment of your digital tolling and mobility platforms?
Although the European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) directive aims to promote interoperability and harmonize legal and regulatory frameworks across EU member states, significant differences remain in how countries implement GNSS-based Electronic Toll Collection systems. This also leads to differences in toll calculation: some countries opt for a section-based approach, while others charge for the actual number of kilometres driven on the tolled road network. The aggregation of toll costs for invoicing also varies from country to country. As a result, Be-Mobile designs modular and scalable solutions to accommodate country-specific requirements. However, recent toll tenders show a growing adoption of ISO 12855, helping to standardize the exchange format for tolling data.
What are you most excited about in the future of your partnership with ERTICO?
We hope to strengthen our network at European scale, also considering the European ambitions of Be-Mobile with its software platforms on traffic (data, insights, guidance and safety) and mobility rights (parking, tolling, access rights). ERTICO gives us the platform to reach the right communities, and in parallel, we are looking forward to set up some real collaborations by participating in EU-funded projects led by ERTICO.
Aligned with ERTICO’s strategic goals of collaboration, knowledge exchange, and cross-sector engagement, the ‘Partner in the Spotlight’ series reinforces the organisation’s mission to connect, innovate, and transform transport across Europe and beyond.
Curious about our European foothold and initiatives? Download our Partnership Brochure