Electronic Toll Collection Market Overview, 2025-30

The global electric toll collection (ETC) industry has emerged as a critical pillar of modern transportation systems, revolutionizing how road networks are managed, financed, and optimized. As the world’s vehicle population has grown exponentially over the past few decades, traditional manual tolling methods have proven increasingly inadequate, plagued by congestion, inefficiency, and revenue leakage. In response, governments and private operators across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa have accelerated investments in advanced electronic tolling solutions.

These systems, built around technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), and, more recently, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), have transformed toll collection from a manual bottleneck into a seamless, automated, and intelligent traffic management tool. The benefits are substantial: ETC minimizes queuing and idling at toll plazas, cuts greenhouse gas emissions, improves road safety, and creates a more reliable revenue stream for the upkeep and expansion of vital road infrastructure.

One of the most powerful drivers of global ETC adoption is the pressing need to address urban congestion and the environmental impact of transport. In megacities from Los Angeles to Mumbai, gridlock and tailpipe emissions have reached unsustainable levels. ETC’s capacity to support free-flow, barrier-free travel has proven a game-changer for these high-traffic areas, ensuring smoother journeys while discouraging excessive vehicle use through dynamic pricing and congestion charges.

According to the research report “Global Electric Toll Collection Market Overview, 2025-30” the global Electric Toll Collection market is projected to reach market size of USD 16.11 Billion by 2030 increasing from USD 9.53 Billion in 2024, growing with 9.33% CAGR by 2025-30. In Europe, for example, countries have integrated ETC with low-emission zones, charging higher rates for polluting vehicles and incentivizing cleaner mobility. Asia-Pacific nations, faced with surging car ownership, have embraced large-scale RFID-based systems to unclog their highways, with programs like India’s FASTag achieving nationwide coverage in record time.

Meanwhile, North America has made ETC an essential component of managed lanes and high-occupancy toll (HOT) corridors, balancing demand and improving travel times for commuters. These models have inspired other regions to follow suit, seeing ETC not just as a tolling mechanism but as a broader policy lever for sustainable urban mobility. Technology has been at the core of this transformation, with remarkable progress over the past decade in standardizing and improving ETC systems worldwide. The integration of advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics has opened up new possibilities for precise, real-time traffic monitoring and dynamic pricing models based on actual congestion and environmental impact.

At the same time, interoperability has become a strategic priority globally. Travelers increasingly expect to drive across cities, states, or even international borders without the hassle of managing multiple toll accounts or devices. Europe’s European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) is one of the most advanced interoperability frameworks, aiming to unite different national toll networks under a single account. North America has made strides in cross-state compatibility through alliances like the E-ZPass system.

In Asia-Pacific, where fragmented systems were the norm, countries are exploring partnerships to standardize technologies and payment systems, with cross-border trucking a particular focus. This trend toward harmonization not only improves user convenience but also reduces the cost and complexity of tolling operations for governments and concessionaires.

Market Drivers

• Urgent Need to Reduce Urban Congestion and Emissions: Globally, cities and highway systems are under severe strain from traffic congestion and related air pollution. ETC systems help enable free-flow travel, reduce idling emissions, and support broader climate and sustainability goals making this a uniquely powerful driver worldwide.
• Push for Sustainable and Predictable Infrastructure Funding: Around the world, governments see ETC as a reliable, transparent way to collect user fees for maintaining and expanding critical road networks, reducing dependence on general tax revenues and ensuring that road users contribute directly to transport infrastructure funding.

Market Challenges

• Interoperability Across Borders and Jurisdictions: Globally, ETC systems remain highly fragmented, with differing standards, devices, and policies across countries and even regions. Creating true cross-border or global interoperability is a persistent technical and political challenge.
• Public Acceptance and Data Privacy Concerns: Widespread collection of vehicle movement and payment data raises concerns about surveillance and data misuse. Different cultural, legal, and social attitudes toward privacy across countries make it challenging to build globally acceptable standards for data governance.

Market Trends

• Integration with Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: Worldwide, ETC is beginning to integrate with connected vehicle technology and, eventually, autonomous vehicles, enabling seamless, fully automated toll payments and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication.
• Expansion Toward Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) : There is a global trend to link ETC with broader digital mobility platforms, combining tolls, parking, public transport, and even EV charging payments into a unified, app-based system, offering travelers a seamless, account-based mobility experience.

Transponder/tag-based tolling is leading globally because it delivers a proven, scalable, and user-friendly solution that balances accuracy, speed, and interoperability, making it ideally suited to diverse transportation networks and traffic volumes around the world.

Transponder-based ETC systems typically using RFID or DSRC technology have become the global standard because they address the critical needs of modern toll collection: reducing congestion, improving revenue reliability, and enhancing driver convenience. Unlike license plate recognition systems, transponders offer near-instant, highly accurate reads at highway speeds, minimizing transaction errors and supporting robust enforcement. Their widespread adoption means they are already well-integrated with back-office clearinghouses and financial networks, enabling consistent and secure tolling even across borders or multiple concessionaires.

These systems are easy to distribute and install, giving drivers a sense of control and predictability, while toll operators benefit from lower maintenance costs and fewer disputes. Transponders also align well with trends toward dynamic pricing, emissions-based charges, and interoperability, thanks to their ability to carry data about vehicle class, emissions category, or account preferences.

RFID is leading in the global electric toll collection industry because it offers an unmatched balance of affordability, reliability, and scalability, making it the most practical and universally adaptable technology for diverse transport networks worldwide.

RFID-based tolling systems have become the global standard because they deliver a simple yet highly effective solution for automating toll collection across regions with vastly different traffic volumes, road conditions, and economic capabilities. With RFID tags, vehicles can pass through toll points at highway speeds without stopping, dramatically reducing congestion and emissions while improving safety and user experience. These systems are relatively inexpensive to manufacture, easy to distribute, and require minimal driver training, which encourages rapid adoption across both developed and emerging markets.

Additionally, RFID readers are robust, durable, and able to maintain high read accuracy even in extreme weather or heavy traffic, which makes them universally dependable. Their ability to store data on vehicle class, payment account information, and even environmental attributes means they can easily integrate with dynamic pricing, congestion management, and emissions-based tolling programs. Furthermore, RFID technology supports interoperability, enabling vehicles to travel seamlessly across jurisdictions and even international borders with a single tag, which is vital for commercial transport and regional mobility.

Highways are leading in the global electric toll collection industry because they handle the highest volumes of long-distance passenger and freight traffic, making them the most efficient and cost-effective environment to deploy ETC systems that maximize congestion relief, revenue collection, and travel efficiency.

Highways serve as the backbone of national and international transport networks, moving goods and people over long distances with predictable entry and exit points, which makes them ideally suited for electric toll collection technologies. Traditional toll booths on these routes have long been associated with bottlenecks, safety risks, and revenue leakage from cash handling, which are magnified on high-capacity highways carrying thousands of vehicles per hour. ETC systems whether based on RFID, DSRC, or ANPR dramatically improve throughput by allowing vehicles to pay tolls without stopping, cutting down travel delays and reducing emissions from idling engines.

Because highways have fewer access points compared to local roads, installing and maintaining roadside equipment is simpler, enforcement is more reliable, and operations are easier to manage. Additionally, since highways are often the primary toll revenue generators for governments and concessionaires, modernizing these corridors first provides a solid financial base to support future road maintenance and expansions. Highways also present the ideal setting for advanced tolling models like dynamic pricing and emissions-based charges, aligning with global goals for smarter, greener mobility.

North America is leading in the global electric toll collection industry because it has combined decades of technological innovation, large-scale highway investments, and strong institutional frameworks to build the world’s most mature, interoperable, and user-trusted ETC ecosystem.

North America led by the United States and supported by Canada and Mexico has developed a vast network of toll roads, bridges, and tunnels that handle some of the world’s highest vehicle volumes and most demanding freight corridors. To meet these challenges, public agencies and private concessionaires invested early in robust ETC technologies such as RFID-based transponder systems (like E-ZPass) that dramatically reduce congestion, improve safety, and secure reliable revenue for infrastructure upkeep and expansion.

These systems have evolved over decades, creating deep public familiarity and acceptance while achieving seamless interoperability across multiple states, provinces, and even international borders, something few other regions have accomplished on a comparable scale. The supporting back-office clearinghouses, enforcement mechanisms, and integrated account management platforms are also highly advanced, ensuring accuracy and trust in toll payments. Additionally, North America’s large, innovation-driven economy and competitive technology market have fueled ongoing upgrades, from dynamic pricing to integration with connected and autonomous vehicles.

• In April 2025, Q-Free received important contracts from top US toll agencies to set up its Kinetic Mobility Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS). It introduced the company into the US tolling market and was a breakthrough.
• In February 2025, Kapsch TrafficCom AG introduced its new Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) engine for the North American market. The advanced license plate recognition solution from Kapsch is set to provide better results, more options, and lower costs for its tolling customers.
• In January 2025, ST Engineering (Transcore) introduced its Infinity tolling technology on the West Virginia Turnpike in an important update for the state’s tolling system. By doing this, the authorities hope to help travelers, streamline road use, and provide more payment methods.
• In October 2024, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission awarded TransCore a contract to bring its toll system up to date across the bridges it controls. As the project continues, old equipment will be replaced with the Infinity Digital Lane System from TransCore, which boosts efficiency, makes road use more reliable, and ensures an improved user experience for drivers.
• In September 2024, Neology acquired P Square Solutions, a company specializing in tolling services and technology. Following the acquisition, Neology has a brand new business division called Neology PSquare that dramatically improves the company’s worldwide tolling services.

Considered in this report

• Historic Year: 2019
• Base year: 2024
• Estimated year: 2025
• Forecast year: 2030

Aspects covered in this report

• Electronic Toll Collection Market with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Various drivers and challenges
• On-going trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

By Type

• Transponders/Tag Based Tolling Systems
• Others (Video, ANPR, GNSS)

By Technology

• RFID
• DSRC
• Others (GNSS, ANPR, Mobile Tolling)

By Application

• Highways
• Urban Areas

The approach of the report:

This report consists of a combined approach of primary as well as secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and listing out the companies that are present in the market. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases, annual report of companies, analyzing the government generated reports and databases.

After gathering the data from secondary sources primary research was conducted by making telephonic interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducted trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this we have started doing primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting consumers in regional aspects, tier aspects, age group, and gender. Once we have primary data with us we have started verifying the details obtained from secondary sources.

Intended audience

This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations & organizations related to this industry, government bodies and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing & presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.