Buckle Up for the Tracking and Tracing of Central Texans.

Rick Perry: "I'd like to find a way to toll tax Texans for driving Freeways they've already paid for. Those Texans wander around like cows on a farm. You just never know. Can't we just find a way to track and trace them, so we can 'milk' them more?"

TransCore: "Rick Perry, all your dreams are about to come true."

Rick Perry: "They hate traffic. Let's just tell them it'll cure traffic congestion. Hey TransCore, I'm waiting for you to pay the toll to my campaign. Multimillion dollar contracts don't grow on trees, ya know."
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Even though the Central Texas Double Tax Toll Plan is about to be put under a microscope with the long awaited Independent Review, (to begin public hearings in October) - TxDOT just signed a multimillion dollar contract to Track & Trace Central Texans before the Independent Review even begins.

TXDOT selected TransCore's RFID technology for the Central Texas Turnpike Program. Yesterday's press release gives details about the multimillion-dollar contract, and how it allows for the initial release of 500,000 track & trace toll tags. The "eGo" tag will be sold under the brand name of TxTag. It gets placed behind/under your rear view mirror and it allows TxDOT to perform traffic surveillance and automatically charge toll fees. They expect to sell 2 million tags over two years! I think I'd like to start pronouncing eGo as "Yugo" like that disposable car from the 80's, or "You go and tell Perry where he can stick his TxTAG". The eGo tag and it's litigation is discussed below.

The Williamson County heavy CTRMA sits back and collects the toll tax after TxDOT does the contract work for toll tags. The local RMA's or 'Mini TxDOT's' are stellar examples of bloated bureaucracies at their worst. You really have to hand it to Rick Perry and his creative taxing schemes.

How much confidence does TxDOT really have in TransCore? We ARE talking about a multimillion-dollar contract. Here's an email that might shed some light. TxDOT's Jana Doyle tells a PSSJ contractor what she thinks about TransCore's John Mike. The guy with 2 first names is TransCore's Vice President of Business Development:

From: "Jana Doyle" (JDOYLE@dot.state.tx.us)
To: "Hurst, Richard C" (RCHURST@pbsj.com)
Date: 2/23/2005 9:47 Subject: RE: FW: Story on Transcore Read Only Sticker Tag in Georgia

Rick,

That was interesting. I didn't know there was litigation over the patent eGo tag. What about the SeGo tag we are supposed to use?

Have they even developed any of these? I swear John Mike reminds me of a used car salesman so I never know what to believe.

From other documents I've seen, the Customer Service Center for Central Texas is, or will be located at 12719 Burnet Road, 78727. North of Parmer Lane adjacent to Loop 1.

Apparently each and every toll lane must be licensed - toll taxing us folks for roads we've already paid for is big business. Records show that TxDOT is having major problems in this area. Over a dozen licenses were rejected and one was tabled in May 2005. Since Sept 2004 the FCC has also placed a freeze on the same 900 MHZ applications as the TransCore eGo/TxTAG. For you RFID nerds - the freeze from the FCC is because of a "concern for Nextel's ability to obtain necessary 'green space', otherwise known as 'vacant spectrum' ".

Don't you like the magic of how a pretty word like 'green space' can make the tracked and traced technology so darn appealing? Maybe they can change the name of the TxTAG to 'Freedom Mountain' or 'My Little Pony'.

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