Free Flow: the road transport revolution in Brazil

The free flow technology, or free flow, recently authorized in the national territory by Law no. 14.157/2021, is revolutionizing the road transport of cargo and fleets in Brazil. Although it is a novelty here, free flow is already widely used in other countries such as China, the United States, Portugal and our neighbor Chile.

Free flow is a toll system without gates, which allows vehicles to be identified and charged through gantries installed along the highways. These gantries read the board or chip installed in vehicles through tags. In practice, the driver does not need to stop or reduce the speed when passing the toll, which results in savings, and brings several benefits.

Payment can be made automatically, through the tag installed on the windshield of the vehicle, which communicates with the gantries located on the route. In this case, the driver receives the toll on the tag's own invoice. Already the user who does not have the technology, needs to make the payment manually, through the application or website of the highway concessionaire.

In addition to the ease of use and convenience of payment on the invoice, the use of the tag as a means of payment of free flow has exclusive advantages, such as the discount of 5% on the toll amount practiced, the Basic Rate Discount (DBT), intended exclusively for users of the automatic payment solution.

The project, which began its implementation in Brazil in January 2023, is being gradually instituted, having its first installation in the state of Sao Paulo started last Wednesday (04.09). Implanted in the municipality of Itapolis, the portico is located at km 179 of Highway SP-333. According to EcoNoreste, the concessionaire responsible for the highway, the collection value remains the same as the previous toll, R$ 8.90. While users of tag pay R$ 8.45 8.453 with the discount of the TTP3.

In addition to Sao Paulo, there are still four free flow frames equipped with cameras and laser sensors, one in Rio de Janeiro (Rio-Santos) and three in Rio Grande do Sul (ERS-122, ERS-240 and ERS-446), an important milestone of this transformation. According to Abepam (Brazilian Association of Automatic Payment Companies for Mobility), there are already gantries installed or in the process of installation on 27 federal and 58 state highways.

The main promise of free flow is to promote a fairer charge, since the gantries will be deployed in more points, leading to the collection of rates proportional to the route traveled. For drivers, it is a significant relief. The end of the queues at tolls brings a gain in productivity and reduces stress, with a greater fluidity in traffic, which also contributes to reducing fuel consumption (which directly impacts the driver's pocket and also helps the environment.

For shippers, responsible for sending goods, free flow contributes to a better predictability of transit time, which facilitates logistics planning. Reducing delays and greater efficiency in transportation result in a more reliable and agile supply chain, providing a faster response of companies to market demands.

In practice, the comparison between traditional toll booths and the free flow system is revealing. A truck can reduce fuel costs by up to R$ 5 per toll plaza, simply by not having to slow down, stop and re-accelerate. This savings, which amounts to about 800 milliliters of diesel per toll, represents a considerable reduction in operating costs. In addition, with less frequent braking there is a decrease in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere, benefiting the environment.

As the system expands throughout Brazil, its benefits become increasingly evident, consolidating itself as a key player in the modernization of road transport. It is now up to companies and managers to embrace this innovation, optimizing their operations and contributing to a more fluid and less polluting traffic, and make the logistics sector more efficient and sustainable.