EASYTRIP, THE electronic tolling services firm, plans to turn technology developed for managing taxi queues at Dublin airport into a product it can sell internationally.

The Dublin Airport Authority has deployed the taxi management system at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Authorised cabs arriving at the airport are uniquely identified via a new electronic tag. A despatch manager with a Windows Mobile device assigns each driver a place at either of the ranks or in the taxi holding area, depending on demand for passengers.

Easytrip’s technology replaces the previous manual system. It gives the DAA real-time information about taxi usage, helping to streamline the flow of taxis through the airport concourse.

A five-person software team developed and tested the system full time for almost six months at Easytrip’s offices in Mulhuddart in west Dublin. The company funded the project from its own resources.

Easytrip is best known for its electronic tolling and parking tags.

More than 185,000 cars throughout the country use its tags and the firm processes more than two million toll transactions every month.

With all toll roads in the State now open, Easytrip chief executive Dermot MacEvilly said the company had been looking at other ways of developing the business.

“Up to now, we’ve been a domestically oriented company but we would see an opportunity to turn this technology into a product and look for international opportunities with it,” he said.

The taxi management system at Dublin airport uses some of the technology Easytrip had already developed for its BBpark software, with features such as lane control and demand management now added.

The technology is not restricted to airports, but could work in any campus location where vehicles need to be managed and automated, Mr MacEvilly said.