Verra Mobility (ticker symbol VRRM) is a company that specializes in technology solutions for the transportation industry, including tolling, red-light enforcement, and traffic management. If the stock hit all-time highs, it suggests that the company's performance and investor sentiment have been positive, driving the stock price to new records.
Verra Mobility, a transportation technology company with a historic focus on tolling payments and traffic enforcement cameras, has gone public. The former name of the company was American Traffic Solutions or ATS. Verra Mobility followed the “blank check company” approach to going public. That is, the company didn’t have its own initial public offering. Rather, a special purpose acquisition company called Gores Holdings II was created and filed for an IPO a while ago, and that company then bought Verra, making it a public company. Also known as a reverse merger. The company had $350 million in revenue in 2017. Verra’s government work includes red light cameras, speeding cameras and handheld radar guns for law enforcement.
It’s using that existing relationship network to launch a new app for drivers, called Peasy, that lets users pay for tolls without needing to do anything as long as the tolling checkpoint they’re passing through uses license plate-reading cameras. Drivers take a picture of their license plate and then give the app a credit card. Then, if they pass through a camera-equipped tolling station, the tolling authority will read the driver’s license plate, find it in Verra’s database and charge the card on file. Because the company has already integrated with most tolling authorities, that means it should work in most places. For what it's worth, Peasy wants to charge you a subscription to pay more tolls.
However, will this app allow for easier payment of red light camera tickets and provide some utility of where camera locations are located on a map? Will drivers knowingly give their license plate to a company that also issues tickets for red-light cameras? We will see . . .
PhotoEnforced.com has been mapping ATS locations for the past 18+ years. We have tried repeatedly to work with the management team about publishing camera locations. There has not been any interest in the former ATS management team to work with us. Possibly new management from Verra Mobility might spark some new thinking.
It’s using that existing relationship network to launch a new app for drivers, called Peasy, that lets users pay for tolls without needing to do anything as long as the tolling checkpoint they’re passing through uses license plate-reading cameras. Drivers take a picture of their license plate and then give the app a credit card. Then, if they pass through a camera-equipped tolling station, the tolling authority will read the driver’s license plate, find it in Verra’s database and charge the card on file. Because the company has already integrated with most tolling authorities, that means it should work in most places. For what it's worth, Peasy wants to charge you a subscription to pay more tolls.
However, will this app allow for easier payment of red light camera tickets and provide some utility of where camera locations are located on a map? Will drivers knowingly give their license plate to a company that also issues tickets for red-light cameras? We will see . . .
PhotoEnforced.com has been mapping ATS locations for the past 18+ years. We have tried repeatedly to work with the management team about publishing camera locations. There has not been any interest in the former ATS management team to work with us. Possibly new management from Verra Mobility might spark some new thinking.
