Patent ID: 8732000

Claim:
A method for determining toll fees for vehicles in a road toll system including vehicle-supported onboard units with respective unambiguous identifiers and positionally distributed beacons with known locations, wherein the beacons localize passing onboard units to their beacon location to calculate position-related toll fees therefrom, and are capable of communicating with the onboard units via radio signals, the method comprising: storing by an onboard unit a toll fee level and a validity time frame for the toll fee level in a memory in the onboard unit; in a beacon during a passing of the beacon by the onboard unit: retrieving by the beacon the identifier, the toll fee level and the validity time frame from the memory as a data record; resetting by the beacon the toll fee level upon determining the validity time frame has expired; increasing by the beacon the toll fee level to update the data record, and storing by the beacon the updated data record in the beacon; transmitting by the beacon a request for deletion of stored data records for said identifier to other beacons; transmitting by the beacon the updated data record from the beacon to a central station upon determining by the beacon that there is no request for deletion of the stored data record that has arrived at the beacon from one of the other beacons during the validity time frame; and deleting by the beacon the updated data record in the beacon.