For over nine years, we’ve been a proud and strategic partner to Transport for London (TfL), creating and delivering the world’s most advanced vehicle detection system to support the largest clean air zone. This partnership has transformed London’s transport infrastructure, improving air quality, enhancing road safety, and supporting more efficient journeys for millions of citizens.
At Capita, improving citizen experience is at the heart of everything we do. We provide the people, systems and processes needed to manage the entire journey from image receipt through to payment or enforcement, across all of TfL’s key schemes: Congestion Charging, Low Emissions Zone (LEZ), Traffic Enforcement, Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), the Safer Lorry Scheme (DVS) and the Silvertown Tunnel Payments. By aligning our expertise with TfL’s vision, we are helping to create a cleaner environment, reducing congestion and promoting safer streets throughout London.
The AI-augmented document processing system we are using for the Silvertown Tunnel has enhanced the application process for motorists by reducing application processing time, with the AI able to process an application within one minute of submission rather than the manual processing taking up to five days. This allows discounts to be applied almost instantly to accounts ensuring motorists receive the benefit of those discounts without the need to wait and receive refunds against fully costed journeys.
⮬ Watch the video to hear Owen Barry explain how AI is making every journey better.
Supporting TfL in the design and delivery of these transformative schemes has been crucial to implementing the Mayoral policies and strategies, which bring substantial benefits to millions of Londoners. However, realising these initiatives required overcoming significant challenges: managing scalability to service millions of users, coordinating across multiple agencies and adapting to evolving public policy requirements. Addressing these complexities called for a resilient and adaptable approach, ensuring consistent quality and impact across all of TfL’s major schemes.
1. Core service delivery and strategic governance
We provided comprehensive business process operations, including back and front office, business IT, customer channels, payment processing, workforce planning, management information, and finance support. Over the past nine years, we have consistently adapted our operational infrastructure to support TfL’s expanding schemes, providing agile, scalable solutions to meet evolving demands.
With over 40 years of public sector transformation experience, we built strong, collaborative relationships with TfL, prioritising trust and transparency at every level. To ensure seamless delivery, we established an integrated Project Management Office, aligning governance and reporting across 20 suppliers to work closely with TfL’s operational cadence. This unified approach reflects our shared commitment to achieving TfL’s objectives.
2. Operational flexibility and workforce development
We developed a flexible service architecture designed to adapt rapidly to shifting needs, enabling us to respond with speed and precision. Key actions included:
Scaling workforce: To meet increased demand, we more than doubled the operational headcount during critical scheme rollouts, adjusted the Target Operating Model, and extended operational hours to accommodate new user requirements. This ensured capacity, excellent service delivery, and flexibility when the public needed it most.
Socially valued recruitment: Through a secure, flexible hybrid model, we created nearly a thousand new jobs across the UK, with a focus on supporting local economies in areas such as Coventry.
Learning and development: Our award-winning programme provided targeted induction and ongoing professional development for TfL’s workforce. Using our Army of One methodology, teams delivered exceptional customer service at each touchpoint. Staff also have access to over 228 e-learning modules, equipping them with the latest skills to meet evolving demands.
3. Customer-centric payment solutions
We designed a suite of user-centric payment systems that provide flexibility and convenience across multiple channels, including:
Auto pay: Monthly billing feature for congestion, ULEZ, and LEZ charges.
Online portal: Official payment platform facilitating TfL’s transactions.
TfL Pay to Drive in London app: Free app for easy payments for congestion, ULEZ, and LEZ charges.
London Road User Charging (LRUC) and phone payment support: Additional channels to meet diverse user needs, ensuring accessibility and ease of use.
4. Award-winning technology partnerships
To support TfL’s mission to “unlock the potential of technology for our customers, colleagues, and for London,” we established a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) early in the contract. This dynamic environment combines our extensive technical expertise with a focus on pioneering technology initiatives. By leveraging strong partnerships with TfL, key partners, and hyperscalers, we created solutions that are repeatable, scalable, and cost-effective.
The CTO draws on our full suite of technology capabilities, including innovation, strategic planning, AI, machine learning, cloud, and DevOps. In 2024, we were honoured to receive the Transport Technology Partner of the Year award in recognition of our work on the account.
Key milestones
2019: Re-architected the on-premise data centre and introduced customer-centric journeys through IVR and web to support the initial introduction of ULEZ.
2021: Undertook Europe’s largest cloud migration to Microsoft Azure, enabling TfL’s technology to scale effectively and support changing demands. This included adopting Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions for efficiency.
2023: Supported the ULEZ expansion to Greater London by re-architecting our core middleware solution to a cloud-native containerised Kubernetes technology, achieving scalability and cost reduction. This infrastructure now processes more than 4.5 million roadside images daily for scrappage applications.
Innovation highlights
GenAI integration: Introduced GenAI into the technology stack to automate discount applications and streamline Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, using Azure OpenAI and Kubernetes technologies to enhance service quality and responsiveness.
Continuous improvement: Implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate high-volume, repetitive tasks such as refunds, reducing errors and speeding up processing. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) further reduced manual data entry, driving efficiency across operations.
Our collaboration with TfL has delivered substantial, measurable outcomes, underscoring the success and scale of our partnership.
Compliance and environmental impact: 95% of vehicles across inner and outer London now comply with clean air standards – a remarkable increase from 39% in 2017 – accompanied by a 44% reduction in harmful nitrous gases.
Community benefits: Over 37,000 Londoners, businesses, and charities have benefitted from scrappage programmes, contributing to cleaner air and healthier communities.
Operational scale and efficiency: Each month, we handle over 6.8 million work items and support more than 4 million customers through multiple channels (web, IVR, assisted IVR, mobile, call centre, and post). Our work includes:
Handling 95,000 calls and processing 22,000 IVR payments.
Addressing 50,000 enquiries, covering refunds, account and statement investigations, payments, and scheme information.
Processing 33,000 validation applications to assess compliance and exemption eligibility, safeguarding against fraud.
Manually verifying 6.5 million low-confidence ANPR images against DVLA data to facilitate PCN issuance.
Processing 44,000 customer representations for PCN disputes.
Handling 265,000 DVLA responses and exception notifications to support continued enforcement.
Reconciling over 9 million transactions monthly to ensure financial accuracy.
Our work has been instrumental in supporting TfL’s transformation of London’s transport landscape, creating the largest urban anti-pollution zone of its kind globally. As new schemes are introduced to the public, it is essential that each initiative is delivered within a predictable cost framework, meeting stringent timelines and requirements to enable a seamless transition. Our approach centres around user needs and experiences, ensuring flexibility – for instance, waiving charges if drivers are diverted into the zone due to route changes.
This work demonstrates how aligning robust service architecture with advanced technical infrastructure enables consistent performance, even under the greatest demands. Together, these efforts drive widespread adoption, reduce support costs, improve efficiency and provide essential adaptability to shifting trends in road user charging. This journey reinforces our shared commitment with TfL to public good, better air quality, reduced congestion and safer streets – ultimately ensuring that we keep London moving.
Find out how our expertise in managing complex operational and technological challenges can support your organisation’s mission:
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