If recent reports of the dismal failure of electronic tolling in the developed country of Portugal are anything to go by, Gauteng could be headed for similar - if not worse - troubles, considering the parallel nature of SA's open road tolling system.
Earlier this month, Portugal's largest circulation English newspaper, The Portugal News, reported that the country's e-toll system - implemented a little over a year-and-a-half ago - has amounted to a "dead loss" for the country's state-owned roads agency, Estradas de Portugal (EP).
A combination of plummeting road usage and an increasing number of users failing to pay e-tolls, says the publication, has resulted in a system that, as it stands, is not only unsustainable, but also a drain on the economy as administration fees eat into EP's already scrawny profits.
Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) chairperson Wayne Duvenage says the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) and government should sit up and take note of the European example, and "[prevent] an embarrassing situation from getting worse".
Portugal's e-toll woes, he points out, are similar to the type Outa has envisaged for Sanral's Gauteng e-toll plan.
Media mirror
E-tolling, colloquially known as SCUT in Portugal, operates using the same principle as Sanral's system - a network of highway gantries equipped with cameras and technology for scanning cars' registration and billing each motorist according to pre-determined tariffs. Portugal's equivalent of an e-tag is a "Dispositivo Electr'onico (ED)", or electronic device.
SCUT stands for "Sem Custo para os Utilizadores" - directly translated, "no cost to users" - as the roads were originally designed to be free. While SCUT toll gates have been operational for some time - like SA's Bakwena and TracN4 tolls - Portugal's EP introduced electronic tolling as a means of garnering revenue for the maintenance and upgrades of the country's freeways.
Implemented finally in late 2011, the months preceding the introduction of e-tolling on Portugal's previously-free highways were fraught with public protest and widespread media coverage, with headlines like "Anti-tolls actions continue in Algarve"; "Anti-tolls protest under heavy police presence"; "Fight to continue as parliament delays tolls decision" and "Together against tolls" lining local publications.
Post-implementation, Portugal's publications feature headlines in the vein of "Unnecessary complexity"; "Tolls - the mess!"; "Confusion, violence and vandalism over A22 tolls"; "Toll turmoil" and, more recently, "Dead loss - toll revenues lost stability".
Admin aches
The Portugal News Online quotes EP's CEO, Ant'onio Ramalho, as saying cars travelling without an electronic tagging device cost as much to bill as the amount the motorists pay for using the country's toll roads.
"Currently, 29% of all fees collected from these motorways are channelled towards administrative fees, which rose from EUR17 million [about R224 million] in 2011 to EUR42 million [about R553 million] last year."
According to the report, the overall revenue from SCUT freeways plummeted by 74% in 2012 on the previous year, with traffic figures dropping even further in 2013 as more and more motorists opt for secondary roads to avoid paying e-tolls.
Last year, says the report, Portugal's roads agency failed to collect a total of EUR30.6 million from offending drivers ("motorists who use these routes without paying, many of them repeatedly so").
Unscrambling the egg
Reflecting on Portugal's e-toll ordeal, Duvenage says: "In a country such as Portugal, where compliance and administration efficiency is much higher than in SA, it is evident that tolling projects of this nature are subject to a certain level of citizen rejection."
Judging by Portugal's e-toll project, which has seen a 19% non-payment rate by road users, he says, "you can rest assured that matters of noncompliance will be far worse here for Sanral, following the outrage and general public rejection of their plans to toll Gauteng's freeways".
Outa is urging the South African authorities not to ignore what it says are "signs that point to a rapid failure of the Gauteng e-toll project, which has experienced massive rejection by society".
Duvenage says government needs to take heed of what has happened in Portugal, "because it is coming [to SA] too".
"Portugal has seen a non-compliance rate of about 20%, and I expect that figure to be a lot higher in SA. [Sanral] planned e-tolls on the basis of 93% compliance. I have heard they are now in for 40% noncompliance, which will push the costs up considerably.
"All we are saying is that government should stop e-tolls before it's too late, before it becomes too messy. And we can help - they don't have to be left with egg on their face. As a society, we can stand together and come up with a solution now, rather than wait until - a year down the line - we have to contend with issues like Portugal has. Let's unscramble the egg now and avoid the embarrassment.
"[SA] can't afford the noncompliance, mounting costs and vandalism. We need to guard people's lives here - not gantries."
Unsound argument
Sanral maintains its e-toll system is sustainable and viable, and has declined to comment on the situation in Portugal, instead offering this link to what it says is "a snapshot of the system in use in Portugal", also from The Portugal News Online.
Vusi Mona, Sanral's spokesperson, says the argument that e-tolls will not work is weak.
According to Sanral, about 2.5 million motorists in Gauteng touch the e-toll freeways and of these, about a million are regular users (weekday commuters) on the freeways.
"One of the flawed arguments as to the alleged non-workability of the e-toll system is that it assumes a different set of one million users would use the relevant roads each day. Sanral's figures indicate that approximately 2.3 million to 2.5 million road users will use the highways each month. These road users own on average 1.3 vehicles and in terms of individual users who own more than one vehicle, the figure is closer to 1.8 million vehicle owners."
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