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E-toll blunders start to mount

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 19 Dec 2013
Just over two weeks in, and Sanral faces a slew of complaints around its e-toll system.
Just over two weeks in, and Sanral faces a slew of complaints around its e-toll system.

The Department of Transport (DOT) has sent out a media release absolving itself of responsibility following a finding by the Justice Project SA (JPSA) that e-toll tariff notices published in a November Government Gazette contain different fee structures in the English and Afrikaans versions. JPSA lawyers say the oversight may render e-toll charges void and motorists eligible for refunds.

It has been 16 days since government's controversial e-toll system went live, and the agency tasked with running it - the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) - has already come under fire for an unprotected Web portal, inept invoicing and trumpeting misleading e-tag numbers.

Yesterday, JPSA sent out a statement following a blunder it picked up in the Government Gazette that outlines e-toll tariffs and regulations. National chairman of JPSA Howard Dembovsky says the discovery came as the DOT insisted on the group combing the regulations rather than asking questions.

"Sanral and the DOT have been entirely uncooperative with our requests for clarity on the enforcement process, instead referring us to the regulations. In the process of reviewing the various notices, we found that there are discrepancies between the English and the Afrikaans versions of the tariff notice published on 19 November."

Because both tariff notices were signed by the DOT acting director general, says Dembovsky, "[both] have equal but conflicting weight".

Dembovsky says, effectively, the tariffs applicable to registered VLN (vehicle licence number) and "alternate users" differ in the English and Afrikaans versions. "This introduces severe interpretation issues."

JPSA's attorneys sent correspondence to transport minister Dipuo Peters yesterday afternoon, calling on her to immediately repeal the "offending" tariff Gazette and to instruct Sanral to cease the levying and collection of e-tolls until the matter is corrected.

No bearing

In response to the apparent Gazette typo, the DOT last night issued a media statement saying it has "noted reports on confusion surrounding the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project toll tariffs Gazette".

However, the DOT makes it clear that the "mistake" does not have any bearing on the validity of e-toll legislation.

"The noted mistake in question won't affect the validity of the legislation. The headings of the different columns are clear: column six is clearly marked as the one containing the tariffs applicable to 'alternate users', while column five clearly contains those applicable to another category, namely 'registered VLN users'.

"Reading the clause and the column together, it is clear that the tariffs in column six apply to 'alternate users' and that the reference to column five in the Afrikaans version is a mistake."

The department says that, together with Sanral, it is correcting the mistake. "A revised version will soon be published."

JPSA's attorneys are expected to revert on the issue later today.

Credit card hitch

Further issues around Sanral's IT and billing system have been brought to ITWeb's attention, but the roads agency has yet to comment.

Online consumer complaint forum Hellopeter.com bears a slew of complaints around registration and payment glitches.

In one specific instance, a motorist who purchased an e-tag and loaded his credit card for payment on 2 December was contacted by Sanral and told he had entered his card details incorrectly. He disputed that he had erred, based on the fact that the system had confirmed his card by processing a R1 debit.

He says Sanral insisted he visit one of its centres to rectify the mistake - a demand he refused. He says further investigation (via a banking official) revealed there is possible a problem with all credit card sign-ups that were done between 1 and 4 December, as the system that masks credit card numbers for the Protection of Personal Information Bill compliance masked numbers from the billing system. He says he feels Sanral lied to him about the problem and refuses to try pay e-toll fees again.

Despite repeated requests for comment on this - and other complaints - sent since Tuesday, Sanral has yet to respond.

"Billing bullies"

Meanwhile, the front page of The Star newspaper today bears the headline: "E-toll billing bullies". The paper says call centre agents from the electronic toll collection (ETC) violations centre are "pestering" a woman who runs a pay-fine company, demanding payment for unpaid e-toll fees.

"She said her cellphone rang non-stop yesterday morning, each call from a different person, saying her e-toll bills had been sent to the violations centre because they were unpaid."

The woman, Cornelia van Niekerk, told The Star that a call centre agent informed her that she has an e-toll bill of over R2 000. "Van Niekerk asked her how she would be able to verify these amounts if she had not received an invoice."

However, Van Niekerk told the daily paper it was clear from all the conversations with call centre agents that no invoices had yet been sent out.

Contacted by The Star, Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona confirmed to the publication that there was a call centre running, but on the phone calls, merely said customers must call their call centre if they had any billing problems - rather than speak to a third party.

Sanral has not responded to a query as to whether or not its billing system is operating smoothly since the open road tolling system went live on 3 December. However, the roads agency emphasised yesterday in a statement that it has a "world-class automated system".

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