Drivers will be double-billed by e-tolling in the case of criminals duplicating their licence plates.
Alex van Niekerk, senior project manager for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) at the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral), says the agency encourages people to get e-tags, because it will help verify licence plates.
For the controversial e-tolling project, vehicle details will be captured as they pass the gantries, either via an e-tag which can be purchased by drivers and fitted on their windscreens, or by having their licence plates flashed by overhead cameras on the gantries.
This information is then linked to details on traffic management system eNatis so the appropriate person can be billed the toll fee.
Van Niekerk says if fraudulent plates are being used and a driver with legitimate plates is being double charged, Sanral will be able to resolve the problem, but only once a driver complains about being billed for tariffs they did not incur. “Then law enforcement can track the fraudulent vehicle through the e-toll system.
“There are going to be issues where people will receive bills for fraudulent plates, but if they follow up it will be resolved.”
Taking action
Van Niekerk also says the eNatis database, which had a troubled debut, will serve the e-toll system sufficiently.
“I don't think there's so much wrong with the eNatis system, but about people not updating their information on the system or people putting in incorrect information.”
He adds that Sanral will insist the inaccuracies are sorted out before the system is used for e-tolling.
“eNatis is very highly rated when looking at vehicle management systems around the world. The online part brings in problems, because when there is a communications failure or problems due to cable theft, then people think the system is failing.”
Still debatable
Business Unity SA (Busa) has called for an urgent debate to be held around e-tolling and the option of a fuel levy specifically.
The organisation says there are still too many unanswered questions around the system that need to be addressed before a final decision can be made.
Transport minister Sibusiso Ndebele is expected to make an announcement regarding the e-toll tariffs by Monday. However, director-general George Mahlalela says it is only the fees that are being decided upon and not the principle of e-tolling itself, which he says has already been accepted.
Toll fees initially gazetted at 66c/km for standard motor vehicles and R3.95/km for heavy motor vehicles were suspended after widespread outrage. Ndebele then established a steering committee to consider the fees and make recommendations.
Urgent discussion
Busa's concerns include the construction costs per phases and electronic toll collection costs; the actual traffic counts modelled by categories used by Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers; and how the tariff ratios were determined between vehicle classes.
It believes road maintenance and construction should in large part be funded by a ring-fenced fuel levy as a far more equitable and efficient “user-pay” method.
It says this has been underscored by the steering committee report on the e-toll. “A debate in this regard is, therefore, urgently necessary.”
No sustainability
However, treasury said fuel levies for provinces are not equitable since it would be a costly exercise to collect the levy from fuel stations in the province and people not using highways will pay for it.
The challenge of finding sufficient money for road maintenance is not unique or new to SA, says Van Niekerk.
“The US always funded their roads through a dedicated fuel levy and it didn't keep up. Where we have a R149 billion maintenance backlog, they have on their interstate a backlog of about $2 trillion.”
He adds that apart from National Treasury's argument against a fuel levy, the worldwide argument is that the long-term sustainability of a fuel levy is not good.
Too late
He says other services and infrastructures rely on a user-pay principle.
The project manager explains that electricity, telephone lines and indirectly even the sewerage system, where people pay per the number of toilets in their homes, rely on the user-pay principle.
“These services can all just raise their tariffs since they have user-pay principles, except for roads.”
Van Niekerk says in October 2007 the project was widely advertised, but there were less than 100 responses.
“We set up postal boxes and six fax lines and a whole management system to deal with the responses, but it was so low. There were double-page adverts in newspapers asking for comment. It was a very open process.”
However, Van Niekerk says people only confronted the issue once the money was spent. “If there was disagreement right at the beginning then maybe a different decision would have been taken, but that would have come with consequences.
“If there was an easier way we would have done it. The easy way out would have been to say we've got no money so let's not do anything.”
He adds that if the upgrades made through the GFIP had to be removed, Gauteng would come to a standstill.
“For us, the worst thing is that people want to make this something it isn't. They want to make it out to be something corrupt. We don't expect people to like paying a toll, but we would have agreed if we had made a mistake.”
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