More than 200 000 e-toll accounts have been registered since registration opened on 7 November.
The SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) this week announced that in three months, 212 906 accounts were registered for the controversial system.
The agency thanked all Gauteng e-road users who took the early initiative to register for e-tolling and encouraged all those who have not yet registered to become e-toll-ready.
Roaring success?
While Sanral is pleased with this figure, Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng transport spokesperson Neil Campbell points out that the agency has sold just under 213 000 e-tags with just a little more than two weeks left before the intended implementation.
“While this seems to be a large figure, it needs to be put into perspective. The national fleet is approximately 10 million vehicles, and of these about 40% or four million vehicles are registered in Gauteng.”
He adds that there are daily trips undertaken on Gauteng highways by a large number of vehicles registered in other provinces and countries.
“Sanral must be very worried that this form of public protest has been so successful.”
Campbell also says it is interesting to note that the agency has not broken down the registrations into categories. “It is likely that these are either government or parastatal vehicles for whom the taxpayer forks out in any event.”
Sanral did not respond to ITWeb queries around this issue by the time of publication.
“If we all stand together resolutely refusing to be part of this unjust toll system, it will fail because Sanral, the toll collection company and the justice system cannot cope with a boycott by 95% of highway users,” says Campbell.
Full steam
The most prominent sentiment in the public around e-tolling is that the system should still be challenged and Gauteng citizens will not register. Labour, fleet associations and opposition parties have all expressed outrage at the system and still call for it to be held back.
This is despite the intention of Sanral and the Department of Transport (DOT) to implement the system next month.
The agency said that as the toll commencement date of February approaches, it advises that the most cost-effective way for road users to get e-toll-ready is by getting an e-tag, registering an e-toll account and fitting their e-tag to the inside of their windscreen.
Premature fees
“Registered Gauteng e-road users who have an e-tag fitted to their vehicle will be eligible for all the discounts available to e-tag users, including the 31% e-tag discount and frequent user discount.”
Those that had already registered and purchased e-tags so as to benefit from the discount, also started getting charged for the system that is not yet operational.
In December, several e-toll account-holders complained on social networking sites about being charged administration fees. The charges were for statements and SMS notifications.
Sanral admitted the charges were levied erroneously and promised to reverse them within a few days. The agency has not responded to ITWeb requests to determine if the fees have indeed been reversed.
The DA, via its campaign against e-tolling, TollFreeGP, said the premature charges are just another reason to boycott the e-tolling system.
Insignificant reduction
Cabinet in August approved reduced tariffs for e-tolling in Gauteng, which dictate that motorcycles (Class A1) with e-tags will pay 24c/km; light vehicles (Class A2) will pay 40c/km; medium vehicles (Class B) 100c/km; and “longer” vehicles (Class C) 200c/km.
Qualifying commuter taxis (Class A2) and commuter buses (Class B) are completely exempt from the e-toll system.
The reduction for light vehicles without e-tags was from 66c/km to 58c/km, and from R3.95/km for heavy vehicles without e-tags to R2.95/km.
E-tags are now available at Checkers, Pick n Pay and Shoprite stores, for R50. They are also available from e-toll customer service outlets in shopping malls across Gauteng, consumer centres along the Gauteng e-road, via www.sanral.co.za, or the Sanral call centre at 0800 SANRAL (726 725).
E-toll registration can be done online at www.sanral.co.za, by phoning the e-toll call centre, at the mall outlets in Gauteng, the highway customer centres, or by printing a registration form from the Web site and faxing it to 0800 726 725 or e-mailing it to info@sa-etoll.co.za.
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