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Johannesburg - “The recent wave of numerous inexplicable, inaccurate and threatening SMS’s from Sanral’s collection agents for outstanding e-toll fees merely reflects their bully-boy mentality,” Wayne Duvenage, chairperson of the Opposition To Urban Tolling Alliances (Outa), said on Thursday.
“The various media channels and in particular, social media are alive with a multitude of claims of inaccurate e-toll bills and demands for so called ‘violations’, along with breaches in the security of people’s private information," he said.
"It is far too easy for Sanral to fob these serious issues off as mere teething problems, especially after claiming to be prepared following the testing of their systems for the past two years.”
Outa alone has received over 500 complaints through their web site and hundreds more on their Facebook page over the past two weeks.
The organisation said it imagines thousands more e-toll users would not even have bothered to complain and merely laughed these messages off.
“Just because Sanral has the technology for sending messages efficiently doesn’t absolve them from basic rules of common courtesy. If the system is supposed to serve people, Sanral has a duty to be people-centred rather than technology obsessed,” said Duvenage.
Outa's statement, issued on Thursday, said as a State Owned Enterprise Sanral and its collection agents appear to be unapologetic and confident that sending threatening SMS’s is an adequate method of extorting payment from users of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) without first offering tax invoices to those that did not register for an e-tag, even though they are legally required to do so.
"One only has to imagine what outrage would exist, in particular from government and general society, should any private company operate as Sanral does in this regard," said Duvenage.
"It is for this reason that Outa has approached the Office of the Public Protector to urgently intervene to compel Sanral to face up to its critics in a responsible and mature manner."
Outa claims that Sanral's current approach towards road users is a far cry from its claims during the Competition Commission's investigations into collusive practices within the construction sector.
"Six months later and with a final report published listing pages of collusive road construction projects, Sanral would appear to be rather muted in sharing the details with the public on their legal avenues and progress to recover these overpaid monies due to society," said Outa.
"Ironically, Sanral continued to allocate tenders to those who overcharged them previously."
Outa said it is also "amused" at Sanral’s recent statements wherein it reflects e-tag sales numbers and targets.
"Firstly, we do not believe their number of 960 000 tags in use on the freeways. We have caught Sanral providing society with misleading information in the past," said Outa.
With government fleets now tagged up, at best Outa does not believe that more than one in four vehicles on the freeways are e-tagged.
Outa continues to call on Sanral for absolute transparency on this matter, by allowing Outa or independent auditors to view the numbers on their screens that depict the actual gantry transaction volumes and percentages that are tagged.
"After all, Sanral is a public entity and ought to provide this information in a totally transparent manner to the society that pays their salaries," said Outa.
Outa has also commented on Sanral's recent statement that people are seeing the value of getting e-tags.
“It’s not value they are seeing at all,” said Duvenage. “But instead, most of the minority of road users, who have purchased, have done so begrudgingly and under duress.”
Outa also commented on Sanral’s stated target of 1.5 million e-tag sales.
"In an environment where over 2.3 million average unique vehicles use the freeways each month, it would appear they have set their targets lower than full compliance," said Outa.
"This suggests their willingness to accept that many people will not pay."
Outa is of the opinion that this is a formula for disaster, as research shows that successful tolling systems work when compliance is well above the 80% to 90% levels.
"Those systems that fail, do so when compliance is low and the people that pay are outnumbered by those that don’t, which is the case in Gauteng," said Outa.
"Outa remains concerned for Sanral’s credit rating as, based on the current Sanral performance and the sheer lack of support for the system, the agencies are likely to downgrade their status at the next review."
“The various media channels and in particular, social media are alive with a multitude of claims of inaccurate e-toll bills and demands for so called ‘violations’, along with breaches in the security of people’s private information," he said.
"It is far too easy for Sanral to fob these serious issues off as mere teething problems, especially after claiming to be prepared following the testing of their systems for the past two years.”
Outa alone has received over 500 complaints through their web site and hundreds more on their Facebook page over the past two weeks.
The organisation said it imagines thousands more e-toll users would not even have bothered to complain and merely laughed these messages off.
“Just because Sanral has the technology for sending messages efficiently doesn’t absolve them from basic rules of common courtesy. If the system is supposed to serve people, Sanral has a duty to be people-centred rather than technology obsessed,” said Duvenage.
Outa's statement, issued on Thursday, said as a State Owned Enterprise Sanral and its collection agents appear to be unapologetic and confident that sending threatening SMS’s is an adequate method of extorting payment from users of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) without first offering tax invoices to those that did not register for an e-tag, even though they are legally required to do so.
"One only has to imagine what outrage would exist, in particular from government and general society, should any private company operate as Sanral does in this regard," said Duvenage.
"It is for this reason that Outa has approached the Office of the Public Protector to urgently intervene to compel Sanral to face up to its critics in a responsible and mature manner."
Outa claims that Sanral's current approach towards road users is a far cry from its claims during the Competition Commission's investigations into collusive practices within the construction sector.
"Six months later and with a final report published listing pages of collusive road construction projects, Sanral would appear to be rather muted in sharing the details with the public on their legal avenues and progress to recover these overpaid monies due to society," said Outa.
"Ironically, Sanral continued to allocate tenders to those who overcharged them previously."
Outa said it is also "amused" at Sanral’s recent statements wherein it reflects e-tag sales numbers and targets.
"Firstly, we do not believe their number of 960 000 tags in use on the freeways. We have caught Sanral providing society with misleading information in the past," said Outa.
With government fleets now tagged up, at best Outa does not believe that more than one in four vehicles on the freeways are e-tagged.
Outa continues to call on Sanral for absolute transparency on this matter, by allowing Outa or independent auditors to view the numbers on their screens that depict the actual gantry transaction volumes and percentages that are tagged.
"After all, Sanral is a public entity and ought to provide this information in a totally transparent manner to the society that pays their salaries," said Outa.
Outa has also commented on Sanral's recent statement that people are seeing the value of getting e-tags.
“It’s not value they are seeing at all,” said Duvenage. “But instead, most of the minority of road users, who have purchased, have done so begrudgingly and under duress.”
Outa also commented on Sanral’s stated target of 1.5 million e-tag sales.
"In an environment where over 2.3 million average unique vehicles use the freeways each month, it would appear they have set their targets lower than full compliance," said Outa.
"This suggests their willingness to accept that many people will not pay."
Outa is of the opinion that this is a formula for disaster, as research shows that successful tolling systems work when compliance is well above the 80% to 90% levels.
"Those systems that fail, do so when compliance is low and the people that pay are outnumbered by those that don’t, which is the case in Gauteng," said Outa.
"Outa remains concerned for Sanral’s credit rating as, based on the current Sanral performance and the sheer lack of support for the system, the agencies are likely to downgrade their status at the next review."
