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What irks motorists about e-tolls

Cape Town - The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has highlighted five points of concern and irritation for motorists as a result of the controversial e-tolls system.

E-tolling has been widely criticised by various quarters in society, including ANC alliance partner Cosatu and religious organisations.

Outa highlighted in a statement on Monday some examples of the frustrations people have recently experienced:

Harassment of motorists

Outa said that it received numerous messages from motorists in December who are alarmed by calls from the e-toll Violations Processing Centre (VPC) demanding payment for e-tolls.  

These motorists are being coerced to immediately pay outstanding e-toll fees or be handed over for debt collection, it said.  

“This behaviour confirms the dismal number of e-tag sales", said Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage.

He said this is a desperate attempt by the Electronic Tolling Company (ETC) to meet their contractual obligations to SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) with measures aimed at herding in those motorists and companies who have not been tagged. 

“We are advising motorists not to allow the anxiety within ETC to be projected onto them, to stand their ground and insist that Sanral sticks to its original commitment to the public to handle non-registered e-toll road users by means of normal business practice.

"This means the issuance of a tax-invoices and the necessary detail of evidence of the correct vehicle passing under the various gantries," said Duvenage.

Unsolicited advertising

This is simply defined as promotions through text messages calling for registration for e-tags via SMS to phones, using other organisations databases.   

Outa noted that one citizen labelled this as unsolicited advertising.

The person believes this behaviour by ETC to be in violation of the Protection of Private Information Act (POPI).

Inconvenience for e-toll payment by non-registered users

"The online facility for non-registered users which initially allowed motorists to check their e-toll liability, and pay online or with a credit card, has been abruptly stopped," said Outa.  

Motorists who call in to the call centre, according to Outa, are now being told that they will have to travel to an e-toll customer centre to find out what they owe and pay the outstanding amount.  

“How are we supposed to pay if they make it impossible to do so?”

This question was posed by an OUTA supporter who drove under the gantries on his way to OR Tambo airport and who is currently abroad for a month.

Targeting of fleet operators

"A number of business people have reported extremely prejudicial treatment for not contracting to fit e-tags," claimed Outa.

It said that business operators compliance with VAT regulations necessitates the issue of tax invoices for VAT computations, but the ETC’s Violations Processing Centre (VPC) are not obliging and insist that fleet operators can only obtain such documentation if they contract to buy e-tags.

Outdated data  

Several individuals have reported that the ETC has incorrect information on their database.

ETC staff apparently said they could not update it “because it was provided by eNatis”.  

One motorist was informed of an exorbitant e-toll bill. However it seems to have been run up by someone else driving on his cloned vehicle license number as his freeway use was minimalistic.  

He said he “couldn’t be bothered by the entire fiasco”. 

Outa said that the growing list of incidents is indicative of a system that lacks the required professional response to handle the process.

“At this early stage, the system is creaking under the weight of a costly, cumbersome and unworkable administrative process,” said Duvenage. 

 - Fin24
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