Why does the fee collection not stop the slow implementation?

Launched in 2015, there are only 575 non-stop toll lanes in 118 toll stations nationwide, accounting for 70% of the total number of lanes requiring ETC installation. The rate of identification tags is about 57% of the total number of vehicles.

As the unit implementing the phase 1 non-stop toll collection project (BOO1) with 35 stations on national highways, VETC Automatic Toll Collection Company faced many difficulties in the early years of implementation. The initial regulation was that the BOT unit hand over equipment and human resources at the toll station to the BOO unit to perform. BOT businesses are not interested in the new type of toll collection In this case, fear of losing the right to collect tolls and will reduce the employment of workers at the stations.

Another reason is that the project is experiencing a decrease in revenue, affecting the financial plan. Some BOT stations have low toll revenue, and even some stations are opposed by people, so they have to stop. Therefore, businesses do not want to invest in a non-stop toll collection system and have to deduct the fee to the collector, the fee is from 2 to 7% of revenue depending on vehicle volume and investment costs.

“We have to convince banks and BOT businesses about the effectiveness of ETC toll collection, such as reducing human costs, accurately measuring traffic, fighting fraud, and reducing congestion at the station,” said Mr. General Director of VETC, said.

After the Government has an open mechanism for BOT enterprises to invest in toll collection equipment without stopping and transmitting data to the center of VETC, especially directing if BOT stations do not install ETC, they will have to stop toll collection, proceed with faster deployment. Some BOT enterprises have invested and installed the ETC system themselves at the station and connected to the operation center of VETC.

ETC installation work is still slow due to the weak financial potential of VETC Automatic Toll Collection Company. Large investment costs and insufficient revenue caused the project’s financial plan to fail in the period 2018-2020, the bank stopped providing credit. VETC once proposed to return the project to the Ministry of Transport, the installation of the ETC system at the station and affixing tags for affected vehicles.

After 5 years of implementation, VETC has just affixed non-stop cards to more than one million out of 3.5 million vehicles in the country, failing to promote the effectiveness of non-stop toll collection at BOT projects. “For a long time, VETC could not deploy tags for vehicles, the operation of toll collection at stations was shrunk. From 2021, VETC’s parent company has invested resources, so the unit can increase human resources, expand carding work,” said Mr. Ho Trong Vinh.

The delay in using the toll collection service does not stop because many people keep it habit of using cash, money is not available in the account when not used regularly. Many drivers are not aware, vehicles without tags still enter the ETC lane causing congestion, thereby discouraging many people to use this service.

Another important reason is that at first, Card error does not stop happening quite commonly. Many vehicles are charged twice when passing the station, the barie does not open but still deducts money, the card is not integrated if going through the station of another ETC service provider. Service providers must regularly deal with faulty cards, check for software errors and make connections between service providers.

On the business side, Mr. Tran Chung, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Road Traffic Construction Investors, analyzed Inconvenient means of payment causing difficulties for transport enterprises. Businesses with many vehicles must top up a large amount of money into their traffic accounts and this money will be left in the account if the car owner does not use it.

While circulating, the traffic account runs out of money but the business fails to recharge it, which also makes it difficult for the driver. Transport enterprises have proposed to have an integrated solution to pay fees automatically via bank accounts instead of paying through traffic accounts of service providers.

However, the toll collection service unit is not a credit institution, so it cannot pay interest on the car owner’s money in the traffic account. Banks, for security reasons, do not allow fees to be deducted directly from a bank account.

After nearly 7 years of implementation, the whole country now has nearly 2.6 million vehicles with non-stop service tags in nearly 5 million vehicles, reaching 57%. The rate of vehicles that recharge traffic accounts to use when passing toll stations is about 60%.

In order to increase the number of non-stop card-sticking vehicles, service providers have automatically connected traffic accounts with a number of large banks and progressed to connecting all banks. An empty traffic account will be automatically loaded from the bank with the amount set by the account holder.

Mr. Vo Anh Tam, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Digital Traffic Joint Stock Company – the unit implementing the project of non-stop toll collection phase 2 (BOO2), said that the business has strongly propagated to car owners about the benefits and efficient use of ETC. People who want to have a card can apply online and staff will come and paste it in 24 hours. Along with that, the multi-channel payment system from direct, bank, e-wallet, transactions are public and transparent.

In just over a year of implementation (from mid-2020), this unit has pasted 1.3 million Epass cards, equivalent to the number of VETC cards stuck on vehicles in 5 years.

Doan Loan