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E-tolls: getting tagged or tolled

E-tolls will commence later this year. With prices on various e-toll sign boards, whether to get tagged or tolled is one of the main questions that road users face.

The idea of E-tolls has bandied about for some time.

With prices now appearing on e-toll sign boards on the N12, it seems that the introduction of the electronic tolling system is imminent.

While the new e-toll draft regulations, gazetted recently have remained the same since the idea was first introduced.

E-tolls will officially commence later this year.
The maximum monthly amount to be paid by a light motor vehicle (class A2) has decreased by R100 to R450 a month.
The cost of which for the maximum monthly amount to be paid by a light motor vehicle (class A2) has decreased to R450 a month.
South Africa’s first urban electronic system will use gantries constructed over freeways to charge a per-gantry fee
Open road tolling, or e-tolling is a different from the current toll plaza system
The Electronic Toll Collection or ETC is a Pretoria based company managing the e-toll transaction house and national e tolls violations processing centre.
It handles all e-toll accounts and the collection of tolls charged to the estimated 600 000 registered e-tag holders.
Not a large number when there are an estimated 3.5 million registered vehicles in Gauteng.
With a traffic count of between an estimated 80 000 and 200 000 vehicles on its highways every day.
Springs motorists will be paying at the current already existing toll plazas, as well as at the gantries they pass when travelling to their various business or leisure destinations.
However public transport like taxis are exempt from paying for e-tolls.
“After negotiating with national government, it was agreed that taxis are going to be exempt from paying”, says Leonard Molo, general secretary of the Springs taxi association.
In order for the taxi drivers to be exempt, they should fill in the form provided by their relevant taxi association, or they will not be exempt from paying.
Molo acknowledged that he is worried about how long the government plans to exempt taxi drivers from paying for the e-tolls, and when and at what tariff taxis may have to start paying for e-tolls.
He also said some of this worry stems from a lack of communication between the national and local taxi association.
The South African National Taxi Association Council (SANTACO) gave no prior consultation on the e-tolls, and Springs Taxi Association found out about the implementation of e-tolls on national news.
Many Springs residents may be working in the Johannesburg or Pretoria areas using the N17 or N12 on a daily basis travel between 100km to 150km.
This figure only factors in mileage between home and work excluding mileage driven for company purposes during the day.
Sales people will be particularly hard hit by this additional expense.
According to Sanral’s calculations, getting e-tagged will reduce cost from 30c/km compared to 70c/km without an e-tag.
While drivers can calculate a cursory figure of what the monthly bill might be, one will only see the full effect of e-tolling once the system is implemented.
Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona says “only 1% of Gauteng motorists would have driven enough to reach the R550 previous cap, 90% of motorists according to their calculations would pay less than R200 per month in e-toll fees.”

E-tolls will come into effect later this year. E-tolls need not be a financial burden if a road user is aware of their travelling habits.

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