Seventy-four cloned vehicles, and 821 duplicate licence plates have, to date, been identified on Gauteng’s e-toll network, says Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) CEO Jamie Surkont.

Speaking to Engineering News Online, he says a cloned vehicle is a vehicle identical to another in model, colour and licence plate.

Duplicate licence plates may be found on vehicles that look completely different.

A cloned vehicle is identified through the use of basic algorithms and the current figures do not necessarily represent the total actual population of cloned vehicles, warns Surkont. The same is true for duplicate plates.

The basic algorithms referred to include a process whereby the same vehicle cannot travel through two different points within a limited timeframe.

A cloned number plate is easier to deal with than a duplicate licence plate, says Surkont.

With duplicate number plates, evidence can be produced to indicate that the vehicle in question has duplicate plates, and is not the make and model registered for e-toll payment.

With a cloned vehicle, however, the onus is on the toll road user to prove that the cloned vehicle using the toll road is not theirs.

When ETC becomes aware of a cloned vehicle, or one with a duplicate licence plant, the company “incorporates it on our Vehicle of Special Interest list, with the information deployed to the mobile enforcement teams and at the gantries,” says Surkont.

“There are operating procedures that are defined by the Gauteng Department of Community Safety when one of these vehicles is identified.”

The percentage of transactions associated with both cloned vehicles and duplicates represents less than 0.08% of the transactions recorded so far, says Surkont.

ETC records between 65-million and 70-million transactions a month, he adds.

“As a system, we have almost zero lost transactions.”

The highest speed recorded between two points on the open road toll network, to date, is 191 km/h.

Surkont is not willing to discuss the number of road users not registered for e-tolls, or the percentage of users not paying their e-toll accounts, as this is the domain of the government’s South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral).

Sanral owns the Gauteng e-toll network, and ETC is the e-toll operator.

“We have people living in the debt collection space,” says Surkont. “They refuse to register and get an e-tag, but still pay their bills. This is an interesting phenomenon.

“Others are not paying, and waiting to see what will happen.”

Surkont emphasises that e-tolling is not as expensive as users imagined at the start of the process in December 2013.

Based on an evaluation performed in February (assuming all cars were registered and using an e-tag account), 22 073 cars would reach the R450-a-month cap.

Around 48 800 cars would be charged between R301 and R400, 105 351 cars between R201 and R300, and 262 208 cars between R101 and R200.

Just short of 1.6-million vehicles would be billed up to R100 a month.

IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE BIG CHALLENGE
“Our current challenge is to become more customer focused,” says Surkont.

“As we started, we were more technology focused, but now we realise we can not make a software change without asking how it will impact the customer. This is a big cultural shift for us.

“Our vision is to be the best toll operator in the world.”

Another challenge is to rightsize ETC for the requirements of the Gauteng toll network. This is difficult, as the toll system is still maturing.

ETC has, however, changed many of its temporary staff to longer-term contracts, as it creates more job certainty, which, ultimately, creates “more positive energy” flowing through to the customer, explains Surkont.

ETC had a staff complement of 2 000 people in November, and will probably end up employing between 1 500 and 1 700 people.

“We have to see what the system’s steady state looks like,” says Surkont. “A steady state means complete predictability in terms of labour force management and where my costs sit.”