Delays caused by public opposition to the implementation of e-tolling are a great concern to the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and the agency has experienced resulting loss in revenue, which has led to the roll-out of other planned phases of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) being placed on hold, says GFIP manager Alex Van Niekerk.

The GFIP also made provision for the construction of new freeways between Pretoria and Johannesburg, the East Rand, West Rand and Midrand.

“It is unfortunate that there has been a delay in the project’s implementation. A funding model is needed for the future development of Gauteng and its roads infrastructure, otherwise huge traffic growth and associated congestion will once again be experienced in the future,” Van Niekerk states, adding that Sanral’s initial launch date for e-tolling was April 2011.

The money collected from toll users has to fund toll operations, maintenance, expansions and bond repayments, he stresses.

The cost of upgrading the 201 km freeway and implementing the e-tolling infrastructure (intelligent transport systems, the lighting on the freeways, the tolling system and infrastructure) amounts to R20.5-billion, excluding value-added tax and accumulating interest.

Van Niekerk notes that the biggest challenge faced by Sanral during the implementation of the e-tolling infrastructure was completing the project amid traffic. “There are about one-million vehicles using Gauteng’s freeways every day and we needed to ensure that traffic flowed safely and contractors were not in harm’s way.”

Unfortunately, congestion or delays resulted, owing to the construction works. “Therefore, a considerable portion of the work took place at night, as it would have had too much impact on traffic during the day.”

The e-tolling technology was implemented in 2002 for the Bakwena toll road. It was always the intention to use this technology at all toll plazas in South Africa to reduce delays at toll plazas, as well as to further expand the number of toll lanes at the plaza, Van Niekerk notes.

Since the GFIP’s inception in 2006, this interoperability principle was applied in the design of the toll system, which will enable a user to register once, obtain an e-tag and use it at any other toll plaza where electronic tolling is or will become available.
Even though tolling has not yet started on the upgraded GFIP roads, he notes that over 10 000 road users are successfully using their e-toll accounts to pay the Bakwena tolls on sections of the N1 and N4 highways. “To date about 500 000 tags have been sold with e-tag sales slowly increasing every month,” says Van Niekerk.

E-tolling was given the go-ahead in September 20, 2012, when the Constitutional Court struck down an interdict by the High Court to stop the e-tolling system from resuming.

However, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) is appealing the judgement passed by acting judge Louis Vorster on December 13, 2012, in which, the North Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria, dismissed an application submitted by Outa, together with the South African Vehicle Renting and Leasing Association, the Quadpara Association of South Africa and the South African National Consumer Union, to have the Gauteng e-tolling project scrapped.

On January 25, the High Court in Pretoria granted Outa leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) against the previous judgment made by the high court.

The crux of Outa’s case is the shocking lack of public consultation regarding the roll-out of e-tolling, in addition to the high cost of collection, and the inefficiency and administrative burden on society, states Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage.

“Tolling projects have failed around the world owing to passive resistance and civil disobedience, which is triggered when society does not trust the authorities’ intentions, combined with a lack of trans- parency in the project roll-out and high costs. All of these factors are prevalent in Sanral’s e-toll debacle,” he adds.

“Further, Sanral can’t blame the court action for the delayed launch, as they are still unable to start four months after the Constitutional Court gave them the go-ahead. Since Sanral’s first announced launch date of April 2011, almost two years have passed and they are still testing the systems and trying to get regulations finalised,” states Duvenhage.

Sanral, however, is confident that e-tolling will go ahead and be successfully implemented, Van Niekerk states.

“Its efficiency has been demonstrated internationally and Sanral included various specialists in its project team. Some of the standards and specifications that have been developed for this project are used by other countries implementing similar projects.”

E-tolling will also create about 2 000 direct jobs, with many indirect jobs resulting from subsequent economic growth, Van Niekerk points out.

E-Tolling Costs
Gauteng motorists would probably not have resisted the project if the costs were more affordable owing to a lower collection percentage, says Duvenage. In other countries around the world, collection costs are around 5% to 12%, while the GFIP e-tolls collection costs motorists between 26% (at best) and 40%, he notes.

“Dropping the current tariffs of 30c/km does not help as the country will never pay off the road upgrade. We expect that the authorities will reduce the rates by around 10% to 15% to woo the public, but this will probably be quickly regained with above- inflation rate hikes going forward to collect the required funds.

“The exorbitant collection costs could have been avoided if a 10c/ℓ fee was added to the fuel levy to pay off the R17-billion road upgrade (including interest) over 20 years. Outa has no problem with the much-needed road upgrades or the fact that the public must pay for these roads. It is the wasted costs and inefficiencies of this new ‘tax’ that the public rejects.”

Outa’s estimates are that Sanral will earn between R90-billion and R110-billion over the next 20 years from toll collection charges, starting at 30c/km and increasing at 7% a year (5% for inflation and 2% for a carpark).

In addition, there are the toll collection costs (R30-billion to R40-billion over 20 years), while infrastructure maintenance should not be more than R8-billion over this period, states Duvenage.

It is for this reason that Outa has advocated a 10c/ℓ addition to the national fuel levy, which would pay for the R35-billion-road infrastructure and interest costs, he points out.

However, Van Niekerk states that the calculated cost of collection for compliant toll transactions submitted to the court with respect to the 24-year project period amounts to an estimated R12.1-billion, which is 17% of the overall project cost of R71.4-billion.

This amount includes all project-related costs, such as the initial construction costs, maintenance costs, interest and other opera- tional costs, such as incident management, intelligent transport systems and freeway lighting. The costs also include a budget of R6.2-billion for violation processing which is largely funded through higher tariffs payable by violators.

Further, Van Niekerk states that Sanral has been monitoring the e-tolling system on a live basis, recording all the number plates that pass underneath the gantries, allowing the agency to calculate the actual monthly toll costs payable by e-tag users.

The results show that about 78% of road users will pay less than R100 a month in toll fees and 96% of users will pay less than R300 a month. Therefore, about 14% will pay between R100 and R300. The monthly cost of e-tolling for road users is, therefore, greatly overestimated by the public, says Van Niekerk.

Sanral went though a similar exercise with the Road Freight Association in 2012 when it compared a hypothetical fuel levy with toll costs. The exercise concluded that a ‘low’ national fuel levy of 11c/ℓ would cost the freight industry about R400-million more than the e-tolling system.

“The freight industry also needs to consider the tax benefits of tolling, such as claiming back value-added tax and tolling expenses from government,” Van Niekerk highlights.

He notes that, unfortunately, most of the focus on e-tolling has been on cost, with little focus on the benefits, such as reduced travelling time, road-user cost benefits, fuel savings and reduced carbon emissions owing to fewer cars on the freeways.

Further, Van Niekerk stresses that motorists were adequately informed of the e-tolling project in 2007. Sanral was open to comment from both the public and the media, and the project had a high level of public exposure.

A committee was established by the Minister of Transport to acquire project feedback from the provincial government and the metropolitan authorities.

The report was then circulated to all city councils, relevant portfolio committees and the legislature, with representation from political parties. “The whole issue of what the toll tariff would be was represented,” Van Niekerk notes.

This report was then returned to Cabinet and the proposed toll tariff indicated was 50c/km in 2007. The e-tariff has now been reduced to a proposed 30c/km.

Sanral publicised the GFIP in six regional newspapers, using two full-page adverts. “In our view, a legitimate process was followed and the Gauteng North High Court agreed when it ruled in favour of e-tolling.”

Outa, however, does not agree that motorists were adequately informed about the e-tolling project and states that meaningful consultations with society and businesses did not take place.

“Sanral received only 28 responses to the e-toll notification advert placed in six local newspapers, which lacked critical information required for meaningful public feedback, such as the brunt of e-tolling costs on citizens,” Duvenage argues.

“The lack of public engagement during the project’s inception is evident in the current outcry from South Africans,” he adds.

Yet Van Niekerk speculates that the sudden response from the public is due to the economic downturn in 2008/2009 shortly after the project’s implementation. “The global economic climate changed, strongly influencing the price of food, petrol and other daily necessities, which made the public more aware of how any additional costs will affect them.”

He says various hoax mails contributed to the emotional response from the public. People also calculated their e-toll costs without taking into account discounts and the correct amount of kilometres travelled through toll gantries.

Sanral has advertised the actual toll costs in various newspapers and has placed a calculator on its website to help the public estimate their actual toll costs. “There is much knowledge available if one wants to use it.”

Most people will not avoid the toll routes, as it will be more costly fuel- and timewise to avoid the toll roads and time is valuable to all South Africans, Van Niekerk concludes.