Drivers offered half-price electronic toll devices
- Source: Global Times
- [10:27 June 21 2010]
- Comments
A technician installs an electronic toll collection device for a driver at the ETC customer service center in Xuhui district. Photo: IC
By Tang Zhao
City transport authorities are offering drivers a discount on electronic units for their vehicles that automatically pay highway toll gate fares in a bid to increase the use of the technology and ease traffic at highway toll gates.
"New buyers will get a 200 yuan ($29) discount on the on-board electronic unit if they top up 1,000 yuan ($146) on their highway transportation cards at the time of purchase," Shen Xiaosu, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Urban Construction and Communications Commission (SMUCCC), said at a press conference on Friday.
Shen added that the offer is limited to 10,000 units.
The on-board units allow local drivers to use special toll lanes on highways in Shanghai Municipality, Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province, automatically deducting the toll from the top-up card that is inserted in the device.
Currently, the device plus an empty top-up card costs 430 yuan ($63) in Shanghai.
"If vehicles driving through toll gates take less time, the whole highway network will become more efficient, also meaning that there will be less energy consumption and pollution," Shen added.
Shen said that SMUCCC is currently working on a plan to make the electronic toll collection (ETC) systems of Shanghai Municipality compatible with those in Zhejiang and Jiangxi Provinces.
Local highway management authorities launched a three-year-long promotion on May 1 giving ETC users a 5 percent discount on tolls.
Shanghai's ETC system began official operation on December 20, 2008. As of June 18 this year, there were 111 ETC lanes at toll gates on local highways. There are also 16 service locations across the city, all of which offer top-ups on cards and some of which offer installation of the devices, according to Shen.
The top-up cards can also be charged at participating branches of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Of the 75,000 ETC users registered in Shanghai, 45,000 drive through the special toll lanes on a daily basis, according to SMUCCC statistics.
