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Tolls report expected in April

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

The special steering committee to address concerns around the proposed e-tolling in Gauteng will be chaired by Transport Department director-general George Mahlalela and will report by the end of April.

A special steering committee is expected to report on the toll fees at the end of April.

Announcing the “government-side” of the steering committee on Tuesday, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said it included Kgaugelo Lekgoro of the premier’s office, Gauteng Transport Department head Benny Monama and SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) CEO Nazir Ali.

“We plan to include as part of the steering committee organised business, organised labour, commuter organisations and other government structures and civil society institutions,” he said.

It was intended to complete the committee’s constitution by March 20, so those organisations now had 10 days to finalise their names.

The committee was expected to report on the matter by the end of April but Ndebele did not exclude extending the deadline.

Although extensive consultation had already taken place, there was a perception that consultation on the tariffs had been inadequate.

“It is now my responsibility as minister of transport to address all the current concerns relating to this issue,” he said.

Credit to: Times Live

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Toll fees suspended

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Toll fees suspended

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

Tariffs Gazetted for the tolling of Gauteng highways will be suspended until further notice, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said on Tuesday.

A panel of experts would be appointed to explore options in order to reduce the toll burden on road users, he told reporters in Kempton Park.

It comes after a meeting with Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.

A panel of experts, made up of representatives from the transport department, the SA National Roads Agency Limited and the Gauteng government, will also review the financial model on which the R20bn transaction was based.

“The premier and I agree on the principle of tolling. Government reiterates its commitment to fully honouring the terms of the loan agreement for this transaction,” said Ndebele.

“We will be engaging with the investors to keep them in the loop and assure them that we remain fully committed to the repayment of the R20bn loan.”

Mokonyane said it would be unfair to say that government took long before re-acting to concerns.

A structured process of consultation and one for input from the public on the cost structure and financial model will soon be announced.

“South Africans can be best assured that government is doing everything possible to resolve this matter in a manner that will be in the best interest of the commuter, road user and the state for future development and management of our road infrastructure in the country,” Mokonyane said.

Consultations would at most take a month, before the rolling out of the toll system in June.

“We need to give commuters options,” she said.

Tempers flared after it was announced that in June it will cost 66c/km at the 42 electronic toll gates erected on the N1, N3, N12, N17, R21 and R24.

The tolls cover a distance of about 185km.

Concern was raised by businesses, labour and political parties, about the effect toll fees will have on the poor, the economy and alternative routes.

Credit to: News24 and Sapa

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Business objects to toll fees

Tuesday, February 8, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

How does the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) calculate the toll fee that will be levied on Gauteng highways from June – and why were important players not consulted?

This is what business people are asking following the announcement of toll fees which are widely regarded as a blow for Gauteng as well as the country’s economy.

Sanral project manager Alex van Niekerk said the public had been consulted in 2007 during the legislative process to declare the roads concerned toll roads. He said that at the time Sanral said the toll would be about 50c a kilometre and this was still the case.

Sanral had attempted to factor into its discount system issues that had arisen both during and after the consultative process, such as the toll applicable to motorcycles.

Michael Tatalias, chief executive of the Tourism Services Association, wanted to know the basis on which the decision, for example, of a 50% discount for motorcycles had been taken. Did this mean Sanral’s was making a 50% profit, he asked. How could one know if their calculations were accurate?

Tatalias said there should be an independent regulator for toll fees, and public participation was essential.

He said the toll fees would push up the cost of South Africa as a tourist destination at a time when tourists were tremendously price-sensitive and there were many alternative destinations from which to choose.

Van Niekerk said the Department of Transport was Sanral’s regulator.

Eric Cornelius, chief executive of the Bus Operators Association (Saboa), said the industry had requested exemption from toll fees and was very concerned that this had not been granted.

Most bus operators make very little profit and are in fact fighting for survival, he said. They are serving the extremely poor and cannot pass toll fees, rising diesel costs and inflation on to their clients.

Cornelius also requested transparency about how the toll fees had been arrived at. His organisation had not been consulted. It wanted to know how much profit had been factored in and the amount of the payback for the construction costs.

Cornelius said it would be a good thing for an independent body to examine the toll fees before they were implemented. In his view there should be a regulator to review the tolls and resolve disputes.

Zenzo Mahlangu, general secretary of transport union Satawu, called the toll fees a “disaster”. He said companies would merely pass the costs down to consumers, and he asked how much profit Sanral would be making.

Consultation processes are usually held before something like toll fees are introduced, such as those to which Eskom is subjected, but there was no consultation on the toll fees. Satawu will approach the Gauteng government on the issue.

The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), will also turn to the Gauteng government for help, said Frans Mashishi, the association’s Gauteng representative.

He said taxis should be exempted from paying tolls, which would kill off the industry.

Van Niekerk said Sanral needs to generate about R300m a month from toll fees to get its financial model to work.

Credit to: Sake 24 via News 24

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66c for a kilometre with new toll

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66c for a kilometre with new toll

Monday, February 7, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

The Gauteng highway improvement project will cost motorists 66 cents a kilometre and heavy duty lorries R3.96 a kilometre, the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) said.

However, this was before discounts were applied, said SANRAL chief executive officer Nazir Alli in Pretoria, at a presentation where he unveiled the tariffs for the 185-kilometre Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).

Motorists who purchase the e-tag system will pay 49.5 cents a kilometre, while medium-sized vehicles with the e-tag system will be charged R1.49 a kilometre. Heavy duty vehicles with an e-tag will be charged R2.97 per kilometre.

Alli said that motorists would get further discounts depending on when they used the highway and on whether they were frequent users.

Users of the 185-kilometre system will not have to stop at a traditional toll booth, but will drive through booths known as gantries, which have electronic equipment as well as cameras, which photograph the vehicle’s number plate and measure its size.

Each time a vehicle passes underneath a gantry, the toll will be deducted from the amount that has been loaded onto the e-tag. If a user of the network does not have an e-tag, the bill for the toll will be sent by post to the registered owner of the vehicle.

Gantries are between 5 kilometres and 14 kilometres apart — an average of 10 kilometres.

One Sanral official said the system was expected conservatively to generate revenues of about R300 million a month.

Most of this revenue will initially have to go towards operating the system and paying off the loans that were secured to finance the project which will cost an estimated R20 billion.

Vehicles with an e-tag qualify for an automatic 25 percent discount. Additionally there will be discounts depending on what time of day a person travels. This can range between five and 25 percent.

The e-tags are not transferable between vehicles and if a user has an e-tag for a light motor vehicle the system will raise an immediate alert if a lorry passes through the gantry on that e-tag.

Public transport operators with e-tags can get a 50 percent discount while frequent users can get discounts depending on usage.

Alli said the e-tags would be available at numerous locations, including the e-toll customer service website, www.sanral.co.za, e-toll customer service kiosks located in shopping malls, e-toll customer service centres situated along the freeway network and by contacting the e-toll call centre.

Alli said the system would enter a test phase in April and that Sanral planned to have it operational by June 23.

Roads included in the GFIP are the N1 from Pretoria East to the Golden Highway south west of Johannesburg, the R21 from the N1 to the N12 near Rondebuilt Road, the N3 from Buccleuch in the north to a little beyond Barry Marais Road south east of Johannesburg, and the N12 from near Putfontein east of Johannesburg to where the N12 joins the N1 near the Golden Highway.

No matter how fast motorists sped through the 47 gantries, the equipment would still be able to read either the e-tag or the registration number.

It was not immediately envisaged that the gantries would be used for speed trapping, Alli said.

Credit to: Times Live

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Business owners uncertain about effect of new toll system

Monday, December 6, 2010 No Comments by Zelda

Business owners and logistics operators are still in the dark about the consequences of the proposed toll system in and around Gauteng and Pretoria, but the general consensus is that it will have a significant effect on how businesses operate.

Unofficially some operators are estimating this could add as much as 70c/km driven, but in reality they just do not know.

The system is due to come into effect in June next year.

More than 40 electronic toll gates will be erected on the province’s major freeways, including the N1, N3 and R21.

The tariffs have yet to be finalised.

The South African National Roads Agency Limited had indicated as early as 2007 that the new toll systems would add another 50c/km to motorists but the agency was still in the process of finalising tariffs.

Tony Adams, the national operations manager at transport and logistics operator Super Group, said they were still researching the effect that the tolling would have on their operations and would not commit to a figure but described it as “a big cost factor” that they were grappling with which could hit them hard, particularly on the Johannesburg-Pretoria routes.

Ian Lourens, chief executive of JSE-listed logistics group OneLogix Group, was reluctant to discuss the issue saying that there was still a lot of uncertainty around how the system would be implemented and pointing out that tolling could be charged at different rates. There was also the possibility of discounts for volume operators.

Marcel Klaassen, head of sales for small business at FNB Commercial said: “General economics would suggest that anything that makes service delivery more expensive or impractical is considered a hindrance to small-business growth.”

Klaassen pointed out that this could have a significant effect on the way goods are moved around Gauteng.

This included the costs being transferred on to the consumer as small businesses strived to ward off margin erosion and a potential decrease in service levels with businesses either eliminating free delivery or implementing longer delivery lead times.

He added that this could also see businesses taking a closer look at shared transport and shipping as well as outsourcing of the services.

Chris Delport, regional general manager for small business funder GroFin’s operations in South Africa, said: “Of course such a toll road will have a negative effect on business. It increases the cost of transport, thus the overheads of a business, which means the price of your commodity has to increase accordingly. This will result in the client paying more for the same product or service and could potentially have a negative effect on the business becoming uncompetitive.”

Credit to: News24

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