Sanral processing 3 million transactions daily

·28 Jan 2014

Sanral chief financial officer, Inge Mulder, says the national roads agency is processing three million transactions relating to its e-toll system, each day.

Mulder, in an interview with Moneyweb , said that the system was tested at six million and is able to process far more than that.

The e-toll system, implemented on Gauteng’s freeways on December 3, has come under fire due to system glitches with hundreds, if not thousands of motorists complaining about incorrect billing.

“The system is solid”, Mulder told Moneyweb. “The extent of the glitches is small. Only 0.3% of the 56,000 queries received from December 3 necessitated us writing a work ticket to adjust something on the system.”

Last week, Sanral spokesperson, Vusi Mona said that number of complaints received since toll commencement to 10 January 2014 was 2% of total registered account units. He did not say how many accounts there were.

The number of valid complaints however, he put at 12% of that 2% of registered account units.

Viability cost?

Mulder could not disclose to Moneyweb the violation percentage the system would no longer be viable, and at what point the cost of collection is too high to pursue a specific account, amid much protest and threats by the public that they refuse to support e-tolls.

“The whole purpose is to collect payments before it is being handed over for criminal prosecution,” Mulder said.

According to Moneyweb, motorists who are convicted for refusing to pay e-tolls could face possible fines of up to R2,160 per gantry.

This was just a “bonus” payment to Sanral, however, as the road agency did not seek to draw revenue from such instances, it was reported.

Mulder said Sanral’s debt currently stands at R41 billion, while it has been widely reported that the agency needs to collect beyween R250 million and R300 million a month through e-tolls to manage its finances.

Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), the contractor tasked with managing the e-toll system, is expected to hand in its first certificate at the end of January.