HCMCity (VNA) - The Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) began a newsystem of collecting tolls using smart cards on the HCM City-Long Thanh-DauGiay Expressway, which connects HCM City and Dong Nai province, on May 15.    

Thenew system includes 33 semi-automatic toll collection stations equipped with aRadio Frequency Identification (RFID) system.

TheIC-card is a memory card that stores data with memory chips and can beexchanged with computers via radio reading and writing devices.

TheRFID system installed at the toll station will identify the car’s entry pointand exit point, and activate a camera to photograph the vehicle’s number platewhile reading the IC-card to calculate the charges for each type of vehicle.

TheIC-card will be issued to the driver at the first station of the expressway,and the driver will return it to the toll attendant before exiting theexpressway.

Thesystem will calculate the charge based on the type of automobile and the lengthof the expressway on which the vehicle has travelled.

Afterthe toll attendant receives cash from the driver, invoices will be printed forthe driver, and the barrier will be opened for the car to pass through.

NguyenThi Hoai Phuong, Deputy Director of VEC, said the new system would help reducecosts for management and operation while saving time for drivers.

Incase of loss or damage to the card, the drivers will have to pay a fee to issuethe card (200,000 VND or 8.5 USD) and will pay double the toll for the longestroute on the expressway, according to Phuong.

E-tollcollections

Aftertwo weeks of deployment, the company will also apply an electronic tollcollection (ETC) system or non-stop toll collection service based on OnboardUnit (OBU) equipment installed on automobiles.

Inorder to pay a toll through an ETC system, automobile owners will be granted anE-tag card free of charge along with a toll payment account.

Thecards are required to be placed on the front window of the automobile, and whenthe vehicle passes a toll collection lane, the RFID system installed at thetoll station will activate a camera to photograph the vehicle’s plate numberwhile reading the R-tag cards.

Ifthe vehicle owners’ account is sufficient to pay the toll, it will be deductedfrom the account and a text massage will be sent to the account holder’s mobilephone.

Ifthe account does not have enough money for the toll, drivers will be requiredto pay in cash and receive a voucher, as in traditional toll collection.  

Withthe new method, the toll will be collected automatically, and the vehicle willnot need to stop to pay, Phuong said.

Thedrivers registered to use non-stop toll collection service will be served onseparate ETC lanes.

Witha length of 55km, the HCM City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway has a totalinvestment of more than 20.6 trillion VND (908 million USD).

Openedin 2015, the six-lane expressway has helped shorten the distance from HCM Cityto Vung Tau.

Asof May 12, nearly 34 million vehicles with an average of 37,000-40,000 vehiclesper day, travelled on the expressway.

Inthe first two months of the year, the expressway served 2.6 million vehicles, arise of 24 percent over the same period last year.-VNA