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Bureau working to increase on-board unit installations

The Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau is striving to raise the installation rate of on-board units (OBU) because freeway toll fees will be charged based on distance traveled by 2013, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday.

The bureau briefed the legislature's Transportation Committee on its budget plan for the Freeway Construction and Management Fund. Close to 80 percent of the fund has been collected from freeway toll fees, namely those from National Freeways No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5.

Freeway drivers are currently charged NT$40 each time they pass a toll booth. They can choose to pay by cash, by pre-paid coupons, or through the electronic toll collection (ETC) system.

The system was developed and run by the Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC) under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. Those using the ETC system must have OBUs installed in their vehicles.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ken-te (陳根德) asked whether the bureau was seriously pursuing its plan to upgrade the ETC system.

Chen asked whether the ministry had supervised the operation of FETC to see if it was working on the new system.

Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Oliver Yu (游芳來) said the contract requires FETC to complete the construction of the system by the end of 2012.

However, the ministry hopes that the system can be completed earlier, he said.

Wu Mu-fu (吳木富), a division chief at the bureau, said the new system would be implemented when the user rate of ETC tops an average of 65 percent a year. By then, no toll booths will be seen on freeways.

Wu added that the latest statistics showed that the number of OBU users had passed 650,000 but vehicles driving in ETC-only lanes accounted for just 30 percent of the traffic volume.

In other words, FETC must raise the user rate by at least 35 percent within the next four years.

Even if the new system is implemented, the estimated remaining 35 percent of freeway drivers who refuse to switch to the new ETC system may cause problems for the bureau.

The bureau said it would then have to take pictures of the vehicles, mail them to the motorists and ask them to pay the toll fees.

The bureau may have to process more than 7,000 such cases a day, it said.

However, Wu said motorists would not be forced to install OBUs in their vehicles and would have several options to pay toll fees.
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