New customer-friendly improvements in the e-toll service system
Since the launch of the HU-GO pay-as-you-go electronic toll collection system four years ago, based on the experiences of operation and feedback from carriers, the National Toll Payment Services Plc. has been continuously improving the technological solutions employed. Over the past years, the company has introduced various services available free of charge, helping drivers declare road use as easily and accurately as possible and protecting them from unwittingly committing serial offences.
Such services include the Alert function, available since July 2015. Once activated, when detecting unauthorised road use, the NTPS verification system will immediately send the user concerned a warning in order to avoid a serial fine. Another example is the low-balance warning service, which protects road users from letting their balance run too low and thus from running out of funds to pay for a freight in progress.
Related to that function is one of the two important changes implemented today, which affect the e-toll system. The minimum notification limit has now been changed to HUF 6,000 across the board for the HU-GO profiles where the service has been activated. Determining an adequate limit value is crucial for that function, for if the value is set too low for the vehicle category and the parameters of the toll road sections along the planned route, the warning message will probably arrive too late, leaving no time for topping up the balance. The HUF 6,000 limit, based on practical experiences and typical road use patterns, is set for each current account (an increased warning limit should be set according to the size of the fleet pertaining to an account). The change does not concern any HU-GO profiles where the warning limit has been set higher.
The other important improvement implemented by the NTPS enables registered users to assign a phone number to each vehicle. Using that function, the carrier’s toll declaration operator can notify the driver in the case of a failure of the on-board unit or any other technical defect, enabling him to remedy the defect in time. He might, for example, reset the on-board unit or purchase a route ticket for the planned route.
By implementing the changes to the e-toll system, the National Toll Payment Services Plc. primarily aims to achieve that fewer vehicles are added to the list of disabled on-board units while helping to avoid unsecured declarations and the related administrative fines.
