Every time he travels on highways such as Hanoi - Hai Phong, Phap Van - Cau Gie... Mr. Le Huu Hung (34 years old, Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi) often encounters a situation where some automatic toll collection lanes (ETC) are temporarily suspended.
"There are times when there are a lot of vehicles but at the same time 2-3 ETC lanes are not serving. At that time, cars have to move to other ETC lanes to pass the station, causing traffic congestion behind," said Mr. Hung.
Talking to Lao Dong about this issue, Mr. Vu Ngoc Oanh - Deputy General Director of BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie Joint Stock Company - said that under permitted conditions, all ETC lanes are open to serve vehicles. However, there are times when some ETC lanes must be closed and temporarily suspended for maintenance and cleaning of the system.
"This is a mandatory procedure," said Mr. Oanh, adding that if the system is not regularly maintained, it will cause unusual problems such as barriers not opening and closing at the right time, affecting people and vehicles passing through the station.
When the toll collection system has a problem, the technical department will re-check the software. Regarding technical expertise, Mr. Oanh said, it does not take much time to handle this problem.
"Maintenance mode to align and adjust the equipment to always be in the best condition during the process of serving vehicles passing through the station" - Mr. Oanh said.
In addition to the information provided to reporters, the leader of BOT Phap Van - Cau Gie Joint Stock Company said that congestion at toll stations does exist but is relatively rare.
Part of the reason could be that traffic volume is high, but some ETC lanes are under maintenance, leading to slight traffic congestion behind the station.
In case the barrier does not open due to a transaction error, the station staff will quickly guide the vehicle owner to the troubleshooting area for inspection.
Mr. Oanh said that traffic jams often occur on highways, especially at major intersections when traffic is congested and cannot exit the highway in time.
He gave an example of the Phap Van toll station having 18 lanes, of which 12 lanes are towards the center of Hanoi, so traffic jams only occur on the Phap Van - Cau Gie expressway (especially the intersection with Ring Road 3) and almost never occur at the station.
In case of force majeure such as technical errors at the station, the management unit will open all barriers in the ETC lanes, ensuring smooth traffic flow and avoiding congestion at the toll station.
From August 1, 2022, all expressways nationwide will implement non-stop toll collection.
According to the Vietnam Expressway Corporation - VEC, the ETC toll collection system is now operating stably, the basic transaction errors have been resolved. The operating units can reduce the number of employees working at the station by half.
