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E-Tolls update – Questions from customers asked and answered

January 2014 - The following questions below were emailed to First Car Rental in January 2014 by First Car Rental customers. In the vein of transparency, all relevant questions sent by customers will be placed here to help other customers. Please email your e-toll questions to info@firstcarrental.co.za.


  • Q: Even though I am against the e-Toll system, I have gone ahead and purchased my own e-Tag and registered it for the prepaid option. What is First Car Rentals position on e-tolling and how have you demonstrated this?

    A: First Car Rental has fought tooth and nail for 3 years to try to stop e-tolls in its existing form. We do believe that the country should invest in good roads and that this comes at a cost. But we believe the funds should come from the fuel levy. The administration for this already exists regionally, and it is a fairer system because taxing fuel consumption allows for a direct relation to road usage.

    Furthermore, the fuel levy fund doesn't isolate certain road networks. We believe e-tolling is at risk of resulting in accelerated road deterioration of roads outside its application. However, as a listed company we have no choice but to comply with the law. We have also had to comply with the electronic form given the number of transactions we handle on a daily basis.

  • Q: If the incentive behind getting an e-Tag is to pay the discounted rates, why then am I being billed the ‘standard rates' while renting a car?

    A: We do have an active program in place to tag our fleet in order to offer our customers the discounted e-toll rate. First Car Rental has done its level best to protect our renters from e-tolling, which unfortunately has put us on the back foot with regards to the e-tag installation process.

    Unfortunately we are still being billed the Standard tariff ourselves and can only tag our vehicles as they term. We have tagged each and every car as it termed in Gauteng, but could still only get to 50% of our total fleet within the first month since e-tolls went live.

    Along with the aforementioned circumstances, we have had tag and registration association errors in the Sanral system for many of our new cars, which will mean more delays billing the standard tariff instead of the discounted rate for First Car Rental as well as its renters.

  • Q: Would it be possible to use my own e-tag considering that First Car Rental charges the gazetted Standard Tariffs, rather than the discounted rate that I would usually be charged when using my own e-tag?

    A: Unfortunately it is not possible for you to use your own tag as we are the vehicle owner so the mismatch would be picked up by Sanral as well as by our own systems and logged as a query. Due to the car belonging to First Car Rental we would still have to bill you as Sanral would deduct the funds from the First Car Rental account.

    This is due to the fact that when you are the Key Account Holder (fleet owner) – the user from a T&C setup becomes the owner and is subsequently billed.

  • Q: When using an e-Tag the maximum one may be charged in any calendar month is R450-00. Does this rule apply to a rented car from First Car Rental?

    A: This is something that we are currently looking into and especially applies where the same vehicle is used for an extended period of time. And only one car-hire firm made the statement that they would charge the max of R450, but they did so prematurely and didn't take Bakwena transactions into consideration.

    However the reasons why we cannot currently commit or guarantee to a maximum charge are as follows:

    For example, if a renter happens to incur the maximum cost before the month is up then the subsequent renter will incur R0 costs. We cannot guarantee this because we do not run at 100% utilisation and cannot rent cars out based on where they are within the R450 mark.

    Another reason is that in our business we deal with 100's of change-overs per month (replacement vehicles, vehicle movements between branches as two examples) but the point is that this doesn't only occur on a monthly basis, and a car with zero on the e-toll clock could be given to a renter after he/she reached the “max” amount of R450 on the GORT in another vehicle but will now be incurring “new” costs on the next vehicle, which we will be liable for irrespective.

    And finally, unfortunately as mentioned, the Bakwena Toll Network (BTN) formed part of the GORT roll out. So, if there is a tag in our car then the toll gate will open irrespective of which lane you use. If you drove to Rustenburg (for example), that is R70 plus fee one way, or if driving to Pietersburg there are obviously a number of tolls along the way. These are all on the Bakwena Toll Network. So, R450 isn't the minimum and this is why even our deposit amounts had to change to accommodate this risk factor.

    To give our renters an idea of numbers – Bakwena represents only 6% of our daily count in transactions but a staggering 28% of daily funds payable to Sanral.


For the latest information on e-tolls from the Justice Project, click here.

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