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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport, Mr Nicholas Ng, in the Legislative Council today (May 17):

Question :

Regarding the operation of the "Autotoll" system, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether the system has been installed at all tolled roads and tunnels at present;

(b) whether it knows, in respect of each road and tunnel installed with the system, the monthly number of vehicles which passed the autotoll booths but failed to effect payment over the past three years and the amounts of tolls involved; the number of cases which involved malfunction of sensors; the main reasons for malfunction of sensors; the tunnel that had the highest rate of malfunction of sensors;

(c) whether it knows the average administrative costs involved on each occasion when the management company of the system recovers the tolls from the vehicle owners;

(d) whether it knows if the management company of that system will consider not recovering tolls from those vehicle owners who fail to effect payment because of malfunction of sensors; if this will not be considered, of the reasons for that;

(e) whether it knows the channels currently available for vehicle owners to pay the tolls in arrears; whether the management company has reviewed if such channels are sufficient and convenient; and whether it will consider providing other channels of payment, such as the Payment by Phone Service; and

(f) whether the Administration has assessed if it is fair for those vehicle owners who fail to effect payment because of malfunction of sensors to have to spend their time on making such payments?

Reply:

Madam President,

All the nine tolled tunnels and the Lantau Link are equipped with the Autotoll system.

The Autotoll system consists of a tag reading system for reading the tags installed in the vehicles passing the Autotoll booths and an automatic video recording system. To join the Autotoll service, users are required to establish a pre-paid account so that tolls can be charged by direct debiting of the account. In case the tag reading system fails to read the tag of a passing vehicle for any reason, the automatic video recording system would be triggered to record the passing vehicle for subsequent toll recovery. No inconvenience is caused to the registered users as the unpaid toll is recovered through direct debiting of their pre-paid accounts.

The previous two autotoll systems were rationalised and unified in October 1998 and comprehensive statistics on non-payment of tolls under the new system have been kept since then. For the 12-month period from April 1, 1999 to March 31, 2000, an average of 7,163,500 vehicles passed the Autotoll booths per month. Of these, 43,260 vehicles registered to use Autotoll (0.6%) could not complete the payment of tolls on passage. The bulk of these cases (36,030) were due to failure to read damaged or improperly positioned tags. The rest (7,230 cases) were due to negative balances in the relevant Autotoll pre-paid accounts. There were no cases of failure of the automatic recording system.

For cases involving negative account balances, the Autotoll Limited would remind the vehicle owner concerned by phone or in writing to deposit money into his/her pre-paid account. The relevant accounts will be debited directly after they are replenished. For cases involving damaged or improperly positioned tags, the unpaid toll is recovered by direct debiting of the relevant pre-paid account on the basis of the video record. If problems persist for a particular vehicle, the owner would be invited to have the tag checked by the Autotoll Limited at no cost. No penalty is charged for negative account balances or damaged or improperly positioned tags.

The administrative costs for the recovery of unpaid tolls due to negative account balances or damaged or improperly positioned tags are insignificant and are borne by the Autotoll Limited.

Apart from the situations above involving the recovery of unpaid tolls due to negative account balances or damaged or improperly positioned tags, there are cases where tolls have to be recovered from unregistered users i.e. motorists driving past an Autotoll booth without an Autotoll tag. For the period April 1, 1999 to March 31, 2000, a monthly average of 3,460 unregistered vehicles (i.e. 0.05% of the total traffic) were recorded by the automatic video recording system. For recovery of tolls, the operator of the relevant tolled tunnel or Lautau Link would obtain vehicle licensing information from the Transport Department and send the vehicle owner a written request to have the unpaid tolls settled within 14 days. The vehicle owner could choose to send a cheque to the operator by mail or make payment in person at the Administration Building of the respective operator.

Given that both the problem of unregistered users using Autotoll lanes and the administrative costs for the recovery of tolls are limited, the present arrangements are considered reasonable and adequate. We will continue to closely monitor the situation. Should the situation worsen, we will consider whether penalties should be charged to address the issue.

End/Wednesday, May 17, 2000

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