Manual vs Electronic toll collection. Which is best?
Gone are the days when manual fare collection used to be a part of the transport industry. Traditional practices of collecting tolls and fares included a lot of inconveniences. Thanks to automation technology, now we have more advanced systems that claim to improve the overall functionality and efficiency of collecting tolls and fares at plazas and busy transport networks. The ever-increasing traffic has raised the need to deploy electronic toll collection technology. But, before reaching any conclusion, a comparative overview of both is a must for the users.
The amount of traffic has increased by leaps and bounds in recent years, creating inconveniences to the authorities dealing with toll collection. Commuters, too, suffer a lot when they have to pass through a toll plaza. Typically, there are two methods of collecting toll: manual and electronic toll collection (ETC). Since both have their pros and cons, which is more convenient is a matter of comparison. And, this is perhaps what has landed us on this page. Everyone cannot be on the same page without having a thorough discussion on this topic. So, let’s be fair on what is better and what is not.
Manual toll collection
It’s a conventional yet the simplest form of toll collection, which includes a collector operating from a booth to collect the toll. This method has long been a part of toll plazas across the nation. With manual toll collection systems being the most used ones, managing traffic and cash has always been difficult. Some well-known cons of them are as follows.
Long queues of vehicles are what we have grown up seeing outside the toll plazas. Hours of waiting becomes frustrating for commuters, and this continues all day and night. Toll collectors are also no better. They let the vehicles pass one after the other, taking minutes to deal with just one. The time taken in receiving payments and returning change causes great suffering to others in the toll lanes. That is one of the cons of the conventional toll collection system.
With manual toll collection methods, payment processing is time taking. Whether you pay through cards or cash, managing payments is a big headache for the collectors and the authorities. It takes them feeding information in the computer and issuing receipts to the driver. When one goes out, the other comes in. This never-ending process keeps going round the clock. The manual toll collection, therefore, needs a technology boost.
It also takes a great deal of working staff to handle payments and traffic together. While the operators work in the booths, the guards are outside to watch out for vehicle passing. Hiring staff is a dent in the pocket of the authorities. Impatient drivers in the queue make the situation even worse for the staff. They are a bigger problem to deal with, sometimes leading to unexpected disputes at toll plazas. With this much hassle, manual toll collection is not a better choice than the E-toll collection system.
While being in the queues, drivers have to start and turn off vehicles several times before their turn comes. It results in a waste of fuel. Traffic overload is a threat to the environment as it releases tons of smoke into the air. It is our collective responsibility to find a toll collection system that saves fuel and the environment.
Another con that traditional toll collection comes with is the cost of setting up a manual system. It requires a substantial amount of human and non-human resources. Hiring staff is a permanent cost to the toll authorities, while maintenance is an added cost. We have found out a few things about manual toll collection systems as of now. To conclude which system does a better job, it’s crucial to look at a few things about electronic toll collection.
Electronic Toll Collection
In the world of automation, manual fare collection makes no sense. Thanks to the introduction of technology, collecting fares or tolls is faster and easier than ever before with the help of E-toll collection. In recent years, toll plazas have witnessed a rapid switch from manual to electronic modes of toll collection. Let’ explore why?
Electronic toll collection is a robust wireless system that allows paperless and cashless payment of toll at national highways, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. The technology (FRID) deployed improves the overall time and efficiency of consumers. Unlike the manual toll collection systems that take a lot of time to deal with commuters, E-toll collection systems are fast and efficient. Users do not have to stop their vehicles for payments. They do not even need to slow down at any point toll collection. With these fast and automated systems being a part of the most toll plaza, long queues of vehicles are now a thing of the past.
With national highways dealing with heavy traffic, toll plazas across the nation are heavily relying on electronic toll collection systems today. The outcome is a reduced vehicular emission. The vehicles using ETC do not creep in the toll lanes, thus contributing to pollution control. This benefit of the e-toll collection makes it a must for toll plazas.
The need of the hour is that plazas must be more capable of handling heavy traffic even during peak hours. Increasing the number of lanes and workers is no solution at all. What can better serve the purpose is an automated toll collection system. It improves their capacity to handle more and more traffic.
Toll plazas are congested areas with loads of traffic day and night. It’s common to see vehicles collide with each other near toll plaza due to traffic overload. The collision, in some cases, is intense enough to cause severe injuries to commuters. However, plazas with electronic toll collection record a substantial reduction in the number of accidents. Apart from this, drivers have to bear extra fuel consumption while passing through toll lanes. E-toll collection systems eliminate deceleration and acceleration, resulting in reduced operating costs of vehicles.
Handling cash has always been a challenge for toll collectors. Even commuters have to deal with a lot of inconveniences while making cash transactions at toll plazas. While time spent in cash dealings is one problem, managing change is even more problematic. Electronic systems enable cashless and paperless toll collection, eliminating the need for cash while traveling. The amount is automatically debited from the users’ accounts as soon as they pass through the toll plaza. So, audit control is no more a problem with electronic toll collection systems. E-toll collection systems provide payment flexibility to the users. Once signed in or account set up, users can make payments with cards, e-wallets, and net banking.
These systems also allow enhanced data collection by recording the vehicle count of the day, date, and time. No manual entry is need with electronic toll collection systems. Vehicles pass through the plazas, and everything from collecting to making entries gets done automatically. It all brings ease to the entire process, thereby increasing the rate of toll transactions. The number of vehicles and the average waiting time in the lanes is also substantially reduced with the help of e-toll collection systems.
The sum and substance of the above comparison reveal that electric modes have many advantages over manual fare collection and toll collection. So, there should be no question about e-toll collection systems being superior to conventional ones.
