Constructing and perfecting the charging system and speeding up the popularization and application of ETC

Strive to basically cancel the national highway provincial toll stations before the end of the year-
Constructing and perfecting the charging system and speeding up the popularization and application of ETC

On May 10th, the State Council held a routine briefing on the State Council policy to interpret the implementation plan of deepening the reform of toll road system and canceling provincial toll stations on expressways. Dai Dongchang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Transport, and Wu Dejin, Director of the Highway Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, introduced the cancellation of provincial toll stations on expressways.

Dai Dongchang said that the Ministry of Transport, on the basis of comprehensively summarizing the experience of pilot cancellation of provincial toll stations on expressways between Jiangsu and Shandong, Sichuan and Chongqing in 2018, has studied and put forward the Implementation Plan for Deepening the Reform of Toll Road System and Cancelling Provincial Toll Stations on Expressways, which has been submitted to the the State Council executive meeting for deliberation and adoption. The overall requirement of the "Proposal" is to basically cancel the provincial toll stations of national expressways within two years in accordance with deepening the reform of the toll road system, improving the efficiency of the comprehensive transportation network and reducing the logistics cost, and strive to basically cancel the provincial toll stations of national expressways before the end of 2019 to realize the fast toll collection without stopping.

Dai Dongchang said that in May last year, the the State Council executive meeting deployed the task of promoting the cancellation of provincial toll stations on expressways. The Ministry of Transport chose Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, Chongqing and other provinces and cities to try first, and took the lead in canceling all 15 provincial toll stations on expressways at the end of 2018. According to statistics, under normal traffic conditions, the average time for buses to pass through provincial boundaries is reduced from 15 seconds to 2 seconds, and the time for trucks to pass through provincial boundaries is reduced from 29 seconds to 3 seconds.

"The cancellation of provincial toll stations is a complex systematic project, and it is the reconstruction of charging mode and charging technology. To complete this task, we need to do a good job in four aspects. " Dai Dongchang said: First, speed up the construction and improvement of the expressway toll collection system. It mainly includes the clearing and settlement at the central and local levels, the upgrading of the operation management system, the standardization construction and transformation of the hardware and software of toll stations, toll lanes and ETC portal systems, and the security reinforcement of the system network.

The second is to speed up the popularization and application of ETC electronic toll collection system. "The cancellation of provincial toll stations is not the cancellation of highway tolls, but the realization of fast charging without stopping through technical means. Vehicle identification, path recording and non-stop charging mainly rely on ETC vehicle-mounted devices, so it is very important to accelerate the popularization of ETC. " Dai Dongchang said that it will speed up the installation of ETC in-vehicle devices for existing vehicles free of charge, and by the end of 2019, the proportion of vehicles at the entrance of expressways using electronic non-stop express toll collection systems will reach over 90%; Promote the front installation of automobiles and upgrade and optimize ETC vehicle-mounted devices; Expand service functions and encourage the application of ETC in car-related places such as parking lots; Realize the sharing of motor vehicle registration information and facilitate the installation of ETC vehicle-mounted devices.

The third is to revise and improve laws and regulations. Dai Dongchang said that the cancellation of provincial toll stations on expressways is a change in the national expressway operation mode and toll technology route. It is urgent to revise and improve the Highway Law and the Regulations on the Management of Toll Roads, optimize the free passage of minibuses on major holidays and the "green passage" for the transportation of fresh agricultural products, and clean up and standardize the local toll reduction policies involving parking inspection and affecting fairness and efficiency. It is necessary to adjust the toll charging method of trucks, install ETC vehicle-mounted devices for trucks, and realize the fast passage of trucks without stopping.

The fourth is to promote the stock of government toll roads in bond swap. It is reported that in order to prevent and resolve the debt risk of toll roads, the Ministry of Transport will cooperate with relevant departments to increase the issuance of special bonds for toll roads, promote local government bonds to replace the existing debts of government toll roads that meet the policy requirements, optimize the debt structure, and prevent and resolve debt risks.

Dai Dongchang introduced the specific time schedule for the implementation of the task: various schemes and requirements, including technical standards, overall design scheme, engineering construction scheme, etc., will be issued before the end of May; Complete the construction of the project from June to October, including the renovation of toll lanes, the renovation of toll stations, and the upgrading of software and hardware; In November, the joint debugging test was started, so as to achieve the conditions for switching between the old and new systems before the end of December. On this basis, timely organize the implementation of system switching to ensure the completion of the goal of basically canceling the provincial toll stations of national expressways before the end of the year. (Reporter Zhu Junbi)