BY NATHAN GUMA recently in Ntabazinduna
ZIMBABWE’S tollgates are rapidly evolving into data hubs, with automation, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, and vehicle-classification systems now reshaping tolling operations, strengthening revenue controls, and improving efficiency amid soaring traffic volumes.
This comes at a time when the country is experiencing increased traffic at its various tolling points.
This week, the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara), together with technology partner InstaToll, demonstrated the electronic tolling (E-Tag) system, an ambitious e-payment solution designed to promote efficiency at the country’s toll gates.
The system has already been implemented at Ntabazinduna Toll Gate.
It uses RFID technology, which is scanned by a reader mounted on the roof of the toll gate. If the vehicle’s prepayment is valid, the boom gate opens automatically.
Speaking to reporters during a media tour in Ntabazinduna, InstaToll Tolling Operations Manager, George Mufuka, said the new solution has come after a surge in traffic over the past years.
“We operate nine toll gates. We are now operating a total of 58 lanes, and we have just added to the ones that we had in the past. So, this tollgate was the pioneer of all the tollgates that we have as InstaToll,” he said.
“We commissioned this tollgate in 2013. It was doing a total of 2 500 vehicles. But since then, as we have progressed, our total amounts to 25 000 per day. So, Ntabazinduna is a welcoming tollgate.”
He said the E-Tag system will help in promoting ease of payment.
“We do have challenges here and there, and we have come up with a solution, which is e-tolling. This is a seamless solution. You remember in Zimbabwe, we have several payment methods. If you look at cash alone, there is USD, and there is ZiG,” he said.
“So, you might have challenges with the network, and a tollgate, if you just have a glitch for a minute, the buildup becomes long. But, with this new solution now, if someone is prepaid and has a tag placed on the windscreen, which is RFID.
“The boom just opens as they get closer to it. So, this helps decongest traffic at our tollgates.”
Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development’s Permanent Secretary, Engineer Joy Makumbe, says innovations such as the E-Tag system are important in promoting cashless tolling.
“We are moving from toll gates to toll plazas. We do not want to see you going there with hard cash. When your car reaches the plaza, the boom gate just opens. There won’t be any build-up of cars,” she said.
Lindiwe Mutandwa, an accounting professional at InstaToll, said that they are also using another innovation, the Automatic Vehicle Classifier (AVC) technology, to promote transparency in the payment of toll fees.
“As we have noticed, we now have several residential areas, and these have given birth to bypasses. And in order to mitigate that and curb revenue leakage, we have introduced bypass manning.
“So, now our system is capable of generating incidents for certain transactions. So if there is an anomaly in the way that a toll collector operates, we now have the Automatic Vehicle Classifier (AVC).
“We have got two classifications that are going on, which assures you that the money that you are paying at the tollgate is surely going to be banked. So, when the collector classifies and says, maybe your vehicle is class two, the AVC should agree with the collector that it is a class two.”
The system is also given extra surveillance by a human being to promote accuracy.
“If there is a difference in the way the AVC and the collector are classified, this is sent to the supervisor,” Mutandwa says.
“So now the supervisor will correct using visuals. We have got CCTV which shows us what is transpiring in the lens. So the supervisor will go on the CCTV and do an investigation to see why the collector and the AVC are not agreeing.”
