Durban - Motorists who end up paying “double” toll fees on sections of the Durban to Johannesburg N3 are entitled to a full refund, the N3 Toll Company has confirmed.
This came to light after a Mercury journalist complained about being charged ramp plaza fees at the Tugela East Plaza near Bergville during a recent journey - even though he had already paid the mainline toll fee at the Tugela Mainline Plaza and had the receipts to prove it.
But toll plaza staff insisted that both the mainline and ramp plaza fees had to be paid, without advising him that motorists could phone a customer care line immediately to arrange for a refund on duplicated ramp plaza tolls.
Then when the journalist, on the same day, on his way back to Durban, drew off the highway at the Bergville off-ramp to photograph heavy snowfalls on the Drakensberg mountain range, he was charged another ramp fee to rejoin the N3, even after paying the mainline fee previously.
The N3TC has now apologised and promised to refund the money and also retrain staff to ensure that motorists are advised properly on how to claim refunds for any duplicated toll charges.
The main Tugela plaza fee is located near the town of Besters, close to the Free State border, and motorists have to pay R62 when travelling north towards Gauteng.
In this case the motorist turned off the toll road on to the R103 provincial road leading to Ladysmith. The ramp plaza is located at the entrance to this provincial road and motorists have to pay another R38 toll - depending on the direction of travel.
The toll at the Bergville ramp plaza is R19.
Apology
Apologising this week, N3TC said: “It is strongly emphasised that neither the Tugela East nor the Bergville plazas are intended in any way to duplicate charges levied at the mainline plaza.
“In the unlikely event a motorist (for whatever reason) does go through the mainline plaza and subsequently uses one of the ramp plazas, as happened in your case, the protocol is for the motorist to be requested to pay for passage, and immediately contact the N3TC 24-hour customer careline 0800 634357 to arrange for the necessary refund.”
On why motorists could not simply show their mainline plaza receipts to ramp plaza staff to avoid duplicated tolls, the company said: “The reason for the requested payment is that no immediate online verification of prior passage through a plaza is possible, making it necessary to utilise a Video Toll Audit System to verify the passage. This is due to the nature of the banking system, whereby transactions do not take place in a live environment.
“In addition, toll receipts are regrettably often fraudulently copied, making it impossible from a financial risk point of view to use them as proof of payment.
“Our service offering in terms of communication of the payment protocol seems not to have been up to the required standard, for which we unreservedly apologise. The necessary review of the reasons for this will take place, including staff retraining.”
Subscribe to our