Team-BHP - FASTag: All you need to know about procuring & using it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcpranav (Post 4183479)

Hi.
few days back, I had send them SMS to apply for FasTag, and I got call & email explaining about the formalities.

To whom?
ICICI
Axis
IDFC?

Quote:

Originally Posted by audioholic (Post 4183482)

I haven't been successful over the last four times I have used Fastag to pass without stopping. I need to stop for a few seconds only after which the gate opens. Here is how it went at Hoskote toll booth towards Bengaluru:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1SmqFpGgtg

The vehicle ahead of you does not seem to have "stopped" and waited for the barrier to have lifted, seems to have only slowed down to near 0 (5/10kmph) and then gone through. I could be wrong though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by srvm (Post 4183049)

.....
Fingers crossed now. Hope all goes well. The Axis bank fastag stories have made me a wee bit skeptical.
A big shout out to @paragsachania for sharing contact details of Srinath and other details about the procedure :thumbs up

Update on my previous post. I got the tag on Saturday (15th April) from Devanahalli toll plaza POS.
Today Srinath called me by 11am and my Fastag account has been createdclap:
I then created login in ICICI bank website using the Cutomer-id that I received through SMS. Updated my contact details. Loaded Rs.1000 in the CUG Wallet through credit card. Transferred the money from CUG account to my vehcile tag. All done under 10 minutes.:thumbs up

Happy with the experience so far. Will be pasting the tag on the windshield tonight and test it during my Bangalore-Vellore trip coming up this weekend.
Once again - a BIG thanks to @paragsachania, @audioholic and @v&v for sharing details of contact person (Mr.Srinath) at Devanahalli Toll Plaza POS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcpranav (Post 4183479)

...
Next, I quickly recharged for Rs.3000, and even waited for few hours, but the online balance didnt increase. Again I called the support nu, and rep was very helpful, and made me understand that I did recharge to my "CUG Account" (its like a temporary wallet), and I will now need to 'transfer' that amount to "Tag" itself, which I did and found the balance populated on my Tag. Recharge can also done directly to "Tag", by selecting that option under Recharge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by srvm (Post 4183787)

...
Loaded Rs.1000 in the CUG Wallet through credit card. Transferred the money from CUG account to my vehcile tag. All done under 10 minutes.:thumbs up

I also did initial recharge under CUG Wallet, then did CUG Balance Transfer to the Tag Account. This CUG Wallet concept will be helpful for large fleet of vehicles, wherein Admin/Owner could load lumpsum money in CUG Wallet, and then transfer to individual Tag Accounts (i.e. you could have multiple Tags under a single logon profile of CUG). I see that one could even balance transfer from one Tag to another Tag.

Below is picture of Recharge, wherein you could select those options :

FASTag: All you need to know about procuring & using it!-fastag-recharge-options.jpg

regards,

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcpranav (Post 4184045)

Ah, I did not observe the 2 options avalable in that page : "Pay to CUG Wallet" / "Pay to Tag Accounts".
Thanks for the screenshot. Next time I will recharge the tag directly instead of going through CUG route. Seems like CUG option is the default.

I did see your earlier post about transferring money from CUG to Tag...still I missed the link to charge the tag directlystupid:

Finally received the tag last Thursday from ICICI bank Bommanahalli, overall turn around time right from applying for tag has been 4 working days. It has been 1 month struggle to get into fastag bandwagon and finally could get it via ICICI.

Here is the brief summary of my experience of applying for fastag via Axis and ICICI.

Initially after seeing some of the posts about Axis Bank, I went ahead and called Sudhir of Sahaj. I was asked to send the soft copy via email. Days passed, weeks passed nothing happened. Meanwhile many of you folks raised your concerns here about bad customer service touted by both Sudhir and Axis bank. I stopped following up and started exploring other options.

During one of weekend trips to Puttur, as against the report mentioned by Parag bhai I tried my luck by casually checking about the tag in Shantigrama toll office near Hassan. As expected they were clueless about the tag and I was back to square one.

Both the options of visiting ICICI bank, Bommanahalli and Devanahalli toll plaza were out of question as my work location and timings doesn`t permit to go and visit personally and most of weekends are occupied with spending time with my daughter or visiting my hometown. Out of blue my passport renewal was due and had to take a day off. After completing my work in Passport office, I straightway visited ICICI bank with supported documents on 7th April. Lady at the desk asked if I can give ICICI cheque then I could get the tag in 3-4 days time. I had brought cheque from Citi and no way I was in position to go home and bring ICICI cheque. I submitted the application with Rs 500 cheque in favour of ICICI ETC.

On 13th morning I got an SMS stating account creation and I wasted no time to create my login id and topped up the account with Rs 1000. Since I was scheduled to leave to Mangalore in the afternoon, I was adamant of getting myself tagged and planned to visit bank in the afternoon on my way home. Before leaving I called Mohan fastag representative asking about the availability of the tag. His response was affirmative and said he will deliver it to my home by 2pm. I said I will collect the tag myself as I didn`t want to have any last minute surprises. I collected the tag and fixed it myself. On a whole I was super happy with the way things unraveled and response from ICICI is miles ahead.
Except for Nice road and Nelamangala toll booth, whole journey was cashless and fastag worked flawlessly. Anyone who doesn`t want to travel all the way to Devanahalli toll plaza and are not in a hurry to get the tag can visit ICICI bank Bommanahalli and get tagged:).

A few updates on my recent trip to Kodai from Bangalore.

All the booths worked well, except some glitches at Thoppur and Velanchettiyur.

The Thoppur lane (towards Bangalore) had trouble detecting the tag of a Truck and the driver was trying out back and forth. A Punto was waiting to enter and I was behind it. The boom opened for the truck finally and the Punto entered and the boom was not opened. He also tried back and forth. The security guy opened the adjacent lane for me and I was getting ready to pay cash ( do i need to?) As I approach the counter, I see the boom had opened for the Punto, just as the driver got out to check out what is happening. To my surprise, the boom opened in my Lane too... I checked out with the operator and he nodded -all good. (My tag was auto-detected here) Overall, wasted some 10 mins.

At Velanchettiyur, I was behind a truck. I entered the lane, just as the truck was half way through. The display at the middle of lane had my vehicle number and the amount displayed, but the boom did not open for me. Was stuck here for another 5 mins as the operator came to 'manually' open through their PC.:Frustrati

So far, the Attibelle toll is the one that is flawless of all. May be they should replicate at all locations.

At most lanes the security guy restricts the entry till the boom has opened for the leading vehicle. This is good in a way, but they should remove all the speed breakers on the lane to speed things up, especially since now there are a lot of trucks tagged.

The SMS continues to be delayed by a day or two.

To conclude, on a less crowded booth (2-3 vehicles per lane), I would have spent more than double the time on Fastag lane.

Are the discounts still on? Or was it only till March 31st?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bejoy (Post 4184630)

This is good in a way, but they should remove all the speed breakers on the lane to speed things up, especially since now there are a lot of trucks tagged.

Downside of removing the speed breakers is that the tags are sometimes not recognized if one drives through faster.
I think the best solution is to enable Fastag at all booths of toll plazas and do away with dedicated ones. This kind of setup is also present at some toll plazas and I have mentioned the ones from my experience in earlier posts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPV (Post 4184807)

I think the best solution is to enable Fastag at all booths of toll plazas and do away with dedicated ones. This kind of setup is also present at some toll plazas and I have mentioned the ones from my experience in earlier posts.

But this kind of setup will not be an advantage for Fastag users, right?!

In my opinion, they should increase the dedicated lanes based on the Fastag crowd and strictly stop the non Fastag users from entering those lanes by charging penalty. Based on truck traffic, they can have one lane for trucks/bigger vehicles and the second one for cars.

Another option is to make Fastag mandatory and remove the barriers, enhance their setup to detect the tag on the run(at speeds around 20-30Kmph).

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPV (Post 4184807)

Downside of removing the speed breakers is that the tags are sometimes not recognized if one drives through faster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_josie (Post 4184861)

Another option is to make Fastag mandatory and remove the barriers, enhance their setup to detect the tag on the run(at speeds around 20-30Kmph).

Actually, the detection is pretty quick at most places, only that the actions that follow are kind of slow. Atleast the speed breakers at the exit can definitely be removed. This would reduce the waiting time for the trailing vehicle to enter the lane.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun_josie (Post 4184861)

But this kind of setup will not be an advantage for Fastag users, right?!

+1
agree:

Hi All,
I thought of sharing my experience of using Fasttag while travelling from Bangalore to Kochi and return.
I would say that i am quite impressed and delighted by its usage and time that i saved.clap:
The bangalore -Kochi route consists of 10 tolls and except for 1 toll (L&T bypass toll at coimbatore), all other tolls accepted FASTAG.
Out of 9 FASTAG tolls, only 1 toll(Palliyekkara at Mannuthy,thrissur) did not have a security guard manning the FASTAG lane and hence even NON FASTAG vehicles entered the lane.
One observation was that few of the FASTAG lanes did not even have boom barriers and i assumed my account wont be deducted.But they were deducted.:D
The advantage of using FASTAG is reaped when there are security guards manning the lanes and allows only vehicles with FASTAG to pass thru.
I read many old posts where users have complained of NON FASTTAG vehicles entering the lanes and then it becomes just like any other lane.

Before my return trip from kochi to bangalore,I made a mistake of recharging the CUG wallet instead of TAG account and hence my account was in black list status due to negative balance:Frustrati.
I was not aware and i passed thru the FASTAG lanes but still, i was allowed to pass.After reaching bangalore, i checked the SMS and found my account in Blacklist status.I was surprised on how it happened as i did not realize my mistake of recharging CUG wallet.
I recharged the account again and my account was removed from Black list status.Now i have transferred the amount from CUG wallet to TAG account.

Overall , very happy with FASTAGclap: