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

Quote:

Originally Posted by dass (Post 4212563)

Didn't work for me. I called their ICICI Fastag customer care and they said they cannot send me the tag through post. I am an existing ICICI Bank customer, but he said I have to visit the POS to get the tag. :Frustrati

They don't send the tag by post, usually. But an executive assigned to your case should drop-by in person to collect documents + cheque and then deliver/ stick the Fastag within 2-3 days.

I got a call from ICICI Fast Tag personnel from 080 66302389 and he asked me for my location. I asked him if I can send it through post and he said I can scan the documents and send through mail and make payment online and he will take care of the rest. I have sent him the details and have also transferred Rs.500 to the ICICI ETC account in Mumbai that they provided. Now, I will wait to see what happens and how long it takes.

I have no real need for the tag as I have no travel plans for now, but I just wanted to have it for any future need, so time is not a constraint for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kalyan_hyd (Post 4212964)

They don't send the tag by post, usually. But an executive assigned to your case should drop-by in person to collect documents + cheque and then deliver/ stick the Fastag within 2-3 days.

Ha ha. Depends on the agent. A large number of private agents are happy to collect whatsapped copies of your documentation and courier you the fastag, along with instructions on how to paste the fastag sticker. See my experience a few pages before on this thread.

Not sure if it's a good or bad move. On one hand it should stop the complaints about Fastag lane being slow compared to cash lanes.

However, it also ends the exclusive lane concept, meaning only advantage you have on taking Fastag is non cash transaction.

So unless majority of vehicles adopt to Fastag, you won't find any difference in time consumed at toll.

Link

Quote:

NEW DELHI: The highways ministry has asked National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and all private operators to equip all the lanes at toll plazas with electronic toll collection system by March nest year. Till now, at least five lakh smart RFID tags have been sold for seamless travel across all toll plazas on national highways.
At present, most of the toll plazas have only one lane equipped to read RFID tags.

Holding a review meeting on Wednesday, Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari asked banks and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which processes toll collections, to transfer the amount collected through electronic mode to the toll operators within 24 hours. Sources said Gadkari warned them of penalty in terms of interest, if they failed to credit the amount to each toll operator within the set time-frame.
Highway operators had complained to the ministry that banks and NPCI were delaying transfer of the toll amount by 10-15 days or more.
"The minister asked banks and NPCI to take this up as priority and also push the sale of RFID tags at multiple locations including at petrol pumps and other such public outlets," said an official who was present at the meeting. Gadkari has also asked NHAI to explore other new technologies for paying toll.
Sources said there is need to increase the availability of RFID tags and also create facilities for recharging them through multiple electronic payment gateways.

The Prime Minister's Office has already set the target to increase the RFID coverage to 15 lakh during this financial year. Universal use of RFID tags in vehicles is aimed at reducing congestion and waiting time at toll plazas on national highways. The government also plans to extend this to toll plazas even on state highways.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpksuhas (Post 4213455)

Not sure if it's a good or bad move. On one hand it should stop the complaints about Fastag lane being slow compared to cash lanes.

So unless majority of vehicles adopt to Fastag, you won't find any difference in time consumed at toll.

Link

In the current situation, this will be bad for Fastag users. They should have 2 dedicated lanes for Fastag and until more users switch to Fastag. Also, they should make the tags easily available.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkg (Post 4186039)

I got an SMS from SBI stating **** is login and xxxx is password of fastag account with SBI.
Fact is i did not apply for any fastag token.
https://fastag.onlinesbi.com/AGENTADMIN/login

Got an SMS again asking me to recharge my fastag, which i had never applied or got.
Out of curiosity logged in to SBI fastag site.
It shows my name, car model, car VIN, car registration number, tag number etc. with balance as Zero.
How is it possible.

Only connection i could make out is my salary account is with SBI and car loan is also with SBI

Does it mean they made factory fitted RFID tag as fastag? Could it be done?
My car 2014 make

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpksuhas (Post 4213455)

Not sure if it's a good or bad move. On one hand it should stop the complaints about Fastag lane being slow compared to cash lanes.

Link

This will surely dilute the exclusivity concept associated with Fastags. But, will also eliminate the need to search for exclusive fastag lanes on the various toll collection booths.
One more thing I can see is, if all lanes are enabled with fastag, what if the adjacent reader reads your fastag, and your lane also reads it? They will need to control multiple readings within the space of 10-15 minutes

Quote:

Originally Posted by A350XWB (Post 4213870)

After lot of deliberation and another Kerala trip coming up this month, I finally decided to procure Fastag. Went to the BETL office in ECity and got the tag in one day. Gave the documents and fees on Thursday evening (16:00h) and got the tag now (Friday 15:30h). The attached bank is IDFC. Will be using it for the first time during my journey to Guruvayoor in couple of weeks' time.

Load cash first - your tag vendor may not deposit the cash you gave him till he gets a significant volume of fastags. You can do this at your first toll booth by paying cash, as before there is any balance on your fastag it will show as "blacklisted" in its status. That way even imps / neft transfers will bounce.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hserus (Post 4213910)

My account balance is showing Rs. 100 and tag is shown as hotlisted. I definitely will load more as the journey will take much more than 100. I'll try loading the cash tomorrow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpksuhas (Post 4213455)

Honestly, I think this is a good move. Why should fastag users have exclusivity ? In some toll plazas there are just 2-3 toll booths for each direction (example Karur-Trichy) and it does not make sense to have an exclusive fastag lane. At the same time if only one lane accepts fastag, then it means it could potentially become the bottleneck for fastag users.

With volume of cash transactions dropping, eventually I hope there will be more fastag adoption so it makes sense to have more or all lanes capable of accepting fastag.

At the other end of the spectrum, this would make effective use of all lanes by not exclusively blocking one lane for fastag users as it could be underused on certain days and as we've seen it needs a security guard/attendant with hand held scanners too sometimes which are overheads and could slow down the process.

I've been saying this for sometime now that all lanes should be fastag enabled, wish it comes into effect soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NPV (Post 4213963)

Yes, it is a good move indeed. More than exclusivity, it is the time which matters standing in long queues and wasting fuel (indirectly contributing to the environmental factors). In a toll booth, if we have couple of cars in the front paying cash, then the car with fastag has to wait behind them, which does not serve the purpose of the tag.

Here in US, they have 2 lanes for RFID's and 2 for cash payers. I think having even number of lanes for RFID and cash will be the most viable solution.

Also, IMO they should replace the tag readers with a bigger dimension so that the tags are read faster and no manual intervention will be needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpksuhas (Post 4213455)

If they are going to enable Fastag in all lanes then they should make Fastag mandatory for all vehicles as well. Only then the congestion at toll plazas will reduce. Otherwise the Km long queues at certain toll plazas will continue and fuel wastage at tolls will continue as well:Frustrati.

And this is what NHAI advertised when they introduced Fastag "Fastag enables you to drive through toll plazas, without stopping for cash transactions". 2 years have past and this tagline is still a dream for Fastag users.