[jkrishnakj]

Is FASTag a Bane or a Boon ! ( Caution : Rant, and long post alert )

I am writing this on sheer frustration. Nothing that you will read here will be a surprise, but it begs a debate if the Fastag is a bane or a boon.

The Sunday that went by saw me sitting in my car wasting an hour and 9 minutes of waiting time in 3 tolls on my way back to Bangalore.

We were doing good time till Sira (on the Bombay-Bangalore highway). This toll was a mess at 5.30 pm on the Sunday evening. 31 minutes to pass in the Fastag lane. The auto-scanners were working on and off for some cars, and most often than not, they had to get the hand held scanners.

Next up was the dreaded Tumkur toll. The Queue was almost a KM long and it took 23 minutes. Somehow, I was a bit lucky to have got into a lane that was meant for VIP/Ambulance and could save time. Sheer luck, else, I would have easily spent another 20 minutes.

Having passed thru Sira and Tumkur, is there a way you can escape Nelamangala ? No chance. Another 15 minutes here.

Then comes NICE, who continue to remain the 'Cash' mode for tolls. They let go all vehicles at Tumkur road and I paid up at the exit at Kanakpura road.

I was thinking that a 69 minutes of idle time leads to
a) A 85-90 KM of distance that could have got covered
b) Idle time and crawling towards the toll plaza meant huge amount of fuel wasted. I really Pity the truckers
c) Tempers that flay up, thanks to some people who deliberately nose-in and some who somehow end up in the wrong lane and struggle to get into the right ones
d) The overall mood that sombers up during the wait time, taking the fun away from the drives
e) You still end up spending more time on highways, thanks only to the waiting times
f) The employees of the toll plazas who live through hell of breathing through heavy pollutant air

I am just wondering how bad it could be at the Tolls leading in / exit from the bigger cities over peak times ?

I am hoping someone gets a real whacky implementable idea that can see us zip through the tolls ( like in Europe, with cameras clicking away to glory ).

Alternate, why can't the government take some money upfront when people buy their vehicles and just knock down all the tolls on the highways ? With trains and buses and flights deemed a bit of risk now, and with many people taking to the roads, its time to look for ideas to get highways without tolls.

I am sure that the fuel saved, the time saved will far outweigh the initial cost. The government anyways takes a huge chunk of money between the Ex-Showroom to On road price of vehicles. I wish they just knock out all the tolls with some creative mechanism. The trucks will reach their destination faster, they save huge amounts of fuel. Ditto for cars. The overall journey gets to be more enjoyable.

I am fully convinced that the FASTag systems leaves a lot to be desired, there is still a lot of work to be done, the technology seems a hit or a miss and it clearly has not saved time, and for me, its only inclining to be a big Bane.

[nagarjun]

I have always felt FastTag to be better than cash. But the main problems in my opinion are implementation level than the concept.
1. People not adhering to the FastTag vs cash lanes. The toll operators are not able to enforce this even though on paper there is a rule for penalty. I guess the penalty will lead to fights and unruly behavior.
2. Not enough lanes for the few toll plazas near to the city. This is a bad planning issue from NHAI. All the toll plazas around Bangalore are quite cramped for the traffic that they handle.
3. Poor implementation of the technology in some of the toll plazas. I have seen that it only takes couple of seconds to read the tag and open the boom barrier where it works well.
4. People not realizing that they don't have minimum amount and the tag does not work in this case and leads to arguments between the vehicle owner and the toll operator.

[TROOPER]

Originally Posted by audioholic

For me, the toll booth in Bankapur had falsely claimed that my Celerio was a truck and charged me extra. Then I had to send the pictures of my car with the tag on it to reverse the dispute and get back the excess amount charged.

Am facing the same issue where I was charged 410/- in addition to the 95/- which is the normal toll fare. Here's the ordeal https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post4931533 (FASTag: All you need to know about procuring & using it!)

Can you please explain how you managed to get a refund and time frame? You had to send pictures to NHAI or the bank?

I lodged a complain with the bank who say it'll take a month to sort this. And a complain on 1033 with NHAI who noted the complain and asked me to Whatsapp car, rc and transaction photos to a particular number. No resolution yet.

I also called the toll plaza, and they confirmed the 95/- which was received, but no 410/- being received against my registration number. Am in an utter fix after hearing this.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by TROOPER

Can you please explain how you managed to get a refund and time frame? You had to send pictures to NHAI or the bank?

I only dealt with ICICI and all I had to do was to open a dispute ticket, upload a picture of my car with the registration number visible. The ticket was resolved in 13 days and the refund was processed in ten more days or to be precise as per the picture:


Apart from raising a ticket once, I had to do no more follow ups. Though I passed through the toll on 05/07, they raised dispute later for which amount was deducted from my account on 10/07 as soon after which I created a dispute from my end too. I guess in your case, you should just ditch that tag and get one from a better bank. ICICI always promptly informs me of each and every update on my tag and thats how I came to know that there was a dispute raised.

[TROOPER]

Thanks for the info.

Had a chat with another guy from the toll plaza and he says the amount is probably in a suspense account since they haven't received it. So I guess it's now on UBI to rectify it.

Originally Posted by audioholic

I guess in your case, you should just ditch that tag and get one from a better bank. ICICI always promptly informs me of each and every update on my tag and thats how I came to know that there was a dispute raised.

My UBI tag came with the car back in Jan. Also the experience was fine till now. Will wait for a month and ditch it if the refund isn't credited. If it's rectified, then I'll use up the balance and switch to ICICI.

[BoneCollector]

A question that might have been answered earlier, still I'm asking it. I have a FasTag by PayTM, using it for last 3 years. I haven't faced any issue as such but I'm not happy with the service of PayTM per se and planning to switch over to ICICI FasTag. My questions-

1. How is ICICI FasTag? And it's app/ interface?
2. Can I order a FasTag from ICICI while still having my PayTM account active? And then cancel it once I get my ICICI one activated?


Anything else that I need to know about this?

[SideView]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

A question that might have been answered earlier, still I'm asking it. I have a FasTag by PayTM, using it for last 3 years. I haven't faced any issue as such but I'm not happy with the service of PayTM per se and planning to switch over to ICICI FasTag. My questions-



Anything else that I need to know about this?

I am curious here, since I recently got Paytm fasttag. What kindof service are they lacking?

[comfortablynumb]

Used my ICICI FASTag after almost 13 months on a Pune-Goa-Pune trip, and it worked smoothly at all tolls.

On the return journey, the barriers in the ETC only lanes at the Kini and Tasawade tolls were either broken or not working, as one guy was standing next to the booth and guiding vehicles to the correct spot, so that their tags could be read by the overhead scanner (not the hand held one). Once the person inside the booth confirmed that the tag was read, he waved the cars on.

For those topping up their ICICI tag balance using UPI, the process has changed slightly. Now you have to first initiate one payment from their website (app would also work I guess), after which subsequent payments can be done using any UPI based payment app. More details at the link below:

https://help.icicibank.com/Cards/FAS...t-with-UPI.htm

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by audioholic

I only dealt with ICICI and all I had to do was to open a dispute ticket, upload a picture of my car with the registration number visible. The ticket was resolved in 13 days and the refund was processed in ten more days or to be precise as per the picture:

I had an ICICI Fastag that I gave up and requested a refund precisely for this reason. Now back to PayTM who are prompt in processing refunds as well as easy to recharge.

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

For those topping up their ICICI tag balance using UPI, the process has changed slightly. Now you have to first initiate one payment from their website (app would also work I guess), after which subsequent payments can be done using any UPI based payment app. More details at the link below:

https://help.icicibank.com/Cards/FAS...t-with-UPI.htm

This again was a downer. I was out of balance on my return journey last month and we couldn't recharge the tag on the run. Overall, these experiences are not so positive to continue with ICICI.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

I had an ICICI Fastag that I gave up and requested a refund precisely for this reason. Now back to PayTM who are prompt in processing refunds as well as easy to recharge.

Well for me I dont care about the timeline. As long as the refund is issued without further follow up. The Paytm tag on the other car hasn't needed any such dispute so far so cannot compare the two.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

I'm not happy with the service of PayTM per se and planning to switch over to ICICI FasTag.

I would say stick to PayTM. I don't like PayTM app as such and only use it for fastag. I wanted to stop using paytm app, especially maintaining balance in wallet, and decided to switch fastag to my banker (icici). So I ordered a icici tag while paytm tag was still active. I tried the icici tag for a 2 day road trip in September, and can confidently say paytm experience is much better.

Icici web UI for fastag is very complex due to multitude of options available to setup CUG and individual fastags whereas paytm doesnt give any options, and directly uses main wallet, keeping it simple and easy. I initially struggled to set ICICI auto reload to my liking (again due to various options) and in the process auto-reloaded ICICI fastag wallet by 10000 rupees (10 txns of 1000 rupees each) in a matter of couple of minutes. If I hadnt realized my mistake immediately, my entire bank balance would have transferred to fastag wallet through series of 1000 rupee txns.

In my experience, ICICi fastag customer support doesnt respond to tickets in timely manner when compared to paytm. Most of the tickets need to be escalated.

My tag was blacklisted just after the last toll plaza during the onward journey of the trip. This was mainly due to the way I initially setup my wallet. While my main wallet had more than enough balance, my fastag wallet had negative balance. When I finally realized my wallet setup and changed it, the tag automatically got reactivated within minutes. But still, the tag showed up as blacklisted at many toll operators next day during the return journey. And these were same toll plazas I used sucessfully the day before. Fortunately i still had paytm tag hidden in the car, and I just took it out and asked them to scan this tag whenever ICICI failed.

Overall, I felt ICICI was too much hassle. Also I submitted a request on their website to get a new ICICi tag for my wife's car but it was ignored. And this request was raised after calling icici customer support and finding out correct method to raise the request. So that was last straw, and I closed my ICICI account within a month.

You can keep both icici and paytm tags active if you want. And close the one that you will eventually stop using. Fortunately, I knew I was experimenting with ICICI, and therefore kept Paytm tag active entire time. So I am back to my original paytm tag.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Icici web UI for fastag is very complex due to multitude of options available to setup CUG and individual fastags whereas paytm doesnt give any options, and directly uses main wallet, keeping it simple and easy.

Have you tried using the ICICI FASTag Mobile App?

Let me post all the details to clear your apprehensions. If you have tried this all and still not happy, this post should at least help the rest of the readers.

First of all, loading money directly into Tag or into your CUG wallet is very much possible via UPI. This is because both your Tag or the CUG wallet will have a unique UPI ID. This was posted couple of year ago and I am quoting relevant part again:

Originally Posted by paragsachania

For recharging your individual FASTag:

Netc.mh01ab1234@icici (10-digit vehicle number)
Netc.TN99R9999@icici (9-digit vehicle number)
Netc.KA666666@icici (8-digit vehicle number)
Netc.mmh01xx@icici (7-digit vehicle number)


For CUG loading:

netc.ib <8-digit Customer ID>@icici

Example:- netc.ib99999999@icici

Secondly, the ICICI mobile App has perhaps the simplest user interface compared to their complex website that I don't recollect when was the last time I ever visited their website for any transaction.

• The App allows you you link multiple tags into one account
• You can recharge either the CUG Wallet or the individual Tag
• You can recharge the Tag from the balance of your CUG wallet or external source
• You can calculate approximate toll fare between 2 points
• You can have a segregated view of toll activity (Debit) and recharge (Credit)

The Home screen:
CUG Balance, Status of Linked Tags etc, CUG Recharge



Active Tag:
Shows balance of active tag under the account, clicking on which takes you to the next screen with more details



Tag Recharge and Transactions:
Allows you to see the Tag balance, Recharge Tag, Last few transactions (configurable to show transactions for last 30 days)



Recharge Tag:
Allows you to recharge Tag balance either with preferred amount or predefined amounts



Multiple payment options to recharge:
Unlike the web interface, this one is fairly easy. If you have balance in your CUG, choose CUG or if not, you can recharge via any of the other payment methods available below.



6. Credit Transactions: Allows you to view the credit transactions separately



Toll fare calculation:
Although one can use NHAI website to calculate indicative toll between 2 points, the presence of this feature in the app makes it easy to calculate the fare and recharge as required







Honestly, I would not be asking for anything more than this for managing something as simple as a FASTag and couple of us here including myself have been using ICIC since nearly 4 years now. If you ask me, ever since UPI was introduced for recharging FASTag, life became super easy when on roadtrips that I have recharged many times while I am just 10 minutes from the next toll booth too.

In my experience, ICICi fastag customer support doesnt respond to tickets in timely manner when compared to paytm. Most of the tickets need to be escalated.

So far, I had to deal with them on 2 occasions. Once when the return toll deducted was for a full single journey fare instead of return fare and that was settled in under a week. Second time was when a UPI recharge failed due to bad data connectivity and the amount neither returned back to my bank or got credited to the FASTag account. This is where I was asked to provide my bank statements too and the process took few weeks before the money was credited into my FASTag account. But yes, this time the delay made me escalate this via tweet and the response was immediate.

This was mainly due to the way I initially setup my wallet. While my main wallet had more than enough balance, my fastag wallet had negative balance. When I finally realized my wallet setup and changed it, the tag automatically got reactivated within minutes. But still, the tag showed up as blacklisted at many toll operators next day during the return journey. And these were same toll plazas I used sucessfully the day before. Fortunately i still had paytm tag hidden in the car, and I just took it out and asked them to scan this tag whenever ICICI failed.

Blackisting and again getting the tag activated has been an issue with all the providers and this has never been consistent with any providers if you read the experiences here.

During the return trip from Nagpur when my recharge failed, My tag balance went negative and I couldn't cross the next toll. This was the first time I let that happen. I wasn't sure how much time it would take for tag status to become active. This is when I asked at the booth and the operator told it will take 2 hours but that was not the case. As soon as I recharged and the amount was credited, I got an SMS confirming that the Tag was back to active again!

Overall, I felt ICICI was too much hassle. Also I submitted a request on their website to get a new ICICi tag for my wife's car but it was ignored. And this request was raised after calling icici customer support and finding out correct method to raise the request. So that was last straw, and I closed my ICICI account within a month.

We have a detailed account of NPV successfully managing to procure a tag for his second car and linking it under one account.

Originally Posted by NPV

Procuring and linking additional tag(s) to an existing tag account - ICICI Tags only

Received the tag this evening, sharing the entire experience with timeline, hope it helps others.

You can keep both icici and paytm tags active if you want. And close the one that you will eventually stop using. Fortunately, I knew I was experimenting with ICICI, and therefore kept Paytm tag active entire time. So I am back to my original paytm tag.

Ideally, the FAQs say that you cannot use more than one Tag per car even it is from a different service provider. So it is always better to cancel one when you have procured another.

[jkrishnakj]

I don’t seem to find the ICICI Fastag App on the iOS store. Is it not available for iOS yet ?

[nick.cs]

As if having fastag was not enough now we have another option available and which honestly i am not sure is why is it required in the first place. What next?

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to roll out a Delhi Metro type prepaid touch-and-go card to minimize cash transactions at toll plazas. The prepaid card would cost around Rs 50 and can be used only on “hybrid” lanes where payments are made by cash or through electronic means.

Source

So now to add to the confusion there will be a "hybrid" lane as implementation is where things are lacking. Cant we make this easier and just stick to Fastag and Cash.

I honestly find it distracting while approaching toll booths. Some will have Cash + Fastag, some will have just Fastag. Finding the right lane if you're not used to the toll booth in itself is an issue and I have to literally slow down (which gives me the jitters about other speeding cars behind / around me trying to race to the toll gate) as there is no clear information provided as to where the only Fastag lane is. Though there will be multiple boards informing you that there is toll coming up every 250m in the last 1 km.

[srikanthmadhava]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Let me post all the details to clear your apprehensions. If you have tried this all and still not happy, this post should at least help the rest of the readers.

Hi,

I use ICICI fastag for my car and I find the app and website very convenient. Also, the recharges from credit card and net banking reflect instantly from my experience. I am yet to try UPI option. I do use the app to manage my tag and it is very useful.

I had a doubt related to auto recharge for the ICICI tag and would be helpful incase you are aware of the same.

I wanted to do auto-recharge for my fastag so that I don't have to fiddle around checking my balance every now and then (although the app makes it very easy to).
I found out that I can enable this through a standing instruction from my ICICI net banking account and initiated the same. Now the auto-recharge from my net banking happen as expected (when the tag balance is below the threshold amount), but the money gets loaded to my CUG wallet and not my tag (I have only 1 tag linked to my account).

The end result is that I have to initiate recharge to my fastag account from my CUG wallet even after enabling auto-recharge. Any idea how I can get the money loaded directly to my fastag account and not my CUG wallet?