Opinion
Explanation needed for double-pay tolls
By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 10:54
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Afew days ago, I watched a program on the Shandong Television (SDTV) and learned with astonishment that the toll for the Beijing airport expressway had been reduced by half nearly two years ago. The SDTV reporter's investigation revealed that the Beijing road authorities had ruled that starting from Oct 1, 2009, vehicles would be charged only once for return trips to and from Beijing Capital International Airport rather than twice as it had been before.
This was a surprise. During the past two years, I have been to the airport many times and each time I have had to pay a toll in both directions. I never learned, and was never informed by any toll collector, that one needs to pay only once, for on showing receipt of payment at the tollgate one is entitled to a free return pass. Obviously I am not the only person who is ignorant of this nearly two-year-old policy. Five of the 12 drivers using the expressway interviewed by SDTV said they did not know they only had to pay one way.
Why are so many people ignorant of the policy? Did the expressway managers not announce it? According to the SDTV report, the Capital Expressway Development Co Ltd (CEDC) has used three means to "notify" drivers. There is a large billboard about 50 meters beyond the tollgate, a small notice posted beside the window of each toll booth and the information is also printed on the back of receipts.
On learning this, I blamed myself for not noticing them. However, it is clear I am not the only one. Few of the interviewees in the SDTV investigation said they were aware of the notices.
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First, the billboard was erected in the wrong place. Nobody will stop to read a billboard after paying a toll. Second, posting the notice on the far end side of the collection window means it is easy to miss. Normally the driver will look at the toll collector and then turn his eyes in the direction he is driving and even if people do realize there is a notice that concerns them, most people won't stop to read the notice because of the crescendo of honking that would come from the car behind.
And how many people have the habit of looking at the back of their receipt?
Actually a much simpler way could have been adopted to notify drivers. Just a large sign on the lintel of the tollgate: "One-way toll charge; please keep your receipt for a free pass for your return trip."
It is hard to escape the conclusion that the current notices were put there deliberately so that they could be missed.
If the elusive notices are not enough proof of the company's deliberate intention to overcharge customers, its insistence on charging drivers who return from the airport fully attests to its dishonesty, for all its staff members at the booths facing the traffic from the airport are fully aware that the majority of drivers who come from that direction paid the toll when they passed the gate heading to the airport, yet they fail to mention the free pass.
So it's natural to ask of the toll collectors: "Why didn't you mention the pass?" Which is exactly what the SDTV reporter asked when she tried to test the reaction of a CEDC member. The man turned a deaf ear to the question but an official from the company's "supervision center" replied that the company "had no obligation" to verbally remind drivers. "It is impossible," the official said, "for our staff members to ask 'do you have a receipt?' to every passing driver."
Is the CEDC a government organization? If it is, how can it cheat the public this way? If it is not: Who gave it the right to make such profits out of a public facility?
In either case, the government department concerning road administration owes the public an explanation.
The author is assistant editor-in-chief of China Daily. E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn
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