By now you’ve probably already taken a long, angry walk, poured yourself a drink, screamed into a pillow or done whatever it is you need to do to blow off steam about the recent judgement regarding e-trolls e-tolls.
If you’ve been living in a mountain cave somewhere, away from the news, or perhaps you’ve just been ignoring it in the hopes that it will go away, here are the highlights:
- Infrequent users who go through less than 30 toll gate gantries per financial year will pay nothing
- All motorcycles will pay 18c per kilometre on the Gauteng freeways‚ light motor vehicles (cars) 30c per kilometre‚ medium heavy vehicles 75c per kilometre and large heavy vehicles R1.50 per kilometre
- The maximum toll fees that can be paid per motorcycle will be capped at R125 per month‚ for light vehicles at R225 per month‚ for medium heavy vehicles at R875 per month and for light heavy vehicles at R2,900 per month
- Anyone not paying their toll fees within a month of them being issued will pay double the amount owed
- Compulsory payment of all outstanding e-tolls when renewing vehicle licence discs
- Tracking of non-payers will be enforced through FICA registration when vehicles are registered
- No amnesty for anyone in arrears on e-tolls
The more stringent payment enforcement measures will be a bitter pill to swallow for many motorists and small business owners in South Africa.
But the king is here to give you a spoon of sugar to help the medicine go down (and I want you to know that it’s okay if you sang that).
When your car insurance is with King Price, here are a few things to keep in mind as you pass each of those dastardly purple lights:
- As long as car is road worthy and your premiums are up to date, your cover will not be affected by your e-toll credit (or negative value thereof).
- If you need to pay for your licence late, your cover will not be suspended for the period that your licence wasn’t up to date.
- That means, your claims will still be considered valid if your e-toll payments are not up to date, and if your licence has expired.
Of course, it is a legal requirement to ensure that your car licence is up to date at all times. So on that note, the king wants to urge you to make sure your car licence is totally up to date in the next few weeks….
Perhaps consider a family road trip and go get it done in KZN….
The weather is lovely there at this time of year ;)
