Electronic Toll Collection

Incorporated in 2005, Centurion-based Electronic Toll Collection (Pty) Ltd (ETC) develops and operates cashless electronic toll points (e-tolls) in the Gauteng province of South Africa.The private company was appointed by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) in 2012 to manage e-tolling on the Gauteng freeways which were widened in 2009 and 2010, as part of the R25 billion Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).Effectively, ETC is a supplier of e-tolling services to SANRAL and was chosen to manage e-tolling as it tendered to SANRAL at the lowest price. ETC was also the highest functional provider of e-toll services at the time, according to official SANRAL documents.Bidders had to first functionally pre-qualify, with the Gauteng Open Road Tolling (GORT) project tendered for in four sections. These sections included a roadside system, an open-road tolling system, a transaction clearing house and a violations processing centre. Tenderers that pre-qualified either tendered on a single portion of the GORT project or on all of the four components. ETC’s shareholders and ownership structureKapsch TrafficCom AG was one of three bidders that pre-qualified to tender on all four sections. Kapsch TrafficCom AG is a “provider of intelligent transportation systems in the fields of tolling, traffic management, smart urban mobility, traffic safety and security, and connected vehicles,” according to its website. The combined Kapsch Group has invested close to R800 million into South Africa. Holding company Kapsch is a publicly-owned Austrian enterprise listed on the Vienna stock exchange. It has provided the capital and operational funding for the ETC business so far.