On July 1, it’s learned from the Municipal Transportation Bureau that by the end of 2019, all the toll stations on expressways at the provincial boundaries will be cancelled and by then, ETC vehicle-mounted device will be used to realize fast charging without stopping the car. At that time, ETC users in the whole province will increase by more than 4 million, including 310,000 in the city; the ETC installation rate on cars will go up to above 80%, and the usage rate of the devices by cars on the expressways will be above 90%, which will lead the basic realization of fast toll collection without stopping the car on expressways.

　　To vigorously publicize and implement the application of ETC, the Municipal Transportation Bureau will make use of all the taxi headlights and the advertising boards at bus stops in the city to promote public awareness and recognition of the device.

　　Vehicles without ETC devices will not enjoy preferential policies any longer.

　　A source with the bureau told the reporter that, “the greatest advantage of ETC, an electronic toll collection system, is that it can greatly reduce the time of toll collection to less than 3 seconds by automatic recognition and automatic toll payment at the toll station without stopping the car.”

　　It’s known that the province will dismantle 25 toll stations at the provincial boundaries, set up 1,092 sets of ETC portal systems and rebuild 353 ETC toll stations and 2,252 ETC lanes to realize piecewise billing and non-stop charging by the end of the year. At present, the whole province has 2.58 million ETC users, with an ETC usage of 38%.

　　From yesterday on, vehicles with ETC going in the province have been given a non-discriminatory basic preferential policy of toll reduction by no less than 5%. Since January 1, 2020, all kinds of preferential policies such as toll reduction and exemption issued by our province will be implemented through the ETC system and those vehicles without the device will no longer enjoy such policies.

　　According to the relevant regulations, local governments that adopt the unified payment method will implement a policy of free passage for vehicles passing through some sections of expressways, and the payment method will be switched to the ETC system from November 1, 2019. And such change will be made for trucks from January 1, 2020. Vehicles without ETC devices will no longer enjoy the above-mentioned policies.

　　The city’s transportation system will also arrange vehicles for road passenger transports, taxis (network cars), rental car, freight vehicles to install and use the ETC device, change and improve the relevant standards of taximeters, and allow communication between ETC devices and taximeters.

　　Before July 10, all the vehicles in the city’s transportation system will be “ETC-ized”.

　　Now there are 6 ETC cooperative banks in Hubei, namely, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China and Provincial Rural Credit Union (Rural Commercial Bank).

　　Vehicle owners can acquire the device at each branch of the above mentioned banks with relevant certificates. In addition, the six cooperative banks will also launch online distribution of the devices so that vehicle owners can register, bind the device with their bank cards and install the device themselves.

　　Recently, the Municipal Transportation Bureau will organize the ETC cooperative banks together to hold the activity of “ETC handling exclusively for traffic”. According to preliminary statistics, there are 1,933 official and private cars owned by the city’s transportation units. By June 28, 1,224 of them have been installed ETC system, and the remaining 709 cars will be all installed by July 10. (Yan Xiaodong, the reporter from Full Media of Three Gorges Daily)