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Tuesday / 12 November 2024
HomeNewsBig changes for South Africa’s busiest highway

Big changes for South Africa’s busiest highway

Over 80 toll gate lanes on the N3 are set to receive contactless pay points before the end of 2024 allowing motorists to simply tap their card on a scanner and be on their way.

These will be located at the De Hoek, Mooi River, Tugela, and Wilge plazas and their accompanying on and off ramps.

This new payment method will shorten travel time on the freeway, which is often named the busiest road in South Africa, as it is not uncommon for long lines to form at the four plazas between Johannesburg and Durban as motorists wait to receive their change or for the employees to hand back their cards in lanes where tap-to-pay isn’t available.

Furthermore, it will allow road users to pay with their debit cards, something that was previously not possible.

It will also reduce the chances of card cloning or skimming at toll plazas, which has been flagged as one of the most common locations for this type of crime.

The tap-to-pay initiative is being rolled out as a collaborative effort between First National Bank (FNB) and the N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) and will support all Mastercard and Visa cards, as well as devices such as smartphones and smartwatches whose contactless support functions have been activated.

A successful pilot

The contactless payment method has been piloted at select toll plazas and limited lanes since June 2022 to sort out any hiccups users may encounter before the wider rollout commences.

FNB stated that a major roadblock in the implementation and subsequent successful operation of these systems had been a lack of internet connectivity at toll gates, which led to motorists’ cards not always being detected.

However, this has improved significantly over the past two years, giving FNB the confidence to extend coverage on the N3TC route.

“Feedback from the pilot has been highly positive as contactless payments continue to be popular amongst consumers as a quick, secure, and convenient way to pay than swiping or inserting a card,” FNB Transact Pillar CEO Daniel Kaan told MyBroadband.

The solution has been beneficial to the toll concessionaires, issuers, acquirers, and cardholders. Over half of FNB customers paying with cards at the relevant toll gates used the contactless pay points, he said.

FNB is therefore planning to launch more tap-to-pay systems at various toll gates around the country in the coming year, including at the highly popular Chapman’s Peak in Cape Town.

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