The 24h Service Hotlines for HGV Electronic Toll Collection in Russia have gone live. The latest information on new road tolls is now available to the owners of HGVs exceeding 12 tons of gross weight in Russian and in English on 8-800-550-02-02 (calls from within Russia) and +7 495 540 0202 (calls from abroad).
In addition to the Service Hotlines HGV Owners can also receive text message updates on their account transactions, as well as news and alerts. Calls within Russia are free of charge.
There are still two months to go before the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) for HGVs will go live on Russian Federal Highways, and there are several ways to get all the necessary information on the project:
Service Hotlines can help HGV Owners to register in the system, get a list of required documents, learn more about different ways to pay the Federal Highways road toll, get detailed information on using HGV On-Board Units or their alternative, the single-trip Toll Ticket.
Service Hotlines also provide technical assistance on accessing the ETC system remotely via web Customer Portal, Toll Service Offices addresses in Russia and their hours of operation, as well as locations of Toll Collect Terminals which allow HGV Owners to top-up their account balances.
Service Hotline numbers are provided by the Russian cellular operator Megafon by agreement with the ETC System Operator – RT-Invest Systems LLC.
The lines can handle more than 1 million calls monthly with the maximum of three minutes waiting time per call. The call centre is staffed by 500 representatives who provide around 10,000 hours of customer advice per month.
BACKGROUND INFO
The Electronic Toll Collection system to offset the damage caused to Russian Federal Highways by vehicles exceeding 12 tons of gross vehicle weight is introduced in the Russian Federation on 15 November 2015 in accordance with the Federal Act No 68-FZ of 6 April 2011.
Acting under the Russian Government Directive No 1662-r of 29 August 2014, the Russian Federal Road Agency and RT-Invest Transport Systems LLC have entered into a concession agreement which appointed RT-Invest Transport Systems LLC the Operator of the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system called PLATON.
The System will allow to facilitate collection of toll charges for vehicles exceeding 12 tons of gross vehicle weight, offsetting the damage that such vehicles cause to the surface of Federal Highways. As a HGV moves, the System will only charge the Owner for the mileage travelled on Federal Highways.There are two ways to pay the toll charge – either by a Toll Ticket or via an On-Board Unit. In order to pay, Owners must register their HGVs in the PLATON system and submit the necessary documents to a Toll Service Office or at www.platon.ru
HGV Owners will then have to top-up their ETC accounts. The charges are payable in advance and the total amount due is calculated on the actual HGV mileage basis.
The money will go to the Russian Federal Road Fund and will be used to fund road maintenance and repairs. At the moment the toll is set by the Russian Government at 3.73 Russian Roubles per vehicle per kilometre.
