EXAT chief 'will quit if problem persists'

The governor of the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT) will step down if his agency fails to solve EasyPass problems by September 30, according to Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt.
“He guarantees that the problems will end before the end of this month,” Chadchart said yesterday. To date, hundreds of thousands of people have used EasyPass cards to automatically pay expressway tolls in the hope of getting through the tollgates quickly and conveniently. However, lately many have complained of problems.
Governor Aiyanat Tinapai yesterday explained that EXAT was working to improve the EasyPass system’s efficiency – but during the process, between 20,000 and 30,000 EasyPass cards had failed to display the remaining cash balance on the cards correctly. Some users could not get past the toll gates because their cards’ cash balances were exhausted – but the amount shown on their display screens stated otherwise. “We would like to apologise for any inconvenience,” Aiyanat said.
He said EasyPass users could check the amount of cash available on their cards via thaieasypass.com or EXAT Call Centre’s 1543 Hotline Number around the clock.
Only three days after EXAT adjusted the express toll fare, it announced it would close money refills into the EasyPass ticket late at night from September 1 to 30 to improve the Electronic Toll Collection System (ETC).
After drivers found they could not access the toll gate because of their EasyPass, the complaints were loud across social media, Facebook and Twitter, For example, Pongsuk HIranprueck said on his Twitter (@NuiShow) that he could not pass through the gate because the system at the toll said there was no money on his EasyPass.
He said before entering the gate, he saw there was Bt725 balance on it. Jo Challenge posted on his Facebook Timeline that his EasyPass had been impounded because there was not sufficient money on his ticket. He said he did not realise that the balance on his EasyPass was too low to enter the toll gate since the gate display showed a balance of about Bt500. “The display indicating the balance on the EasyPass did not work. It failed to show the correct value on the ticket [leading to confusion about how much money remained.]”
Monitoring Facebook and Twitter revealed the main problems with EasyPass. First was the unreliable display of remaining value in the pass that confused drivers, resulting in traffic jam at the toll gate. This also left drivers feeling they had been cheated by EXAT; they felt they had lost money.
Similar problems had occurred for years, but the cases were more serious in recent days when the toll fare was adjusted for an increase. EXAT adjusted the express toll fare effective from September 1 and announced it would close the refill value of EasyPass between 10pm and 4am.
However, users who topped up in this period would get an additional 3 per cent on the value they topped up. (For example, if they put Bt500 in the system, they would get Bt515 value).
EXAT governor, Aiyanut said that EXAT is working hard to solve the problems of EasyPass. Progress is on-going and it expects to solve all problems within 30 days. However, he said the problem involves only EasyPass.
At the cash toll gate the service is available as usual without any difficulties, unless traffic jams result from the problems at the EasyPass gate.