New regulations on road toll station operations

Road service fee collection is carried out in non-stop electronic form and one-stop form.

The Circular clearly stipulates that the criteria for establishing a road toll station must be within the scope of the project; must be approved by the competent authority in the Feasibility Study Report of the investment project or in the Road Infrastructure Asset Exploitation Project. Implement the form of non-stop electronic road toll collection and use advanced and modern road toll collection technology; in case of applying another form, it must be approved by the competent authority; in case the toll station repays capital for a public-private partnership project, it must ensure the investment efficiency of the project.

Publicize the location of toll stations on central and local mass media; at the People's Committees of districts and communes where toll stations are located from the time competent authorities approve according to regulations.

Toll station operations must be public and transparent; ensure safety and confidentiality of users' personal information; only provide information with the consent of users or at the request of competent state agencies as prescribed by law.

Forms and methods of collecting road use fees

According to the Circular, road service fee collection is carried out in non-stop electronic form and one-stop form.

The non-stop electronic form is a form of automatic road use fee collection, road vehicles do not have to stop to pay road use fees when passing through toll stations; the one-stop form is a form of road use fee collection in which when passing through toll stations, road vehicles make one stop when passing through the toll lane control gate to pay road use fees.

Road service fee collection is carried out in open and closed methods.

The open method is a collection method in which the vehicle owner must pay a certain amount of money at the toll station regardless of the distance traveled by the vehicle on the road for collecting road use fees, but only depending on the type of vehicle; the closed method is a collection method in which the vehicle owner must pay a certain amount of money at the toll station based on the distance traveled by the vehicle on the road for collecting road use fees and the type of vehicle.

Expressway sections; consecutive expressway sections; expressways; interconnected expressways are organized into a closed collection system.

Mixed toll lanes (toll lanes applying both non-stop electronic and one-stop forms) at toll stations are arranged according to regulations in Decision No. 19/2020/QD-TTg.

The form and method of collecting road use service fees are decided by the competent authority in the Feasibility Study Report of the investment project or in the Road Infrastructure Asset Exploitation Project.

Management and supervision of road toll station operations

In addition, the Circular also clearly states the management and supervision of toll station operations. Accordingly, the collection management unit, collection operation unit and collection service provider must be responsible for regularly checking and supervising the toll station operations to ensure that the collection activities comply with regulations; provide complete information, data, figures and documents as required by competent authorities on issues related to supervision, inspection, examination, investigation and handling of issues related to security and traffic safety during the exploitation process.

The competent authority shall manage, inspect and supervise the operation of road toll stations using the Toll Management and Monitoring System or other professional methods and handle violations of toll station operations in accordance with the provisions of law and the provisions of the contract.

The toll collection management and monitoring system has the role and function of providing information to monitor the collection of road service fees at toll stations.

This Circular takes effect from March 31, 2022 and replaces Circular No. 15/2020/TT-BGTVT dated July 22, 2020 of the Ministry of Transport regulating the operation of toll stations for road use services.

According to VGP