RFA goes GPS with Mass Distance Charges

The Road Fund Administration is contemplating using a high-tech tagging device to calculate Mass Distance Charges (MDCs). The high-tech devices will, supposedly, be able to calculate the exact distance travelled by heavy vehicles through the Global Positioning System (GPS). The MDCs were introduced by the RFA earlier this year to levy all heavy vehicles exceeding 3000 kg and trailers exceeding 2000 kg. The charges will also be paid by foreign heavy vehicles entering Namibia. Using GPS is still in the planning stages and the RFA does not want to pre-empt its plans. A possible glitch with the GPS, says the RFA, is that the system could be subjective.

This method was supposedly to start 12 months after the introduction of the flat fee approximation method. But the calculations to be used in the technology based method were supposed to be done using the data collected from “flat fee approximation system,” which was scrapped by the High Court because, as its name indicates, the method “is nothing other than a massively increased licence fee for Namibian registered heavy vehicles based on an assumed distance that heavy vehicles would travel in any given year.” The feasibility study on the GPS is being conducted by experts contracted by the RFA and is said to be at an advanced stage. Once complete, the RFA will introduce a pilot phase on the GPS.

With the flat fee approximation method, heavy vehicle owners paid upfront for MDCs together with their licence fees on an annual basis. The charges were calculated through an estimation of the distance a particular heavy vehicle is likely to travel in a year. The vehicle owners or companies were entitled to compensation if that estimated distance was not covered. Although the method proved too heavy for the transport industry, the RFA said it was foolproof and credible. The GPS method is said to be cost effective but its reliability can be questionable. The RFA expected to collect about N$100 million this year alone through the flat fee approximation method.

Since the method was rejected, the RFA said it will register a shortfall of nearly N$100 million in its budget for 2006/7. It would also have to suspend its planned financing of the rehabilitation of the road between Okahandja and Karibib. But the RFA is adamant that the backlog in maintenance work on the roads, which is due to shortage of funds, will have to be recovered in future from the heavy vehicle owners at a possible cost.