There should be one single unified road toll throughout the United Arab Emirates instead of different emirates having their own systems, according to a senior Emirati official.
Sharjah Investment and Development Authority’s executive chairman Marwan Al Serkal says that one system would be a lot easier for UAE motorists.
His comments come as drivers prepare to be charged every time they cross Abu Dhabi’s four bridges to go to the main island.
Al Serkal posted on Twitter that he thinks it would be better to have the toll gate system unified in order to make the seven emirates better coordinated.
Al Serkal pointed out that a driver who works all across the country might have to have their vehicle registered, pay registration fees in all seven emirates, and have seven stickers pasted on their car.
He says that better coordination is required.
The investment authority head has previously said that police need to do more to deal with bad driving and to educate motorists.
Abu Dhabi will begin charging motorists to cross onto the island toward the end of March or the beginning of April.
The system was initially intended to be launched in October last year, but after a number of residents found it difficult to have their cars registered for the tolls, the decision was made to push it back to 2nd January 2020.
However, drivers continued to struggle with the system at the start of this year, resulting in the announcement of a three-month grace period by officials.
A number of commuters from outside of Abu Dhabi reported that the text message confirmation system was having a number of different issues, while others did not receive the necessary one-off password to conclude the process of registering online.
Drivers are to pay Dh4 during rush hour from Saturdays to Thursdays when they drive through the gates between the hours of 7am to 9am and 5pm to 9pm.
The maximum fee that can be levied against any one driver over the course of a single day is Dh16.
The Salik road toll system has been operated in Dubai for nearly 13 years now since 2007.
The system was introduced with the aim of encouraging drivers to cut back on the amount of time they used private vehicles and to make use of the low-cost metro and bus systems in order to cut down on the emirate’s crippling congestion.
There are currently no plans to introduce road toll systems in any of the other five emirates in the UAE.
Anyone who is driving a motor vehicle in any of the seven emirates in the UAE is required by law to have taken out at least a basic form of third-party car insurance.
Car insurance can cover everything from accidents that damage your own and other vehicles, a vehicle that has been stolen, and in some cases injuries that may result from having had a car accident.