10% toll discount for using highways from midnight to 7am

From The Star Wednesday November 19, 2008

10% toll discount for using highways from midnight to 7am


KUALA LUMPUR: Starting Jan 1, private cars using the North-South Expressway and the North-South Central Link will enjoy a 10% discount when travelling between midnight and 7am.

For travel during festive seasons, they will get a further 10% reduction on travel on selected days if they use the expressways during the same times.

The discounts apply only to Class I vehicles namely private cars between Jan 1 next year and Dec 31, 2010.

OMG!!!
Toll Rate Dropped!!!!!

NOT!!!!!

A user will be able to enjoy the discount as long as he exits the expressways and pays toll between midnight and 7am. It does not matter what time he enters the expressways.


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Let's just analyze the effects of the discounts from both the operators and consumers' perspective.

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CONSUMER

Positive

1)Yay, cheaper toll , *clap clap*

2)Encouraged to travel on less busy time to spread out congestion through the day. Nett effect=Less Congestion=Less Traveling Time

Negative
1)Cheaper??? What... RM4.30 out of RM43.30???? I rather pay that small extra 10% to travel comfortably in broad daylight. (Backfire Positive 1)

2)Are we really sure this approach will ease congestion??? I'm sure a lot of people will plan to take advantage on this... and start traveling at 9.00pm from K.L. to reach a destination in 3 hours. If they almost reach toll before 12am, they'll stop by the side of the road to wait until the discount time kick in. This will cause congestion. (Backfire Positive 2)

3)Traveling in Midnight?????? PLUS don't have a complete lighting system all the way along its road. In fact, people are more prone to accident driving in the middle of night due to low visibility and surrounding predictability.
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OPERATOR
Positive

1)Reduce traffic congestion by spreading out traffic volume across day and night

2)Promote traveling on PLUS highway so that people will take their route instead of old roads =To increase profit.

3)Increase competitiveness against other toll operators (those which haven't include the discount package yet)= To increase profit

4)Makes them looks like some Social Responsible Company (when they are not...if they do, they'll only charge drivers driving cars above 2000cc)

5)Someone in Proximity to the government officials will get good names for the government by announcing this discount.

6)Will give the current government a good name.

Negative

1)Maybe a little traffic congestion at midnights to handle (those who wanted to reach a destination around 12am to take advantage of this discount)

2)More accidents to handle at night due to increase in traffic volume.

3)More car breakdowns to handle at night (may be profitable if they charge)

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Weighing both positive and negative effects from both sides, I realize, consumer didn't really gain as much as the Operator does. The NETT EFFECT is quite apparent, Operator seems to win.

Look.... Would you wanna increase the risk of accident by traveling at midnight just to save RM4.30 from a value of RM43.30?????

If they were sincere, they should bloody drop the toll rate by 10% unconditionally instead.