Illustrative stock photo (source: SME)
In addition to convenience for motorists, the scrapping of paper highway stickers and their replacement with electronic ones will also bring cost savings. Thanks to the introduction of e-stickers, the National Highway Company (NDS) will annually save more than half of the costs incurred by traditional stickers.
“The cost of distributing and printing stickers is history,” said NDS spokesperson Michaela Michalová, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “They accounted for 6.6 percent of the proceeds from sales of highway stickers in 2015.”
The cost of providing the e-sticker service equals 2.78 percent of the proceeds from selling highway stickers, she added.
“When the current cost of providing e-stickers is compared to the volume of sales in 2015, it shows that the costs would have been €1.6 million, i.e. €2.6 million lower [than they actually were in 2015],” the spokesperson claimed, as quoted by TASR.
The provider of the e-sticker service is company SkyToll. The NDS pays it 2.78 percent of the proceeds from sales of highway stickers for providing the service. The cost of launching the e-sticker service system was zero for NDS, Michalová added.
NDS itself is in charge of checking up on the use of e-stickers. Its supervision mechanism is comprised of a camera system and special mobile patrols.
“The total sum of investment in the supervision mechanism is estimated at €3 million,” said Michalová, as quoted by TASR.
The annual operating costs are projected at €300,000. They chiefly include the cost of fuel, energy, data-communication links and servicing and maintaining cameras and vehicles.
