Hospitable BelToll in Belarus in Year of Hospitality

IOOO Kapsch Telematic Services, which operates the digital road toll collection system in Belarus, improves the quality of customer service every day, BelTA learned from the company’s Public Relations Manager Sergei Buryi.

“We will try to be compliant with the Year of Hospitality as much as possible to prevent foreign visitors from experiencing any issues,” he assured.

The executive pointed out that new customer service outlets are opened across the country and more personnel are hired for the convenience of road users. Additional contact offices have been deployed because road toll was introduced for part of the M4 motorway Minsk-Mogilev starting with the 74th km and ending with the 192nd km on 1 January. As a result, the total number of contact offices in Belarus is now 52.

Asked whether road toll may be lifted for the duration of the world ice hockey championship, Sergei Buryi remarked that it was not up to the company to decide. However, he admitted the company would be in favor of making such a respite available.

BelTA quoted Transport and Communications Ministry specialists as saying earlier that foreign tourists, who buy tickets for the IIHF world championship, should be exempted from paying the road toll. The possible payment difficulties that foreigners may encounter were cited as one of the reasons because the payment system is still rather complicated. No definite decision has been made yet by the Transport and Communications Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Transport and Communications Ministry, Belavtostrada (the owner of the digital road toll collection system BelToll), and the system’s operator are busy preparing to operate the system during the world ice hockey championship. More efforts will be poured into improving the awareness about the system and new customer service outlets are under consideration. “Hospitality is directly linked to the world championship. It is important for Belarus to demonstrate that we can host such events and are even ready to relax some rules so that visitors leave Belarus only with good impressions,” concluded Sergei Buryi.

BelToll is a digital system designed to collect road toll by using a specialized short-range radio technology, which allows collecting road toll from road users without their having to stop. The system went commercial in Belarus on 1 August 2013. At present the system covers 933km of Belarusian roads.

The company IOOO Kapsch Telematic Services is in charge of operating the BelToll system in Belarus.

Source: BELTA