[procrj]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

All trucks in front of me had Fastag and two trucks behind me as well

Same situation today on the Hubli route. Had to pay cash in 3 tolls as Fastag lanes were completely blocked by trucks & trailers.

[anandtheleo]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

This was taken on the Chennai - Krishnagiri stretch, All trucks in front of me had Fastag and two trucks behind me as well. At the same time, Non-Fastag lanes were empty. The situation was same in the next toll as well. So, with more and more trucks using Fastag, NHAI should start implementing more Fastag lanes which will make more sense for Fastag users.

Moreover there will be one truck with a problem with the tag and then everything goes for a toss, what I do when I see this situation, I take the cash lane the farthest away from Fastag so that I don't get to pay twice. Also in some tolls the left most lane also has Fastag even though there is no Board.

[ragh_bhushan]

Originally Posted by procrj

Same situation today on the Hubli route. Had to pay cash in 3 tolls as Fastag lanes were completely blocked by trucks & trailers.

Originally Posted by anandtheleo

I take the cash lane the farthest away from Fastag so that I don't get to pay twice.

Did you ask for a the handheld scanner in non-Fastag lane? It has worked for me on various toll plazas.

[condor]

Originally Posted by procrj

Same situation today on the Hubli route. Had to pay cash in 3 tolls as Fastag lanes were completely blocked by trucks & trailers.

In such situations, try the left-most lane. They normally have the hand-held scanner.

[CarguyNish]

Originally Posted by procrj

Same situation today on the Hubli route. Had to pay cash in 3 tolls as Fastag lanes were completely blocked by trucks & trailers.

Did you pay by cash at Tolls (Bankapur/Chalgeri/Guliyal) ? Normally, these tolls don't have much ques on Fastag Lane. Although I am yet to get a Fastag (Have already applied in Jan) , I did manage to pass these easily on Wednesday on the way to Bengaluru.

Originally Posted by condor

In such situations, try the left-most lane. They normally have the hand-held scanner.

Will try it. I have seen people with that hand held scanner, but I had thought it to be local pass scanner. Since the Extreme left lanes if for those having local pass.

[anandtheleo]

Originally Posted by ragh_bhushan

Did you ask for a the handheld scanner in non-Fastag lane? It has worked for me on various toll plazas.

Nope, the normal Fastag scanners are present.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by condor

In such situations, try the left-most lane. They normally have the hand-held scanner.

If they have a hand-held scanner then they will pass it on to the other counters/lanes as well. So, if you enter a non-fastag lane ask for hand-held scanner before paying the cash.

[fusionbang]

Wanted to recharge my fastag account, but the Icici Fastag website is down and will be back at 10PM. Have a trip tomorrow and would need this, hope it is back at the time specified.

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by fusionbang

Wanted to recharge my fastag account, but the Icici Fastag website is down and will be back at 10PM. Have a trip tomorrow and would need this, hope it is back at the time specified.

The website is up and running, was able to recharge my account

[Glifford]

Originally Posted by Glifford

I finally managed to get through to the Axis contact (after some 15 calls from both mobile and home land line). But once I did he seemed to be extremely cooperative and explained a simple and fast process. Just waiting for the process to complete and the tag.

Will update once complete and satisfied.

This could potentially be a big (time and effort) saver for all of us looking to get FASTag!

OK, as promised, here's the process. Am sure it is the fastest and easiest way to get a FASTag home delivered (in Bangalore) for now.

I got these contacts when calling the toll free number: 1800 419 85 85 listed on the Axis Bank FASTag webpage

Bangalore Contact 1: Mr. Sudheer Nalluri (Have checked with him if I can share his contacts on a public forum and he encouraged me to do so and also of his colleague listed below)

• Mobile Number: +91 988 67 456 79
• Email ID: Sudheer.Nalluri@Sahaj.co.in (I guess they've outsourced this to Sahaj)

Bangalore Contact 2: Mr. Umesh (if I remember his name correctly, but the number below is right)

• Mobile Number: +91 70 266 197 88

And this is the process:

1. Call up Sudheer / Umesh
2. Send a scanned copy of the documents (RC Book, Photo & Address ID )
3. Tell Sudheer (over call or email) how much you want to pre-charge on the account.
4. Umesh will come to your specified address (residence or office) collect the hard copy of the documents and photograph and hand over the sticker. Pay him in cash (for the account and top up pre-charge)
5. Stick the sticker on your car (this is if you want to DIY like nit-picky me and not let Umesh do it)
6. Take photos of the sticker (showing your car and Numberplate and the sticker)
7. Mail photos to Sudheer
8. Sudheer activates your account and you are ready to drive!

All this within less than 24 hours. Sometimes on the same day itself!

My experience in getting the tag:

As I mentioned in posts above, I suddenly made up my mind to go to Chikkamagalur (out of town after a loooong time) the next day, and decided that this time I need to get FASTag, for both the convenience and novelty factor (I admit it )

So Google revealed that it is not just ICICI that offers it, IDFC and Axis Bank does too! So called them all One by one.

• ICICI said, stock only in Bellandur Branch (close to my office) but processing takes 7-10 working days (I know how realistic that is given the experiences here).
• IDFC said pickup from POS at Toll Booths (which I thought of doing and ultimately gave up as people on this thread said most people at toll booths have no clue and going to the Airport Road one would be a big detour)
• Axis call centre gave a number which I called up several times from mobile and land line, no response! Finally the guy replied when I called after 10:00 AM using my land line. After that he was very helpful.

He said the charges for the sticker and enrolment would be ₹ 430

• Registration Charge: ₹ 200
• Refundable Deposit: ₹ 200 (how does one get that back if one wants to?) and
• Service Charge: ₹ 30

So that is a clear premium of ₹ 30 over an above everyone else. When I asked when I can get it? He said as soon as he finishes updating the system with my details, could be that day itself! Wow! And where do I get the tag? He said that he'll send it to the address I mention as log as I give him a photograph and hard copies of the proofs there!

For the speed of getting the tag and the service, I felt the nominal service fee was more than worth it!

He also asked me how much I want to pre-load so that I can travel immediately while the account creation and online loading process can take a couple of days. Decided to add ₹ 570 to make the overall payable to ₹ 1000.

Later that day I got a message on my phone mentioning that ₹ 570/- has been credited to my FASTag account (even before I had got the tag and paid anything). That was fast for sure!

Of course he couldn't get the tag sent over to me that same day because Mr. Umesh couldn't get to my place in time. So he did send Umesh the very next day by around 11:30 (well before I could head out).

He wanted to fix the sticker himself, but I requested him to allow me to do it, as I wanted to decide the place first, plus I am a DIY freak! Told him I am still cleaning the glass (which was true) and fixed it later. He only told me to fix it in on the top centre of the windscreen.

After much deliberation, decided to fix it right behind the IRVM so that it is in my blind spot behind the IRVM and does not obstruct the view of the sky for me as the driver (or the front passenger as well). Am a stickler against stickers of any kind, had none before this.



The sticker itself has an Axis Bank branding on the rear, and much to my dismay, the coil antenna (if that's what its called) of the RFID is misaligned (tilted on the front of the sticker) as seen in the pics below.



Travelled with it and had no issues. Since I had a pre-load I had no issues with top up for the Chikkamagalur and back trip.

Have yet to figure the process of creating the account and using it. Will try it out and post experiences. Meanwhile I'll share my experience using the tag below.

My Experience in using FASTag:

Well it was absolutely seamless. Managed to do the entire Bangalore - Chikkamagalur - Bangalore trip (via Hassan - Belur) absolutely cashless.

After a much delayed start went gingerly to the FASTag marked lane on Tumkur Road (between Peenya & Nelamangala) and saw it blocked with a gate. Showed the guard the sticker and said "FASTag" and he pulled away the metal barricade and let me through. Just went through and there wasn't even a rising boom barricade at the toll booth. Just drove through.

No SMS came! This went on for a couple of other toll booths between Nelamangala and Hassan and then the SMSs started coming in. Of course the SMSs have no toll gate name (like they do on the ICICI SMSs I have seen here).



Almost all the FASTag booths had been barricaded and were opened when I showed them the sticker.

Finally came across one booth that was manned (as in a person sitting at the computer collecting cash). As I pulled up to the window, it didn't open. So rolled down my window and told him "FASTag". He said OK, and asked me to go closer to the rising boom. Sure enough the signal went green and boom rose out of the way.

On the way back being Sunday afternoon, it was a bit more crowded. At one toll gate, there was actually a long line on the FASTag lane. Also fought with one Innova Cab trying to sneak into the line from the middle and ensure he stayed behind me.

This was the first time I had to actually wait in the queue for FASTagging. Remembered the post here about the Toll Booth sensor actually reading from the rear car and not the one at the booth, so maintained a distance. This further angered the Innova who was trying to sneak in ahead of me! Finally just cleared it without any issues.

At one of the toll gates, there was no lane marked with the FASTag sticker. So I just got into the penultimate lane on the left (Lane # 9, with the only one being further left was the one for extra wide vehicles). On reaching the booth, couldn't spot the sensor above. Almost began looking for the ₹ 40 cash I had to pay when I told the operator "FASTag"! He said no issues, just handed me a hand held device that looked like a slimmer POS Card Authorisation machine. Told me to press the Red RFID button (that looks like a WiFi signal icon) while pointing at the sticker (from inside). I did, it read, the display (in front of the vehicle) showed "₹ 40, paid by 'AUTO'", boom opened. Handed him back the device and I left. I was impressed. I hope the other lanes also have a device like that!

So overall getting and using the system has been a great experience. The almost VIP like treatment you get once you show the sticker (while other lanes are still long and crawling) is elating!

Still have to post the experience of using Axis' online reload and statement application. Will do so once done.

[sachinpk]

Just did a Bangalore-Palakkad-Bangalore trip over the week end. Again FastTag gave mixed results.
1. Onward journey (was early in the morning) - The only delay was at Thoppur, where the FastTag lane was also used by slow moving trucks.
2. Return journey (late afternoon) - We started giving a rating for the the "FastTag", and it was indeed "Not-so-fast" at Walayar (the sentry checking the tag, was not at his seat), "FasTag" at Avanashi, Vijayamangalam. At Omalur, the dedicated lane was not working so had to use the lane reserved for buses etc. So "Not-so-fast" again. At Thoppur, this was "SlowTag". The dedicated lane was closed, and I moved to the bus lane. The operator there did not have the hand held device, so waited for more than 5 minutes there. Finally, they just let me pass through. At Krishnagiri toll it was "Fastest Tag". Crossed the toll in 1 mins flat *, where as another vehicle in our convoy took around 5-7 minutes. We had a some guests in the car, and they were really excited about this. At Attibele also it was "Fastest Tag" mode.

The driver-owner of the second vehicle in our convoy, is now interested in FasTag and I would help him out . All said and done, my best experience for FasTag has always been at Krishnagiri Toll. May be I should see if their good work can be put up for notice of the NHAI higher authorities.

* I also noticed that some TNSTC buses also seem to have FasTags fixed. Do not know, if this across TN, or only in some divisions/depots of TNSTC.

[Glifford]

Originally Posted by Glifford

Still have to post the experience of using Axis' online reload and statement application. Will do so once done.

Again as promised, here are the details:

Whatever advantage the Axis bank FASTag had in giving the sticker and setting up the account, was (almost) lost in the process of gaining access to the online application. Well almost! Was a real struggle initially with a number of emails and phone calls to the toll free helpline. Finally figured it out after a lot of trials.

And whatever little said about the process and online application, the better. For any person in the IT line, bad UI, incomplete flows, dead URLs, session time outs, redundant OTPs, whatever things one is NOT supposed to do, is done here!

But once figured out, it's not that bad and is liveable.

So here's the ID Creation process:

Mr. Sudheer Nalluri (Asst. Manager, Strategic Development Initiative, Sahaj eVillage Ltd., Karnataka) will send you an excel sheet with the following information (basically an export from the system):

WalletCreationDate
POSName
CustomerId
CustomerName
VehicleNumber
VehicleClass
MobileNo
WalletId
TagSequenceNumber
TagId
TagStatus
TagActivationDate
TagExpirationDate
TagSuspensionFromDate
TagSuspensionToDate
Cubic Capacity
ChasisNumber
EngineNumber
registrationDate
registrationExpiry
VehicleRegistrationAuthority

With this info, follow these steps:

1. Go to:https://etc.axisbank.co.in/ETC/Retai...serLogin/Index
2. Click on: First Time User
3. Enter any two of:
   1. Customer ID
   2. RFID Number
   3. Wallet Number*(Wallet Number is Mandatory, any one of the rest will do)
   4. Registered Phone Number
4. Enter the Captcha:
5. (Please note there is one space in between the captcha, kindly check and enter)
6. Then Click on: Next Step:
7. Click on OTP. Generate OTP. Just put the OTP as 0101 and click on submit. (This was the most irritating part. I waited and waited for the OTP, when it didn't come, called the call centre to check. They asked me to mail etc.management@axisbank.com asking them to correct the email address. When the email was responded to, I realised they've not integrated OTP with the SMS gateway as yet and hence you've to just fill 0101. )
8. After that it will ask to enter the new passwords.
9. Enter the questionnaire (another pain. Took several tries and combinations to get it to work. Guess it doesn't like short words and also non text characters! Took me atleast 30 minutes to clear)
10. Once done, you can go back the to URL above and login.

Once logged in the interface is pretty non intuitive (as expected). You have to keep clicking on the little pink-grey (Axis Bank Colour) double arrow like ">>" on the left to invoke the menu. After that, it has all the info you need.

Finally on the recharge method:

Till now there is no method of directly recharging using the portal. The "recharge now" option on the page is again a dud (as expected).

However that doesn't mean you cannot recharge online. There is a round about approach. Here are the steps:

1. Customer can log in to his/her own Internet Banking (any bank, not necessarily Axis)
2. Create Beneficiary for Other Bank Transfers / NEFT
3. Enter the following details:
   1. Name: Customer Name
   2. Account Number: Please enter your Complete Vehicle Registration Number/ Wallet ID (yes registration number without spaces / hyphens works great)
   3. IFSC: UTIB0000ETC
4. Transfer the amount that needs to be recharged to the beneficiary above
5. Initiate Payment for this Beneficiary.

At first I tried with NEFT and the credit to the account happens as soon as the beneficiary bank is credited. Great, but I was worried what happens after business hours and on Bank holidays / weekends.

Then I tried IMPS, and Voila, it just credits straight away. Instantaneously!

The best part of this approach is there is no transaction fee that ICICI takes for different modes of payment.

And also you are not dependent on the slow Axis Bank ETC Portal to load the FASTag. Just use your familiar bank's internet banking of Mobile App and load from anywhere!

Hope this helps!

[shamanth]

Originally Posted by Glifford

Then I tried IMPS, and Voila, it just credits straight away. Instantaneously!

The best part of this approach is there is no transaction fee that ICICI takes for different modes of payment.

And also you are not dependent on the slow Axis Bank ETC Portal to load the FASTag. Just use your familiar bank's internet banking of Mobile App and load from anywhere!

Hope this helps!

Unbelievable! looks like someone designed their software using 80s technology. I was thinking ICICI portal is rudimentary, but cannot beat Axis

Again its all transport ministry not setting standard or rules for either Toll operators or FastTag providers.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by ragh_bhushan

Did you ask for a the handheld scanner in non-Fastag lane? It has worked for me on various toll plazas.

Originally Posted by condor

In such situations, try the left-most lane. They normally have the hand-held scanner.

Originally Posted by CarguyNish

Did you pay by cash at Tolls (Bankapur/Chalgeri/Guliyal)

At Tumkur and Chalgeri I did ask for handheld scanner but I was not in the left most lane. They were clueless about it and I decided to pay and move instead of waiting/arguing. Return journey was on a weekday afternoon, I had no issues and Fastag worked all the way.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by procrj

At Tumkur and Chalgeri I did ask for handheld scanner but I was not in the left most lane.

I am still wondering how the scanner will always (or majority of the times) available on the left most lane only.

The purpose of a Handheld scanner can be any of the following:

• Actual scanner fails to read the Tag while a vehicle is passing
  
• FASTag car getting into a Non-FASTag lane by mistake
  
• Heavy to very heavy commercial carrier unable to pass through the width of the FASTag lane and hence asked to take the left most lane so that it's tag can be scanned using the scanner

Incidentally, when I returned from Pollachi a week back, at Vaiguntham Toll Plaza, the FASTag lane was undergoing some repairs but the booth attendant next to it (lane that we entered) had a scanner handy the moment we said FASTag and he came out to scan. I am sure this is because the FASTag lane was closed and to enable these vehicles to pass without Paying by cash.

Second instance was at "Thoppur Toll Plaza" where 2 FASTag cars ahead of me from my group passed without any issues but for me it showed "Invalid Tag" message. The person in the FASTag lane booth saw me stationary and came out and got the scanner from his desk. He scanned thrice, it failed. Then the other person with him (Looked like a manager) scanned the Bar Code behind the windscreen and that detected it.

So in both these cases, it is mostly the FASTag lane itself or the makeshift lane next to FASTag lane that had the Scanner and not really the left most lane.

If one has to have these scanners in the left most lanes, then the whole idea of "portability" goes for a toss. Am sure these scanners keep changing desks within the booth based on where it was used last.

And it is not always left most lanes where multi-axle or wider trucks are allowed to pass - At many booths, the right most lane is also for such large vehicles while left most is reserved for local traffic with a pass.