FETC Starts New Business with New Business Model and New Service.

The fierce pandemic has surprised all walks of life with the importance and urgency of digital transformation. Many enterprises are catching up and accelerating the development of "zero contact services". However, for Far Eastern Electronic Toll collection (FETC), this is just the time to show its results of long-term digital transformation. In this wave of life and death battle for business, The FETC has already won.

       

Innovative Transportation Services

FETC has the absolute right to speak when it comes to "zero contact business opportunities" As early as 2006, the FETC integrated telecommunications, information, transportation, finance and other technologies, established the national highway session-based electronic toll collection (ETC), pioneered the "zero contact service" of national highway toll collection, and further launched the national highway full-line distance-based ETC in 2014, helping Taiwan become the first country in the world to fully adopt ETC in the national highway system, And the total length of the ETC network is 926 kilometers, ranking the longest in the world.

People now has long been used to pay the toll without pulling down the window, and run all the way smoothly from South to North on the highway. It saves not only time, but also saves the paper tickets which create amazing environmental benefits. In recent two years, the characteristics of electronic toll free service under the threat of COVID-19 have become a great help in the pandemic prevention.

In addition to helping Taiwan build the infrastructure of smart transportation, the FETC is also an important promoter for local governments to develop smart cities. Due to the invention of eTag, each car has its own ID which can be accurately identified with the vehicle location through a reader and it can naturally extend many applications. Therefore, in 2015, the Freeway Bureau opened a large amount of traffic data without identity information generated by Etag to the government, academic units and private enterprises for traffic management, research and other purposes. For example, the Transportation Department of New Taipei City Government plans to provide accurately estimate real-time traffic flow data in combination with eTag detectors, smart monitors and other equipment to the Fire Department and Police Bureau for disaster prevention and traffic diversion. The private community buildings can also manage the access of the parking lot through eTag, so as to avoid the inconvenience of residents swiping their cards in and out of the parking lot.


        Finding pain points and developing diverse business models

Although the penetration rate of eTag has exceeded 94%, FETC is not complacent. It is still committed to providing consumers with more transportation related convenient services in addition to the existing national highway toll services, so as to further improve the penetration rate of ETC.

 

According to the survey statistics, parking is the first pain point of the customers after driving off the highway. In particular, drivers in Taipei metropolitan area waste up to 14 days in traffic jams and looking for parking spaces every year. It is difficult to find parking spaces. How to pay fees smoothly is also a big issue. Therefore, on one hand, the FETC team, together with the local governments, actively promotes " eTag smart parking", which can pay roadside parking fees, so that people do not have to pay fees at specific locations. On the other hand, it also instructed its subsidiary FETC International (FETCi) to develop “uTagGo” APP which links to " eTag smart parking" so that people can waive queuing, ticket collection and cash payment for parking fee payment.

After more than two years of efforts, both " eTag smart parking" and " uTagGo app" have achieved amazing results. Since July 2021, the roadside parking payment service is up and running in six cities in Taiwan, including Great Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Tainan City and Kaohsiung City, as well as Hsinchu City, Pingdong County, Chiayi Taibao city and Miaoli Toufen city. More local governments will be invited to join in the future; uTagGo ‘s cooperative parking lots throughout Taiwan also exceeded 700 in July this year. Far Eastern Department store, FE SOGO Department store, A. mart and other shopping malls under Far Eastern Group will also join the ranks of uTagGo cooperative parking lots one after another.

Considering that some users have not yet applied for the " eTag smart parking" service, FETCi also plans the " uTagGo easy payment" parking mobile payment service. Users do not need to register app members in advance. They can pay parking fees by scanning QRcode and connecting LINE pay or other bank credit cards before leaving the parking lot to make the payment, for the “zero contact payment” needs and also the implementation of the pandemic prevention policy of "parking real name registration".

While taking care of people's "travel" needs, FETCialso hopes to further connect the needs of food, clothing, housing and other aspects of life through the "point economy". Therefore, FETCi started cross-border cooperations with Michelin catering, technological appliance, supermarket department stores, hotel accommodation, finance and insurance and other businesses, users can park and pay with eTag through the " uTagGo App", and also collect the points accumulated by your and your family’s daily consumption and redeem them into highway fee rebate in your eTag account, or enjoy the preferential purchase of goods in the cooperation channels.

Being close to the life of consumers, uTagGo was the top three free downloads of "vehicle and traffic" and "navigation" categories of Google play and Apple store, but also won the "2021 innovative business award - best product innovation award" of Business Next magazine.

        Group team to explore global market

FETCi actively strives for the huge domestic driver market. Externally, they also led supply chain manufacturers to form a Taiwan team. With forward-looking technology and 20 years of experience in development and transportation maintenance, they have played an important role in overseas markets. They have successively taken orders in the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. In 2020, they have broken through the pandemic restrictions and successfully win many orders, The annual output was nearly NT $1.3 billion, ranking first among the six output teams. The brilliant achievements won many international awards for the FETC, and won the "system integration output Award" issued by the Ministry of economy in early 2021.

Among them, the first multi Lane free flow POC (proof of concept) project in India was won by FETCi team. Six RFID multi Lane free flow gantry will be set in the "Delhi to Chandigarh " section of NH-44 highway for pilot test of the toll collection. The first multi Lane free flow POC (proof of concept) project in Malaysia will also carry out the concept verification of RFID multi Lane free flow system on BESRAYA highway, FETCi cooperates with local operators to integrate e-wallet payment. The test is expected to start in the third quarter of 2021.

In addition, Thailand is expected to complete 21 new highways with a total length of more than 6,612 km by 2026, and carry out digital transformation for the facilities of existing highways. Despite the presence of major competitors in Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, the BGSR Consortium composed of FETC and local companies makes every effort to advance with the forward-looking design of integrating ETC and traffic control system. If the construction and maintenance cases was won, it will not only successfully enter Thailand's RFID supply chain, but also be expected to get more the business opportunities of existing highway transformation. It has great potential.

From the national highway ETC to the digital car economy, and from Taiwan to the world, FETC continues to build complete solutions with digital efforts, making the previously thought Arabian Nights become an ordinary daily life. What other amazing services will appear in the future? Let's wait and see!

        

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