Truckers want to slam brakes on e-tolls

Only one per cent of the 300,000 e-road toll users filed some sort of complaint during the first week of operation, state secretary Pál Völner said this week as three haulage organisations demanded that the government immediately suspend the system because it has already caused them HUF 100 million (EUR 341,500) damage. 
Trucking associations MKFE, Fuvosz and NIT Hungary held a press conference on Monday, where it took them about an hour to list the problems they have with the new system, which started on 1 July. Somewhat surprisingly the event was attended by a representative of the State Motorway Management Company, who responded that most of the claimed faults are unfounded and could only be corrected based on the feedback of truckers, thus shutting it down is not an option.
This statement was followed by a slightly heated verbal exchange, leaving it unclear whether the concerns are real or part of a communication offensive by the disappointed entrepreneurs, who now face lower profits due to the higher amount they have to pay for using the roads.
The main worry of the three organisations is that the system overbills, which they estimate in the neighbourhood of HUF 100 million in the first week alone. While this is undoubtedly a significant amount, Völner has already announced that everyone will be compensated and only be billed the real amount. 
Though it is difficult to see who is telling the truth, most of the other issues listed by the organisations seem to be solvable in a reasonable time if the operator of the system receives the requested feedback. Many of the errors are the result of the system operating in a prepaid way. As of today a pre-purchased ticket for a certain section cannot be re-exchanged if the final destination changes for whatever reason.
According to Fuvosz, there were certain problems that they discovered before the introduction of the system, but the state does not seem to be in a hurry to fix these. A city mix-up for example – Csoma (in the south) instead of Csorna (in the northwest) – was reported a week before the launch but still remains to be amended, causing truckers to have to pay nearly 200 kilometres extra for a less than 50 kilometre section in western Hungary.