Paying for NZ toll roads over the web? Vista and XP SP2 only then
Verdict on the tollroad: excellent. Slowly going through the architectural disaster zone that's Orewa always used to put me in a bad mood. The tollroad means you zoom past all the ugliness at 100kph, and come out near Puhoi.
Verdict on paying for the tollroad: pretty crappy. The queues for the manual payment at the Dairy Flats Service Centre were long, so I asked the Toll-teller man how drive through, pay within three days works.
"So it's possible to pay with Internet banking?" I asked.
"Yes, no problem."
"There are no extra fees or anything then?"
"No, no, really quite simple," he said.
Fine. I'm back, and went to the Tollroads site to pay the four dollars (two bucks each way). To pay with Internet banking, you have to use some funky system called POLi. Payments Online is what it stands for, and it appears to be Australian. Now could someone at LTSA explain why they're using an Aussie online payment processor?
Of course, the system doesn't work. Why? Because:
It's Windows XP SP2 and Vista only. Doesn't work with Windows 7 or Mac OS X. This is just stupid. Yes, I know, I can pay with credit card and direct debit but that's not the point - there's no need to make Internet banking payments this convoluted. All I need is the bank account number to pay the damn money into, and put my licence plate as the reference.
Update Post headline more accurate now.
Update II Paid via Internet banking to the account below, and heard back from Tollroads. They had some problems inititially locating the payment, but found it in the end. I explained to them why the POLi system is problematic, and that they should allow people to pay with normal Internet banking. No additional software like ActiveX controls should be needed.
Failing that, more places to pay manually, like the Post Office, should be made available. Hope they'll listen.
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Comment by James Sleeman, on 15-Feb-2009 20:43
Not to mention that it looks as if you are giving some third party software complete access to your bank account!
Comment by johnr, on 15-Feb-2009 21:33
No problems for me yet! No payments for motorbikes
Its a nice ride through the road
Comment by Greg, on 15-Feb-2009 21:46
Where is the "text to pay" option. We can pay everything else via text now including parking!
Comment by Andrew, on 15-Feb-2009 22:15
I just tried it and you are right, although I get back a different message saying only certain versions of IE and Firefox 2 are supported. Since I am using Firefox3.1beta on a Mac I guess I won't be using Poli to pay my toll.
I checked out the toll road last week, happily paying by credit card works well.
Paying by txt is a great idea.
Comment by saltydog, on 16-Feb-2009 08:29
Perhaps we should ask why there is no TXT to pay option, why the Kiosk is so inadequate, why false messages are given out on the roadside billboards (saying the kiosk is full when it isn't), and why all other options for payment are so futile that even we geeks are frustrated? Perhaps it is encourage people to pay IN ADVANCE and make sure all that do have $24 to $48 in their ofrres at all times (and can we ever use up the remaining $24 and get it back?).
This isn't a good example of good technology application or is it a deliberate con?
I offered then a simple TXT service like TXT parking that we've done, and they weren't interested. The technology is so simple and proven too!
But what a road (if you avoid the free days and the rubber neckers who travel through the tunnels at 30 kph when there is no traffic queue)!
Yes, I've pe-paid.....and that was a reasonable good experience technically, but I have yet to check my balance to see if that is working right.
Comment by cisconz, on 16-Feb-2009 11:55
Below is a scrren shot of the POLi interface in my online banking
It has their bank account number but the reference is not the numberplate.
This also said it had failed even though it accepted at my bank so we will see if I get a letter after I use it.
Comment by Master668, on 16-Feb-2009 15:31
So, the solution is simple - live anywhere other than Auckland and/or ride a motorcycle!
I'd say the clowns who designed this mess have failed even the simplest test of interface design, and certainly I'll not be using their toll system anytime soon!
Comment by Paul Campbell, on 16-Feb-2009 21:17
I can't believe how bizarre it is that someone created a toll road without toll booths - anywhere else in the world there's a way to just pay without getting out of the car - usually something as simple as somewhere you can throw coins in a basket.
On my way up to foo this weekend the pay booths were broken. I drove through Orewa. I couldn't pay ahead because I had a rental - they don't tell you the license plate ahead of time - I asked them if I could pay at the rental counter - no luck.
On the way back the (only 2) machines had queues and were so slow to use they'd paid people to push the buttons for us - I had a broken toe, I didn't really want to get out of the car - as other foo campers found out the pay booths are not wheelchair accessible either - since I had a rental I figured I better get a receipt to prove I'd paid - the machines don't give receipts.
The machines also are a privacy risk - you can type in any car's license plate and get back a description of the car
Comment by xurizaemon, on 16-Feb-2009 22:46
I was in the passenger seat so paid using the 0800 number on the signs. Surprisingly quick and painless, and I got to talk to a HUMAN straight away.
TXT to pay is a good idea, but LTSA would get the blame when some idiot tried to drive and TXT - so they probably had to veto that in order to avoid being blamed for driver idiocy.
Comment by Neil McCallum, on 28-Oct-2009 11:33
I had the same issue as cisconz that the poli payment seems to have succeeded but the toll road website reports the payment as failed. Since the underlying mechanimism seems to be an electronic cheque and the clearance time is longer than the window to pay the toll I now seem to be a risk of a non payment fine. Poli seems to be an ugly hack to me. Give us the internet banking details and align the payment window with the banking clearance times!
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Comment by manhinli, on 15-Feb-2009 19:30
That's exactly why Paul Henry was trying to scold the NZTA for - stupid cash machines and poor payment methods.