A car passes through the cashless toll station that is being trialled at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in HCM City

HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport, the country’s busiest, has adopted a cashless parking payment system to reduce congestion at its entrance and exit.

The Airports Corporation of Việt Nam (ACV) has begun a trial run of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) payment system between February 6 and March 2.

The system has licence plate recognition cameras and software for fee collection just like at toll stations on highways.

All vehicles that have a traffic wallet account for highways can pay without stopping and needing to attach additional cards.

During the trial run, there will be technical staff from the equipment system to ensure things go smoothly.

Toll collection at the airport has hitherto been manual, which causes congestion, especially during holidays.

At HCM City, Hà Nội and Đà Nẵng airports, vehicles entering and exiting within 10 minutes are charged VNĐ10,000 (40 US cents) if they have fewer than nine seats, VNĐ15,000 (60 US cents) for those with 10-30 seats, and VNĐ25,000 ($1.03) for larger ones.

Other airports charge VNĐ5,000, VNĐ10,000, VNĐ15,000, and VNĐ25,000 for vehicles with fewer than nine seats, 10-16 seats, 16-29 seats, and above 30 seats.

Vehicles parked for more than 10 minutes are charged an additional fee.

Since automatic toll collection began on expressways last August, the Department of Roads of Vietnam said, five million vehicles, or 90 per cent of the country’s total number, have electronic toll tags installed.

According to experts, automatic toll collection at airports and parking lots is necessary to establish a smart traffic system and maximise the investment efficiency of projects. — VNS