Transforming Taiwan's Toll Roads

The CEO Magazine speaks with the men who led the transformation of Taiwan’s freeways to the world’s first distance-based tolling method and road pricing.

- Sharon Masige

Taiwan was the first country in the world to shift all 926 kilometres of its freeways from flat-rate tolling to distance-based, pay-as-you-go tolling, thanks to Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection (FETC). This nationwide transition didn’t happen overnight but took the company nearly 15 years to accomplish.

“Our first attempt was not successful,” FETC Managing Director YC Chang confides. “But we changed to the system we are using today and it became a viable business model.”

FETC is a subsidiary of major Taiwanese conglomerate Far Eastern Group. It was established in 2004 to implement the Taiwanese government’s plan for new road infrastructure. Beating seven other contenders for the contract, FETC began by rolling out single electronic toll collection (ETC) lanes at each toll station. It then branched out to develop the innovative multi-lane, free-flow and distance-based ETC system.