Only 14% of Gauteng drivers have bought, or intend to buy, an e-toll tag. This is according to an Ipsos poll investigating the attitudes of the public towards the e-tolling plans.
The research was conducted prior to the interdict against the e-tolling as passed in early May this year.
Non-co-operation
More than two-thirds (66%) have not or will not buy an e-toll tag and 72% disagree with the entire concept. “The opposition to the e-tolling initiative has been highly vocalised by the public and in the media,” states Mari Harris, Public Affairs Director at Ipsos. “The numbers in our survey simply confirm this opposition with the intended non-co-operation of Gauteng drivers.”
Plummeting support
In a poll, conducted by Synovate (now incorporated into Ipsos) last year, 69% of Gauteng drivers agreed that they would pay the e-toll fees and supported the concept if the fee was significantly reduced. This was prior to the release of the final tariff rates, which indeed reflected a big drop from the initial proposed fee.
According to this latest survey, almost two-thirds (64%) of drivers still believe that the tariffs are unreasonable, even taking into account the discounts for frequency and time of day.
When asked whether the government should find an alternative to e-tolling, 63% Gauteng drivers responded favourably. Just under a fifth (18%) was against an alternative solution and the remainder (22%) were undecided.
“Support for the system has dwindled to a very large extent,” states Harris. “One could speculate this is a result of a few factors; namely the prospect of the system actually being implemented, the bad publicity around the system and the unfortunate miscommunication of the project from its inception. Whereas the Gauteng public were prepared to pay a reduced fee this time last year, they are now not considering buying a tag at all.”
Technical aspects
* Fieldwork was carried out from 13 April to 18 May 2012 by trained and experienced fieldworkers.
* Face-to-face in-home interviews were conducted with a randomly chosen sample of 3 565 South Africans, 15 years and older, in the language preferred by the respondent.
* Please note: This release contains results only from the portion of the sample resident in Gauteng and who drive vehicles – ie, those who will be primarily impacted by the e-tolling system.
* The results were weighted and projected to the universe (ie, adult South Africans).
Ipsos: The home of researchers
Ipsos is an innovative, entrepreneurial, client-focused organisation, providing research services to clients on a global basis. We set ourselves high standards and aim to work collaboratively in partnership with our teams in order to service our clients most effectively.
Ipsos recently acquired Synovate globally.
Ipsos is proud to be the only global market research company that is still controlled and operated by market researchers. We aim to remain the natural home for intellectually curious and passionate researchers.
Our goal is simple: to be our clients' preferred research partners in our areas of specialisation, based on BQC (better, quicker, cheaper) methodologies and processes. We want our clients to be proud and pleased to work with us - and we want each one of us to be proud and pleased to offer our clients high quality standards, efficiency and intelligence.
