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All Salik penalties are waived as per news paper today. What is RTA leadership thinking? Mattar Al Tayer is proudly praising this move as a good-will gesture towards motorists. Now I translate this as a good will gesture to law violators, and as an insult to all motorists that actually followed the law and faced all the trouble getting their tags and accounts activated on time. I spent already more than 800aed on tolls; now others that did not buy the tags and used the toll roads are getting away with 0aed!!! I do not know what is behind this move (stupidity, politics, technical issues?), but it is again an example that RTA is an organization of words but lacks any integrity in their execution. All those billions of dirham’s entrusted by the government bodies to the RTA to upgrade the roads network and implement the Metro... If they fail already with the relative simple Salik project, how can all those other projects ever work? Its a joke…. I rest my case.

Very angry motorist

I think behind the scenes the real reason is a lot to do with the recharging. i.e. the majority of fines if any would be for people who didn't recharge in time, but with the inability to pay Salik online for months and the slowness of Petrol Stations to process the recharges it would be extremely unfair for them to pay the fine.

I don't know of *anyone* who had even attracted a sniff a of a Salik fine, let alone got one.

It doesn't worry me, I abided by the laws and apparently you did too, so stick to worrying about yourself and let other people be responsible for themselves.

Totally agree Ian. After my text from Salik telling me i was down to 16 Dhs, i immediately recharged at Emarat. It took 4 days to process and credit my account.

They havent even got an efficient payment "on line" system at gas stations. A form in duplicate is filled in and only cash is accepted, crap really.

instead of admitting that the system is a failure, they try tp cover it up by some kund of "goodwill" act

arniegang wrote:Totally agree Ian. After my text from Salik telling me i was down to 16 Dhs, i immediately recharged at Emarat. It took 4 days to process and credit my account.

They havent even got an efficient payment "on line" system at gas stations. A form in duplicate is filled in and only cash is accepted, crap really.

I just use MeBank's online banking system. They had a Salik option up and running very quickly.

gtmash wrote:

arniegang wrote:Totally agree Ian. After my text from Salik telling me i was down to 16 Dhs, i immediately recharged at Emarat. It took 4 days to process and credit my account.

They havent even got an efficient payment "on line" system at gas stations. A form in duplicate is filled in and only cash is accepted, crap really.

I just use MeBank's online banking system. They had a Salik option up and running very quickly.

Yeah me too. Emirates Bank is the best (definitely better than Mashreq)

thanks for the heads up guys

My company pays. I don't care!



Knight

Another little article in this mornings Gulf News from RTA telling how the system is working fine and reducing traffic at the Salik Gate locations, I believe this must be true, as I now find them all in front of me on the way home every night, trying to get away from the Salik Gate. My trip time in the evening has increased from +/-20minutes to +/-50minutes as a direct result of Salik

Anyways we should all atleast sign the petition;

http://www.petitiononline.com/RtaSalik/petition.html

Dubai Knight wrote:My company pays. I don't care!



Knight

I thought Taxi Drivers were responsible for Salik tolls?

"I think behind the scenes the real reason is a lot to do with the recharging. i.e. the majority of fines if any would be for people who didn't recharge in time, but with the inability to pay Salik online for months and the slowness of Petrol Stations to process the recharges it would be extremely unfair for them to pay the fine."

I do not agree that people could not pop up their accounts on time, and hence could avoid the fines.

Yes, the payment system was a pain. Getting registered was an even bigger pain for many. But at the end, you could get your account topped up at most petrol stations, as long you do not wait until the last minute. RTA is honoring those people that have taken no effort to make payments or get their registrations sorted, while others that went trough lots of hassle and efforts to get their account working have been made look like fools. I have during the registration of both my tags made more than 10 phone calls over a 8 week period, and 3 repeated faxes of the documentation to RTA to get both my cars registered (which I started a few days after the account registration was opened). Until today I still have not received the famous SMS with the account info... But by many times calling RTA to follow up, I finally got the info trough phone.

What made it even more frustrating that RTA in the news papers made the public responsible for "some" delay by saying that the incorrect documentation filled by the public was the reason why there was a delay in account registration. It seemed the RTA management was not aware of what the public was gouing trough. They had no technical glitches!!! It was actually the RTA admin procedures that did not work.

But it appears they have still admin issues. 6 weeks ago, I changed one of my cars, and after following the cancellation procedure, that tag got not de-activated. Again, I had the phone 4 times over a 2 week period, and sent a fax with the cancellation requested 2 times to get that tag de-activated.... But at the end, it got done.


Canceling the fines was a very bad move by RTA. The system was not ready, still is not and I think they have to make this move to recover from their mistakes. I will again start my endless calls and faxes to RTA to attempt to get my toll refunded that same period….

busser wrote:
I do not agree that people could not pop up their accounts on time, and hence could avoid the fines.

Do not agree all you like. The truth is you couldn't pay online through the Salik website, and it took more than the required 48 hours to top up. With the 'plenty of notice' you mean the SMS you get that says "you have 6 dirhams balacnce" ??

Yes, the payment system was a pain.

And the major reason why a lot of people would have been fined. It's no mystery why the fine free period coincides with the launch of the online payment system for Salik.

I will again start my endless calls and faxes to RTA to attempt to get my toll refunded that same period….

LOL! Good luck.

muhahahahha i feel good tananana i never got the salik tag and been using al garhoud bridge and going past emirates mall. But will be getting the tag once I get back cos heard they gonna be putting a new system up and maybe this is why they have forgiven all the fines.

rudeboy wrote:muhahahahha i feel good tananana i never got the salik tag and been using al garhoud bridge and going past emirates mall. But will be getting the tag once I get back cos heard they gonna be putting a new system up and maybe this is why they have forgiven all the fines.

I think you should read more about it. The grace period is only until the end of October last year. After that it is fine central and like the Cayenne driver in the other thread... you might have a stack of Salik fines you don't know about.

They haven't forgiven all the fines, just the ones until the online Salik payment became operational.

^ian^ wrote:

Dubai Knight wrote:My company pays. I don't care!



Knight

I thought Taxi Drivers were responsible for Salik tolls?

Never taught the Queen knighted a cabbie......

busser wrote:

"I think behind the scenes the real reason is a lot to do with the recharging. i.e. the majority of fines if any would be for people who didn't recharge in time, but with the inability to pay Salik online for months and the slowness of Petrol Stations to process the recharges it would be extremely unfair for them to pay the fine."

I do not agree that people could not pop up their accounts on time, and hence could avoid the fines.

Yes, the payment system was a pain. Getting registered was an even bigger pain for many. But at the end, you could get your account topped up at most petrol stations, as long you do not wait until the last minute. RTA is honoring those people that have taken no effort to make payments or get their registrations sorted, while others that went trough lots of hassle and efforts to get their account working have been made look like fools. I have during the registration of both my tags made more than 10 phone calls over a 8 week period, and 3 repeated faxes of the documentation to RTA to get both my cars registered (which I started a few days after the account registration was opened). Until today I still have not received the famous SMS with the account info... But by many times calling RTA to follow up, I finally got the info trough phone.

What made it even more frustrating that RTA in the news papers made the public responsible for "some" delay by saying that the incorrect documentation filled by the public was the reason why there was a delay in account registration. It seemed the RTA management was not aware of what the public was gouing trough. They had no technical glitches!!! It was actually the RTA admin procedures that did not work.

But it appears they have still admin issues. 6 weeks ago, I changed one of my cars, and after following the cancellation procedure, that tag got not de-activated. Again, I had the phone 4 times over a 2 week period, and sent a fax with the cancellation requested 2 times to get that tag de-activated.... But at the end, it got done.


Canceling the fines was a very bad move by RTA. The system was not ready, still is not and I think they have to make this move to recover from their mistakes. I will again start my endless calls and faxes to RTA to attempt to get my toll refunded that same period….

You just cant get the right staff nowdays