The CEO Magazine Asia - April 2018

86 | theceomagazine.com

TAIWAN’S

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.

WORDS SHARON MASIGE • IMAGES RICH MATHESON

T

aiwan 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. »

TOLL ROADS

Transforming

INNOVATE | Interview