I have made a list of Dos and Don’ts related to usage of Fastag from my own experience. Feel free to share it with fellow road users…
1. Ensure the windshield glass is clean and dry from the inside before applying the Fastag sticker.
2. If your windshield has a UV Protection film on the inside, you need to remove the film from the area where you plan to stick the Fastag. The Fastag sticker must be installed directly on glass. UV protection films have a layer of metallic oxides on them which prevents the RFID reader at the toll booth from reading your vehicle’s Fastag.
3. While sticking the Fastag to your windshield, do not press hard or else you might damage the chip within. Once stuck, do not peel off the Fastag and try to move elsewhere. This too will damage the chip.
4. While approaching the toll booth do not get close to the vehicle in front of you. Maintain a gap of at least 10 feet. Wait till the vehicle in front of you goes past the toll gate barrier, and the barrier arm is lowered before bringing your vehicle within the sensing range of overhead tag reader.
5. Drive towards the toll booth window slowly. Sometimes, if the tag reader fails to read your Fastag in the first attempt, it becomes necessary to move your vehicle forwards or backwards. For this reason, the vehicle behind you must not be too close to yours.
6. If the tag reader fails to read your Fastag, you’ll have to pay the toll the old fashioned way i.e. by cash or card. In such cases, ensure the toll receipt mentions your vehicle’s registration number correctly. Sometimes, the toll is debited from your Fastag, but the toll booth system fails to get updated. In this situation, you’ll have to upload the photo of your toll receipt on your Fastag provider’s website/portal/app and request a refund. No refund is issued unless the photo of the toll receipt is uploaded, and it has your vehicle’s registration number mentioned on it.
7. It is necessary to maintain a minimum balance of ₹100 in your Fastag e-wallet. Otherwise, the toll booth board displays the Fastag Blacklisted message and you’ll be required to pay the toll by cash/card.
8. When the system works smoothly, the toll booth displays Fastag and vehicle category immediately after the reader reads your Fastag, and the barrier arm lifts automatically. You don’t get a paper receipt like before. Instead, you’ll get an SMS on your phone with the debited toll amount. Not all Fastag providers send an SMS (Some do, some do it later, and some just don’t). It is always a good idea to verify your toll transactions on your Fastag provider’s website/portal/app after your journey.
Please share this information with your friends/family members and contribute towards making everyone’s travel a little easier.
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