Consultants want to increase tolls during weekends and peak hours and to dismiss as many as 1,500 employees.
Public companies Croatian Motorways (HAC), Motorway Rijeka-Zagreb (ARZ) and Croatian Motorways – Maintenance and Toll Collection (HAC-ONC) should reduce the number of employees by half, from slightly less than 3,000 to about 1,500 people. That is the conclusion of the first draft of the study on the restructuring of the three companies prepared by British consultancy Atkins for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), reports Poslovni.hr on August 17, 2016.
The study is part of a loan agreement worth 250 million euros that HAC has received from EBRD. In the draft study, the consultants believe that the maintenance sector of HAC-ONC should lose in the short term about 270 to 370 people. This would bring the company closer to international standards since it currently employs 1.66 people per one kilometre of motorways. The consultants believe that this ratio could be reduced to one employee or less per kilometre.
In the sector of toll collection, the number of employees should be reduced within five years from 942 to 590. And in the next five years, further 365 people could leave the sector. The number of employees in the maintenance of tunnels could be reduced by 133 people. That would be in accordance with international norms. Administration sectors of HAC, ARZ and HAC-ONC should have between 15 and 27 fewer employees.
The consultants have also come to the conclusion that standards of maintenance of motorways in Croatia are higher than in most other motorway networks in Europe. Cashiers in toll booths should be temporarily replaced by machines, until completely contactless toll collection is introduced.
The discount on tolls paid by the current contactless ENC toll collection system should not be higher than 13 percent. They also recommend that the tolls should be adjusted each year according to inflation level. Also, different toll prices should be introduced depending on the time period. Thus, prices should be higher during peak hours, on weekends and in summer months. They do not recommend the introduction of vignettes, but instead propose the so-called free flow toll collection. With this system similar to ENC, both the toll booths and long waiting times would disappear, and tolls would be paid per kilometre.
