ERP IU error?

A letter was received from the Land Transport Authority dated 3 March, 2014, which said “We would like to inform you that an error was detected in either the In-vehicle Unit (IU) or stored value card when the vehicle passed through the ERP gantry at:

CTE Northbound after PIE

on: 26/02/2014

at: 18:15:31

To ensure that the IU and stored value card are in good working condition, we will appreciate it if you could bring your vehicle for an inspection of the  iu at any of the IU Inspection Centres listed overleaf on or before 17/03/2014. Please bring along this notice and the stored value card that was used when the error occurred.”

ERP gantry error?

At the IU Inspection Centre on 17 March, 2014 – it was tested and determined that it was neither an IU or stored value card error.

The staff stamped and signed “IU no defect” on the notice, and said that it was due to a scanning problem.

On further enquiry – he explained that it was a scanning problem of the ERP gantry.

When asked “what if this occurs again?”. The answer was “then you will get another notice and you will have to come again” … and again?

Apparently this happens quite often.

The staff also explained that if you are say travelling along the CTE during the peak hours in the morning – and you have a successful deduction pass one gantry, followed by an error at the next gantry when the stored value card has sufficient funds – it can only mean that it can’t be an IU or stored value card error, but an ERP gantry scanning error.

Has anyone got a similar experience like the above?

Expensive but not very reliable?

I understand that it cost between $1.5 to $2 million per ERP gantry, and that it costs more than $25 million in annual operational and maintenance cost for the about 80 ERP gantries.

Leong Sze Hian