Logistics tech startup WheelsEye believes that FASTag will soon transform into a digital wallet for transportation. In 2012, India’s first ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) was started in Gurugram. It grew to a wider scale and came to be known as FASTag by 2016. One lakh tags were issued in that year by four major banks. 7 lakh and 34 lakh tags in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Today, more than 2 crore fastags are active and from February 15 onwards, fastag will become mandatory.

National and state governments and private companies are racing to claim the top spot and are pushing the bar. According to an Oct’20 article by The Hindu, Chennai Traffic Police is working on an AI-based challan collecting system that will deduct traffic fines from the FASTag wallet. Parking startup Park+ is collecting parking fees using Fastag Wallet.

It was becoming increasingly clear that fastag is evolving into a digital wallet for transportation. It will be used to pay challans, buy fuel and file GST returns along with the  paying toll tax. There are numerous potential use cases of FASTag like obtaining vehicle location, paying compliance fee, & paying loading and unloading charges.

It is reported that 80% of commercial vehicles are already FASTag enabled and 65% of the daily toll collection is dependent on commercial vehicles. But still it’s a long way to go before we make a smooth experience for commercial vehicle owners

“For fastag to be successful, it’s important that truck owners trust and adopt it. Fastag has been primarily developed for car owners, but its success hangs on the success of commercial use-case solutions. Fastag has the potential to drive the unification of the highway economy. With fastag, india is inching towards a world-class transportation system. WheelsEye also enables postpaid plans and fuel purchase on fastag,” said a WheelsEye spokesperson.