Anyone can drive on Highway 6 with or without being registered. Is it worth the cost and hassle to register?
Highway 6 (כביש 6 / Kvish 6) runs much of the length of Israel north to south. Your cost depends on which segments you travel and how often. And, registering can save you some dough.
Ways to drive Highway 6
There are three options to travel Highway 6. There is no monthly cost nor contract for any of these options.
- Without registration (מנוי מזדמן / manui mizdamen)
- Identified: By your license plate
- Billing: You will get a bill in the mail a few weeks later to the address your license plate is registered to.
- Cost per ride: No discount
- Video Subscriber (מנוי וידאו / manui video)
- Identified: By your license plate
- Billing: You get billed once a month to the credit card you have on file.
- Cost per ride: Discount of
3.81 NIS3.79/3.80 NIS off the full price, no matter the length of your ride
- PasKal Subscriber (פסקל / “E-Z Pass”)
- Identified: By your PasKal, a device which resides in your car
- Billing: You get billed once a month to the credit card you have on file.
- Cost per ride: Discount of
7.64 NIS7.59/7.60 NIS off the full price, no matter the length of your ride (an additional3.83 NIS3.80 NIS savings off the Video Subscriber price) - Additional Costs: PasKal requires a refundable deposit, currently 190 NIS (deposit cost does change from time to time). In addition, you either have to pick it up at a Highway 6 service center, have it sent by registered mail for 13.92 NIS, or have it sent by messenger for 36.27 NIS.
Heavy users will likely consider the PasKal. For those of us who only travel Highway 6 a couple of times per year at most, it probably isn’t worth the hassle and additional costs to become a PasKal subscriber; but it probably does make sense for most anyone who ever drives on Highway 6 to become a Video Subscriber. Everyone in between heavy and very light should do the math and figure out whether it makes sense for them to go PasKal or Video.
Registering with Highway 6
It takes about 5 minutes to register online. You will need your vehicle license (רישיון לרכב / rishayon lerechev) and your credit card. (It did not work for me in Chrome, but it did in Internet Explorer and is supposed to work in FireFox, too.)
When you complete your registration for Highway 6, you are also given the opportunity to register for the Carmel Tunnels (מנהרות הכרמל / Minharot HaCarmel). There is also no monthly cost nor contract; however, you won’t save any money, only hassle as a registered subscriber.
Don’t forget to update your details
If you sell your car or change your credit card, be sure to update your details either via their website or by phone at 03-908-1111 or *6116.
Happy driving!
Please somebody knows what happen if I took the kvish 6 by mystake and I have not tegidyeted on it my rental car plate number
Ate there going to charge from the tenal car a big penalty?
I imagine you’ll get billed through the rental car company, and they’ll probably charge a premium on top of the cost.
Feel uncomfortable leaving my credit card. How common is fraudulent use of credit card info.
Highway 6 is used by many, many Israelis, so I presume they take appropriate precautions. I myself have never had a problem.
you neglect to mention that it pays to be a member even if you have no car. rental companies charge a processing fee for kvish 6 toll bills that come to their address. if you register, you can temporarily transfer the rental car to your account and be billed directly if you take the highway. you just have to remember to remove the car from the account upon returning it.
TG, that is something that crossed my mind, but I was concerned about the logistics. Do you have any experience with doing this?
Did you ever have double-billing – both directly and again through the rental company? How long did it take for the additional vehicle to be active under your account?
And, of course, as you noted, you must be careful to remove the car from your list of approved vehicles as soon as you finish with it. Otherwise, any savings you realize would be wiped out quite quickly when you begin getting charged for the rides of others who rent the car after you.
I have done this (rental/lease car) through the website but the website seems to take a couple of days to register/unregister. Apparently, if you phone up they will do it immediately which seems more sensible.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Josh. I guess there is some risk there if the de-registration doesn’t happen immediately.
Highway 6: It pays to be a member http://t.co/2kqouJWC