May 23, 2007 Chairman Yano Regular Press Conference

(Chairman)

Hello. Thank you for gathering us.
So, first of all, I would like to start with the current status of the business in April.
Toll revenues were generally 0.5% higher than the same month last year, partly because of good weather. The breakdown is 0.1% for high speed and 5% for general pay. Traffic volume increased 3.6% year-on-year. The high speed is 3.4% and the general fee is 4.5%.
The difference between the rate of increase in toll revenue and the number of traffic is that we have always said, but this is due to the increase in discounts due to the spread of ETC. In April, a discount of ¥ 13.3 billion was made. Since last year was 12.2 billion yen, the 9.4% discount has increased compared to last year. Adding 13.3 billion yen to the actual income in April amounted to 62,937 million yen, an increase of 2.2% year-on-year. When calculating the discount rate using this as the denominator, it can be said that approximately 21% of the fee is returned as a fee discount using ETC.

The second is the construction situation. First of all, the Ken-O Road is decided to open at 15:00 on June 23. Then, the Tokai-Hokuriku Expwy will be opened within the fiscal year, and we are working diligently to open it in March next year. Then, although not written here, the Shin-Meishin Expwy is scheduled to open next spring, which will open our Kameyama JCT to Koka-Tsuchiyama and the western Japan Koka-Tsuchiyama to Kusatsu Tagami at the same time. I have decided.

The contract rate for construction contracts for the main work types was 10 in April, with a successful bid rate of 77.41%.

The latest ETC usage rate is 70.3%. The situation remains high on weekdays and low on holidays. Although the holiday usage rate has gradually increased, the average usage rate on weekdays was 72.8% and holidays were 63.2% between May 11th and 17th. I think that there are more Sunday drivers on holidays, but the usage rate is improving little by little.
The number of OBE installations exceeds 15 million.

SA sales increased 2.5% year-on-year. The breakdown is 3.4% in the food and beverage department, 2.5% in the product sales department, flat in the service department, and 1.4% in the gas station department.

The above is the current state of the business. Here are some topics.

First, the “Highway Green Foster Parent Project”. This will be announced today and will take effect today.
This "Highway Midori Foster Parent Project" is a plan to provide places to local people on the Expressway slopes and around ICs so that they can grow green. We would like to call on residents' associations, schools, companies and other organizations to recruit participants as soon as possible.
At NEXCO Central Japan, you will be involved in greening and beautification activities such as maintaining flower beds and planting trees. We want to provide flowers and compost. There is a tree planting technology center in Shiga Prefecture, where a large amount of flowers are grown, so I would like to use it. We also make compost from cut grass. Here is a sample. Then there is the Expressway related Social Contribution Council, but it is said that residents' associations and schools can also subsidize from there.
For the time being, there are 20 planned sites in Central Japan as a whole, but we hope to gradually increase them.
As mentioned earlier, we have decided to recruit, but in fact we have decided one. DENSO Co., Ltd. has decided to work with us, and we are considering the first implementation on Saturday, May 26. We plan to plant trees on the slope of the Tomei Expwy in Okazaki City, and we believe that it will become a model project in the future.
Two photos are attached to the material. The above photo is an example of tree planting, and this is a view of Shizuoka city in Tomei. The photo below is Shizuoka IC. I think you can see the situation of the maintenance of the flower bed.

The second topic is the first meeting of the 2nd Tomei Leading Project Promotion Committee. This leading project has been incorporated into our new medium-term plan, and we have already explained it. I would like to continue this project vigorously. I will become the chairman, gather people from each department in the company, and implement a company-wide system. Below are three subcommittees. One is the Next-generation Road Traffic System Subcommittee, which sends the chairman to the general manager of the construction business headquarters. Then, as a new break facility / regional development project subcommittee, this is the head of the related business headquarters. The other is the Advanced Service and Maintenance Committee, which is headed by the General Manager of the Maintenance and Service Business Division.
In the operation of these subcommittees, I would like to set up an external round-table conference. I plan to proceed.
I will continue with the first meeting held last week, but I would like to report on the progress from time to time.
The earliest is that the Shizuoka Prefecture area has a clear goal of opening in 2012, so I think it is necessary to pack the contents from every aspect to be able to do it properly.
It is also named “Second Tomei”, but this has not been finalized yet, so it is a tentative name.

Then, the third topic is "Tab Zanmai. Mie ETC tour pass". I already announced the reporter last week, so I will explain what it is today. From June 16th to July 17th, this is a two-day excursion program that allows you to choose any day, not just weekends and weekdays. I have a program called “Sokuyado” at a ryokan, but besides that, I would like to do a variety of things tied up with local sightseeing spots. Today we have handed out flyers, but these are the contents. I would like many people to use it.
By the way, I'm doing the “Fuji Tour Weekday Drive Campaign”, but it has responded quite well and currently has about 600 applications. At the beginning of last year, the campaign itself did not penetrate and the response was slow, but more and more customers are becoming known and using it. I really appreciate it.

The fourth topic Expressway Because it is a fee-based internet search service, we do not have materials available, but we operate a drive information site called “High-Speed Daily”. There is a page called “Drive Compass” in it, but from the 9th of this month, the service has been further enhanced and it can be used on mobile phones. In addition, it provides easy-to-use services by making it possible to easily display travel routes and high-speed toll search menus on the website.

The fifth topic is a half price discount at Tomei night during the Golden Week holidays. It is called TDM. This is the second project since the New Year, but I would like to report what the results were. Today in Yokohama Regional Head Office Yoshikawa Regional Head Office Since the chief is coming, we will change players here.

(Moderator)

Yoshikawa who is also a doctor of engineering Regional Head Office I will explain from the head.

(Regional Head Office length)

Yokohama Regional Head Office My name is Yoshikawa.
“Tomei GW Night Half Price Discount” will be explained in the preliminary results report.

 

Preliminary result of “Tomei GW Night Half Price Discount” [PDF]

 

One page gives a summary of the results. The discount was held for 9 days from April 28 (Sat) to May 6 (Sun). Overall, daily traffic increased 1.9% compared to last year. During the discount period from 9:00 to 24:00, traffic increased by 5.7%. The scale of traffic congestion at the target near the Yamato Tunnel on the Tomei In-bound increased by 13.3% compared to last year due to frequent accidents. However, the maximum traffic jam length that occurred during the period was 32 km, a decrease of 6 km from the same period last year. Compared to last year on May 3, which was not affected by the accident at all, daily traffic increased by 0.1%, but the target traffic increased by 3.2%. It decreased by 26.3% compared to last year. In this Golden Week, the first half was a three-day holiday, two days a weekday, and the second half was a four-day holiday. Last year, the first two days were holidays and the last five days were holiday patterns.
In the graph at the bottom of page 2, the traffic volume per hour on April 29 this year is the pink line, and the blue line is the traffic volume last year. This year's traffic is shown as a red bar graph and last year's traffic is shown as a yellow bar graph. If you look at this, you can see that the traffic volume slightly shifts from 19:00 to 24:00. The amount of traffic is increasing. Page 3 shows the traffic congestion situation at the top last year and this year at the bottom. The horizontal axis is each interchange, the rightmost is the Tokyo interchange, and the left is the Mikkabi interchange. The vertical axis represents the time from 0:00 to 24 hours. The Yamato Tunnel is where green signs and traffic jams appear. This year, traffic accidents occurred at 16:00 near the Atsugi Interchange, causing a sudden increase in traffic congestion.
The graph below on page 4, April 30, shows that traffic has shifted since 19:00. However, the amount of congestion also increased on this day. This is because accidents occurred frequently last year as shown on page 5, but this year the accident triggered this and traffic jams began. The green part is the traffic jam, and the rightmost part of the green is where the traffic jam started. The width indicates how far the congestion has increased. Unfortunately on that day, an accident occurred at 14:03, which triggered the increase in traffic volume, and congestion increased in this way.
It is the situation on page 6, May 3, last year, there is no accident with this year, and it is an easy-to-understand comparison. As shown in the graph below, traffic volume before 19:00 clearly decreased this year, and traffic volume has moved since 19:00. The congestion has been reduced accordingly. This is where the effects of TDM have appeared. As you can see on page 7, there were no accidents on this day last year and this year, so you can compare traffic congestion due to traffic concentration.
It is the situation on page 8, May 4, but there was a big accident last year and there was an accident again this year, so it is quite difficult to compare with each other. Last year, the traffic dropped due to an accident, and the amount of traffic was turned backward, and it was not possible to find that the traffic was moving to the latter half due to the effect of TDM. However, as shown on page 9, traffic accidents began at 15:16 last year after an accident occurred, whereas this year traffic jams began at 15:47 after an accident occurred . However, traffic congestion has occurred in the same way, but this year traffic congestion did not increase compared to last year. Looking at the green part in the figure below, the length of the congestion has not increased since 17:00. Compared to that, last year it grew steadily, reaching the maximum peak from 19:00 to 20:00, so the effect of TDM was that the traffic congestion did not become so long due to the traffic going backwards I think it is appearing.
The 10th page is May 5th, but the contrast was not clearly shown on this day because of the impact of accidents. As shown on page 11, traffic congestion started due to an accident, but the increase in traffic congestion has not been so noticeable compared to last year, and I think that this time the increase in traffic congestion was suppressed by TDM this year.
This year I thought that TDM could significantly reduce the traffic jams during Golden Week, but unfortunately the impact of the accident was so great that it was not even groundbreaking. But I think TDM's effects were found everywhere.

The 12th page and after are the results of the questionnaire. On April 30th and May 4th, from 16:00 to 24:00, including 19:00 to 24:00 on TDM, In-bound This is a survey of customers on the line. We received cooperation from 1,138 people. When asked if they knew TDM, 54% answered “I know”. It was about 50% on New Year's Day, so I think that the degree of recognition is getting higher. However, it was the result that half did not know yet.
After that, in response to the question of what we got to know about the information acquisition medium, TV news, banners, and Internet advertisements were followed, but especially in TV news, NHK and Fuji TV in the morning news TDM As a result, 20% of people got to know on TV this time.
Next, it is a time change of discount users, but in response to the question whether the usage time was changed from 19:00 to 24:00 which is the discount time zone from the originally scheduled time zone, it was said that it was changed That means that only 18%. In the New Year, I received the answer that it was changed from half, but according to other questions, there are more leisure people during Golden Week, and there are many people who return after staying at sightseeing and leisure. That was 45%, but there were many respondents saying that it was difficult to change the time because there were 40% of those who went on a day trip. That's why in the case of Golden Week, only 18% of people changed their time.
After that, 62% were more effective for the question of what do you think of effectiveness, and the result was that there were few people who felt effectiveness from 83% of the New Year, but the majority exceeded It is.
However, 94% of people are more interested in the level of interest, and in response to the question of whether they want to use it in the future when such a discount is applied, This means that 98% of the people who use it have come together.
And based on the questionnaire result that the time was changed by 18%, the traffic jam result estimated when TDM was not conducted and the actual traffic jam result were compared. It is estimated that there was an effect of reducing the traffic jam loss amount of about 90 million yen when converted into the amount. As mentioned above, although it was simple, it was a preliminary result of the Tomei GW night half price discount.

(Moderator)

If you have any questions, thank you.

(Reporter)

Regarding the Second Tomei Leading Project Promotion Committee, it is to listen to the opinions of those with academic background, but what kind of person will be included?

(Chairman)

I haven't decided yet, so I can't say to anyone, but I would like to ask someone with a wide range of insights, including road infrastructure and environmental issues.

(Reporter)

Isn't it decided yet about the examination of the road traffic system using Japanese advanced technology?

(Chairman)

Yeah, you are right. I want to create a team with outside academic experts and experts in the “Next Generation Road Traffic System Subcommittee” in the document, and I am currently thinking about various candidates. . I will announce it as soon as it is decided.

(Reporter)

About TDM. I think it was called “1 win, 1 loss, 1 division” at the beginning of the year, but what is the expression of this result? Another thing is that gasoline prices are starting to rise. I don't know the future trend, but things like last summer may happen. Is there anything that has been improved since last year regarding gasoline pricing in this year's SA?

(Chairman)

Yoshikawa for the first question Regional Head Office From the long.

(Regional Head Office length)

This Golden Week TDM was held for 9 days. Our evaluation is “2 wins, 2 losses, 5 draws”. Unfortunately I couldn't win over.

(Chairman)

Winter is “1 win, 1 loss, 1 draw”. Next time I want to win. And then, the second gasoline price, but there are various reasons why the summer phenomenon last year happened, In-bound Of course there is a tendency to be in condition, but I think there was also a way to decide the price. Current Expressway The price of gasoline was the average value of one month ago at the stage one year ago. However, with the awareness that the difference would be too large, we changed the average value from one week before this March. Therefore, it has become more linked to price fluctuations in the market, so I don't think it will happen like last summer. Of course, a similar phenomenon may occur if the price increases rapidly in units of one week, but the price will catch up at least one week later, so I think the impact will be small. However In-bound At the moment Expressway There will be a tendency that the price of is cheaper. It is the opposite when the market price drops, but I think such a trend will remain.

(Reporter)

Regarding the highway green foster parents, are the 20 planned locations already planned by the company? Or will it end when it reaches 20 after collecting the hopes of the participants?

(Chairman)

The planned locations are 20 for the time being. Can you explain the detailed location from the Director of Public Relations Office?

(Moderator)

Currently, there are about 20 locations, so specifically, there are 8 locations within the jurisdiction of the Yokohama Regional Head Office: Isehara City, Kawasaki City, Matsuda Town, Ashigarakami District, Higashitanaka in Gotemba City, Fuji City, Shizuoka City Shimizu Ward, Makinohara City, and Kikugawa City. .. One location within the jurisdiction of the Hachioji Regional Head Office is Otsuki City, Yamanashi Prefecture. There are eight Nagoya Regional Head Office: Shinshiro City, Okazaki City, Ampachi Town, Gifu Prefecture, Maibara City, Shiga Prefecture, Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, Shirotoricho, Gifu Prefecture, Kanie Town, Ama District, Aichi Prefecture, and Tsu City, Mie Prefecture. .. And we are planning one place in the jurisdiction of Kanazawa Regional Head Office, Oyabe city, Toyama prefecture. I will explain more details later.

(Reporter)

Regarding the green foster parents, how big are the 20 locations this time? Whether these 20 locations have been greened as a company so far. Does it mean that you provide greenery by providing a place that is not green? If possible, please tell us how much you are expected to pay in these 20 locations, or if you expect to reduce costs by leaving it to others.

(Moderator)

Standard As a matter of fact, we want to provide a large company with a scale of 200 square meters or more. In the case of school students, we are planning to provide a parcel of about 20 square meters in one place.
Although it is the present situation of these districts, as distributed in the press release materials in general, the forestation and greening of the slope is being worked on even in the JH era and then in NEXCO Central Japan. . There are 20 different locations to be provided, so we will provide them with mowing and leveling according to them.
In terms of costs, it is a recent effort, so we have not prepared a specific total cost. We will be able to answer you after compiling in the public relations later.

(Chairman)

Until now, I have been working with volunteers individually. This time, I think the biggest difference is that it is organized. I mentioned Denso's example earlier. In the case of Denso, it is about 1,000 square meters.
As for the cost, it is our own burden to provide compost or flowers, but I am not at all willing to reduce the cost of the entire company by proceeding with this project. Rather, as a part of the city, there is a greater focus on what is called environmental measures, where everyone works together to make it clean. In addition, we would like to let you know if you have any requests regarding the various data, etc., as stated by the Director of the Public Relations Office.

(Reporter)

I would like to ask you about TDM. What is the impact on the profit side of discounts and whether you will continue to focus on the effect of reducing congestion?

(Regional Head Office length)

We are not sure about TDM, but we will continue to do so in the future. In Japan, there are three major movements a year, but I'd like to do my best so that it can be realized at New Year's, Golden Week, Obon, and the next Bon Festival.
And in terms of revenue, there is a discount even in the survey results during Golden Week. Expressway The person who used was 3%. Although it is not profitable because it is a 5 discount, I would like to aim to eliminate congestion as a customer service.

(Moderator)

If there are no other specific questions, today's regular press conference will end. Thank you very much.

(Chairman)

Thank you very much.