THE Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) on Tuesday said it is working with the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) to set an “aligned timeline” for the full implementation of cashless transactions on tollways, aiming to alleviate queuing and traffic congestion.
“To date, our toll plazas undergoing the cashless dry run are already making the acceptable grade set by TRB,” Roberto V. Bontia, MPTC chief transformation officer, said in a Viber message.
This follows the TRB’s announcement of plans to transition to cashless payments by June or July this year.
The TRB aims to introduce a unified radio frequency identification (RFID) wallet system or interoperability between Easytrip and Autosweep by mid-year, with the trial set on Jan. 10.
Easytrip is used on MPTC’s North Luzon Expressway, Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway, Manila–Cavite Expressway, and Cavite–Laguna Expressway. Meanwhile, Autosweep is used on the San Miguel group’s Skyway, South Luzon Expressway, NAIA Expressway, Southern Tagalog Arterial Road Tollway, and Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway. Autosweep is also used on the Villar group’s Muntinlupa Cavite Expressway.
In the dry run, the TRB aims to tackle problems like encoding issues and RFID misreadings that may lead to double charging.
To recall, the TRB has instructed tollway concessionaires and operators to carry out a dry run of contactless toll collection at selected toll plazas from Sept. 1 until Dec. 31, 2023.
The dry run is intended to comply with a resolution passed by the House of Representatives for the re-implementation of contactless tolls.
The TRB said that the dry run has been extended because some toll companies are undergoing a system migration.
In 2020, the Transportation department issued an order requiring cashless transactions for all vehicles on toll expressways. However, due to numerous complaints and malfunctions in electronic toll collection systems, an addendum was issued, mandating cash lanes at all toll plazas.
MPTC is the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — A.E.O. Jose
