TRB not giving up on plan to go cashless in 2025
The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) is working on reimplementing the cashless system within the year, in addition to finally enabling interoperability or use of a single e-wallet for toll payments in all expressways.
TRB Executive Director Alvin Carullo, on the sidelines of an event in Valenzuela on Tuesday, said the cashless toll collection was subject to further review, in response to the directive from newly minted Transportation Secretary Vivencio Dizon.
“We are preparing the position paper from TRB to [transportation] secretary for their review and evaluation,” he said.
On Feb. 21, Dizon said he had instructed TRB to postpone the implementation of the program, originally set to launch by March 15, to ensure first that all toll plazas are ready.
Carullo said the tollway operators need to iron out some issues with the account management system, noting that load in some accounts were not being charged real time.
However, he noted that both Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) and San Miguel Corp. (SMC) were compliant in terms of RFID (radio frequency identification) readability.
The TRB earlier said that toll plazas must have at least a 98-percent readability rate for all motorists passing through.
Readability refers to automatic detection of RFID stickers while account management deals with accurate charging of toll, crediting of load to accounts and updating of account balance information, among others.
As for interoperability, Carullo said they were set to conduct a proof-of-concept testing around August or September, which will be followed by a dry run of up to two months.
The current setup requires motorists to have RFID stickers of both tollway operators to make digital toll payments.
Motorists passing through SMC-owned expressways like Skyway and Southern Luzon Expressway will need an Autosweep account. A separate EasyTrip Services account is needed when using the tollways managed by MPTC, including the North Luzon Expressway and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
