By Ashley Erika O. Jose, Reporter
THE TOLL Regulatory Board (TRB) expects the simultaneous implementation of the cashless and unified toll collection system within the year despite the Transportation department’s move to postpone the full cashless toll operation at major expressways.
“Actually, I am hopeful that we can implement cashless or contactless within the year. If not, then we will simultaneously implement cashless together with interoperability,” TRB Executive Director Alvin A. Carullo told reporters on the sidelines of the NLEX-C5 Northlink groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday.
Mr. Carullo said the TRB is also targeting the implementation of interoperability among electronic toll wallet systems within the year.
The implementation of a full cashless or contactless system is subject to further review, Mr. Carullo said, adding that the Department of Transportation (DoTr) is now studying the present situation of the toll expressway, particularly account management and radio-frequency identification (RFID) issues.
Last month, the Transportation department ordered the suspension of the full cashless collection implementation across all tollways, which was scheduled to take effect on March 15.
This is the third time the planned implementation has been postponed. Fines for motorists passing through expressways without RFID tags, under Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2024-001, were supposed to be enforced starting Oct. 1 last year.
However, the Transportation department deferred the implementation to 2025 to give tollway operators and concerned agencies time to fine-tune their operations.
The agency is now preparing its position paper for the DoTr’s review, Mr. Carullo said, adding that the TRB has recently conducted an account management audit for both tollway operators.
The suspension of full cashless toll collection would also allow the agency to assess loopholes before its eventual implementation.
“So, until and unless there’s an explicit or categorical finding that all those issues are resolved, then we can implement,” Mr. Carullo said.
Toll operators are working to resolve issues such as real-time charging and account management, Mr. Carullo said, noting that the minimum performance specification standard (MPSS) for toll concessionaires is being strictly implemented.
Further, Mr. Carullo said toll operators remain compliant with the readability rate for cashless toll collection.
“Surprisingly, they are compliant with the readability. We are looking at the problem as really the RFID itself, not the reader. Some RFIDs are defective due to wear and tear. Defective RFIDs should be replaced,” he said.
For the planned interoperability, the TRB is set to conduct proof-of-concept testing by August or September.
“Hopefully, we will do a dry run for one or two months. Then we will implement the interoperability,” Mr. Carullo said.
“Interoperability was possible a long time ago. And it is not incompatible with having one cash lane,” Rene S. Santiago, former president of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines, said in a Viber message.
For Nigel Paul C. Villarete, senior adviser on public-private partnership (PPP) at Libra Konsult, Inc., system and technological upgrades at expressways are always a welcome development.
“I fully support this system’s upgrade as it facilitates faster trips through tollways, accruing huge economic savings from both time savings and vehicle operating cost savings, not to mention the convenience of commuters,” Mr. Villarete said.
To recall, tollway operators Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) and San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said they welcome the decision to reassess the implementation of cashless toll collection but emphasized that its full adoption is necessary to enable interoperability among toll wallet systems.
