Do motorists need to pay for a new RFID once the toll board's single system takes effect in July?
What would happen to car owners with existing RFIDs when the toll board implements its single system in the second half of the year?
Motorists are currently using two different radio frequency identification (RFID) tags along the country’s toll expressways since there are two different operators: San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC).
The former uses AutoSweep, while the latter uses EasyTrip.
But starting July, only one RFID tag would be needed for any expressway.
Do motorists need to get a new RFID that works with both AutoSweep and EasyTrip? The long and the short of it: No.
“There's no need to get another RFID,” Alvin Carullo, Toll Regulatory Board executive director, told PhilSTAR L!fe. “The motorists will just choose which RFID account to maintain.”
As it stands, SMC is in charge of the following:
- South Luzon Expressway
- Southern Tagalog Arterial Road Tollway
- Skyway
- Skyway Stage 3
- Tarlac Pangasinan La Union Expressway
- Muntinlupa Cavite Expressway
- Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway
The MPTC, meanwhile, operates the following:
- North Luzon Expressway
- NLEX Harbor Link
- Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway
- Cavite Laguna Expressway
- C5 Link
- Cavite Expressway
The RFID implementation is a means of making tollway transactions cashless in a bid to shorten queues on the tollway plazas.
Carullo earlier said test runs have been done this week.
Once the new RFID system takes effect, motorists may use AutoSweep or EasyTrip on any expressway mentioned.
RFID registration is free and can be done online.