The government is still keen on pursuing the mandatory cashless toll collection system at all expressways in the country this year to avoid t the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The implementation of 100- percent cashless toll payment system was initially mandated in November 2020 and was moved twice, then eventually suspended indefinitely early last year by Department of Transportation (DOTr) due to opposition of Congress.
This has been deferred to allow more motorists, particularly non-regular users of tollways and those living in far-off provinces, ample time to install free radio frequency identification (RFID) stickers.
Alvin Carullo, TRB executive director, told Malaya Business Insight the implementation of the full cashless payment system is a must and should be mandated to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 and to achieve efficiency in toll operations.
Carullo said the TRB secretariat is poised to recommend to the board the implementation of the full cashless transaction in the second or third quarter of 2022.
TRB data showed there are 5.8 million RFID stickers installed to vehicles, of which 3.2 million are from Autosweep and 2.6 million from Easytrip users as of January 15, 2022, a significant improvement compared to 2020.
At present, TRB has two policies crafted to regulate the implementation of cashless payment in tollways — the three-strike policy as well as the minimum performance standards and specifications to make sure the system will run smoothly in accordance with the design standards.
Tollways operators San Miguel Corp., Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and Ayala Corp. continue to upgrade and improve their toll plazas to further expand the use of cashless payments.
The electronic toll collection (ETC) penetration rates per respective expressway have been declining since the government suspended the toll collection system, according to TRB data.
TRB said the penetration rate of ETC in 11 expressways in Metro Manila ranged between 68 and 90 percent in December 2020, but declined and between 63 to 82 percent as of end-December 2021.
Carullo said the significant decrease in the ETC penetration rate is attributed to the availability of cash lanes along the toll expressways brought by the lifting of the implementation of the full cashless payment system via the Department of Transportation Order No 2021-003.
Tollways systems that rolled out cashless payments include South Luzon Expressway, Skyway, NAIA Expressway, Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway, Southern Tagalog Aerial Road, Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Cavitex, C5 Link and Cavite-Laguna Expressway.
