A CONGRESS leader on Monday urged the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) to penalize tollway operators for their defective readers of radio frequency identification (RFID) stickers which cause traffic congestions.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte issued the proposal in light of a Department of Transportation (DOTr) decision to lift the imposition of penalties on expressway motorists whose vehicles have no RFID tags or with RFID devices that have zero or insufficient funds when passing through the highways.
Villafuerte said that in lieu of just a month-long postponement of the new rules on RFID violations as ordered by DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista, “the DOTr would do better to keep the planned fines in the freezer until such time that the tollway operators are able to fix their electronic toll collection (ETC) systems to put an end to defective or unreadable RFID stickers that inconvenience travelers and lead to long vehicle queues at expressway toll plazas.”
“Before the Secretary’s suspension order, the TRB was raring to penalize motorists whose vehicles have no RFID stickers or whose ETC devices have zero or insufficient loads,” Villafuerte stressed.
“But what appropriate punitive action, if any, has the TRB taken or plans to impose against tollway operators for keeping devices that cannot read their own stickers or the actual RFID loads?” he inquired.
“While it is true that motorists whose vehicles have no RFIDs or whose stickers have zero or insufficient balances lead to long queues at the toll plazas, another—and bigger—problem likewise responsible for traffic congestion on these tollways is the nagging complaint by travelers about RFID stickers that are defective or unreadable, forcing travelers to retrieve and present their toll account e-cards before the staffers manning the expressway booths,” Villafuerte said.
The time it takes for travelers to present their toll e-cards to booth operators for the latter to do a manual reading of their RFID stickers leads to long queues, especially during peak periods like weekends or holidays, causing traffic jams on the expressways, he said.
“Hence, I am appealing to the DOTr, TRB and LTO (Land Transportation Office) to suspend indefinitely their planned imposition of penalties against errant motorists whose vehicles have no RFIDs or whose ETC stickers have insufficient or zero loads, until toll operators are able to fix the problem of unreadable or defective RFID stickers,” he said.
“It does not seem fair for transport authorities to start zealously running after expressway motorists guilty of RFID violations that inconvenience their fellow travelers, while allowing the tollway operators to continue getting off scot-free with their defective stickers that are similarly responsible for the long queues and traffic jams on our toll roads,” he added.
The TRB was supposed to implement beginning last Aug. 31 the penalties against motorists who pass through the expressways without RFID devices or with stickers having zero or insufficient load balances.
Under Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2024-001 signed last Aug. 1 by Bautista with TRB executive director Alvin Carullo and LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II, motorists whose vehicles have no ETC devices on the headlights or windshields were to be fined P500 for the first violation, P1,000 for the second infraction, and P5,000 for the third and subsequent offenses, beginning Aug. 31.
