Expressway traffic flow improvements delayed for motorists
Motorists using expressways will need to wait until October 2024 to experience the full convenience of electronic toll collection (ETC) interoperability.
The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) has postponed the initial target of July due to ongoing system preparations.
“The TRB, in coordination with the DOTr, DPWH, the Tollway Concessionaires/Operators, are still in the process of preparing all the toll systems which are included in the said program,” Alvin Carullo, executive director of TRB told the Manila Standard.
“There are ongoing testing and system audits, as well as alignment of business rules and policies being undertaken as part of the Program’s preparatory works,” he added.
Carullo said the implementation of the Interoperability Phase 3 is initially scheduled in July 2024 but maybe moved to October 2024 at the latest, due to the aforesaid reasons,”
The toll collection interoperability project was launched in 2017 with the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Department of Transportation, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Land Transportation Office, TRB, San Miguel Group, Metro Pacific Group and the Ayala Group.
The agreement states that the toll road companies are required to make adjustments in their systems to enable interoperability and an integrated toll collection.
According to Carullo, the average penetration rate of ETC transaction across all tollways is at 90 percent.
He added that the Toll Collection System Interoperability Project is designed to provide motorists the ease and convenience of maintaining only one RFID sticker and one account/wallet.
“The RFID/ETC subscribers will only reload one account which is more economical and convenient,” he said, adding that there would be no additional fees for using a single account across multiple toll systems.
San Miguel Corp., which operates Skyway, South Luzon Expressway, STAR Tollway and NAIAx, uses AutoSweep RFID tag, while Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., which operates Manila Cavite Expressway, C5 Link Expressway and Cavite Laguna Expressway, uses EasyTrip RFID tag for electronic toll collection.
The Toll Collection System Interoperability Project is one of the three technology-driven programs that will be implemented by TRB to help improve the traffic flow on expressways,” Carullo said.
“Upon project roll out, it will enable motorists to seamlessly traverse all tollways, hence, improve traffic flow,” he added.
Data showed that as of September 2023, the average daily traffic along NLEX reached 321,384 vehicle entries, while the average daily traffic along SCTEX reached 77,878 vehicle entries.
The average daily traffic for the Connector Road Section 1 reached 12,000 vehicles per day, while SLEX had 351,274 average daily traffic.