Philippine RFID Expressway Policy

City of Manila offers drive-thru RFID tags

In late 2020, the Manila city government offered drive-thru services for the installation of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as the central government aims to achieve a 100 percent cashless toll road payment scheme.

Manila Mayor Moreno said: "Through the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), the Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX) and the Cavite-Lake Vehicles on the expressway (CALAX) are required to install the so-called "easy on the road" radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which can be installed by the company in charge of the above-mentioned highway through the drive-thru service.

"This will reduce the long queues at the tollbooths of the above-mentioned roads," Moreno added.

Beginning on November 2, all lanes of highway toll stations will be converted to electronic toll collection systems.

More than 90% of Philippine toll roads are completed by RFID

In an online press conference on December 10, 2020, Assistant Secretary of Road Traffic and Infrastructure of the Philippine Department of Transportation Barstow and other transportation officials (including Xuan Xing, Senior Advisor of the Road Division of the Department of Transportation, and Hunia, member of the Toll Road Committee, said: Published a report by the Toll Road Regulatory Commission.

Since the implementation of cashless transactions on December 1, 2020, more than 90% of transactions on the Philippine domestic toll roads are completed by using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. At the meeting, Toll Road Regulatory Commission Executive Director Salles said that it was reported (as of December 8, 2020) that more than 370 RFID tags had been installed, compared to 1.4 million when the project began.

Driving into the RFID expressway for three violations can be fined 1,000 pesos

According to the announcement recently issued by the Philippine Highway Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), starting from May 15th, if a driver violates the regulations and enters the RFID/ETC cashless high-speed toll channel more than three times, he will be fined 1,000 pesos.

Julius Corpuz, spokesman of the Highway Toll Supervision Committee, explained that if the vehicle is not equipped with RFID or the RFID account balance is insufficient, the railings at the highspeed toll gate will not be automatically raised, which will also cause traffic congestion on the highway. He added the penalty was "a reasonable penalty and a warning" because motorway operators would only give motorists a verbal warning for the first two offences, and motorists could appeal the infringement ticket. The Philippine Department of Transportation (DOTr) said that before implementing the policy, the agency has instructed highway operators to ensure that their RFID cashless lanes are fully prepared.

The high-speed operator previously stated that the public must ensure that their RFID account has sufficient balance, and it is best to maintain the balance above 300 pesos to avoid inconvenience. In addition, the authorities also remind drivers not to get too close to the vehicle in front when entering or exiting the highway toll gate, otherwise the UHF RFID reading and writing equipment will not be able to recognize the RFID electronic tag normally.