Shift to cashless toll done this year – TRB

MANILA, Philippines — The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) is hoping to convince the new transport chief to proceed with enforcing full cashless payments across all tollways this year to pave the way for interoperability.

TRB executive director Alvin Carullo yesterday said his agency is preparing briefing materials for Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon on where toll operators are right now on their cashless shift.

Carullo said going full cashless is necessary to achieve interoperability, where motorists can use whatever their radio frequency identification (RFID) in any expressway.

Currently, motorists have to load up both their Autosweep and Easytrip accounts to access all of the tollways in Luzon. Autosweep is for projects operated by San Miguel Corp., while Easytrip is for expressways managed by Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

Once interoperability is achieved, motorists can use either of the RFID providers for travel to any of the tollways. For the TRB, interoperability is essential to reducing friction costs for motorists, as they no longer have to maintain a load balance for both Autosweep and Easytrip.

Carullo said the TRB would do the final round of proof of concept testing for interoperability by August or September, with the trial scheduled to last for two months.

By then, Carullo is hoping that the TRB has convinced Dizon to lift his suspension on the policy requiring cashless payment for toll.

“Hopefully, within the year, we can implement both contactless and interoperability (systems),” Carullo said.

Shifting to full cashless is necessary to attain interoperability, particularly in dividing the revenue of the concessionaires. Further, the TRB is adamant that traffic congestion in toll plazas is almost always caused by queues in the cash lanes.

Initially, the TRB had scheduled the start of cashless collection on March 15, which would have penalized motorists entering tollways without an RFID. However, Dizon recalled the policy until further notice in his first week as transport chief.