Secretary Jaime J. Bautista of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is deferring implementation of the revised guidelines on toll expressways to October 1, 2024.
The revised guidelines, contained in Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) no. 2024-01 was signed last August 1 by Sec. Bautista, Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II of the Land Transportation Office - Philippines (LTO), and Executive Director Alvin Carullo of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB). It was originally for implementation on August 31, 2024 after its publication in a major newspaper.
“We hope the concerned agencies and tollway operators would use the 30-day deferment to finetune expressway operations and further intensify the public information campaign to enable tollway users to comply with the new guidelines,” said Sec. Bautista.
Apart from updating the responsibilities of LTO, TRB, DOTr, tollway concessionaires and users, the JMC also imposes the penalties for lack of installed electronic toll collection (ETC) device or insufficient load balance of the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID), as well as strengthens the deputization by LTO of tollway enforcers of the two groups of tollway operators, among others.
“These revised guidelines should significantly improve traffic along expressways through cashless or contactless toll plazas,” added Sec. Bautista.
In 2021, TRB moved closer to cashless expressways by designating only one exit lane for cash transactions at toll plazas (all other lanes for ETC) in compliance to a Department Order of DOTr.
The transport chief is soliciting the support of tollway users by complying with provisions of the JMC that covers expressways under TRB’s jurisdiction.
“We hope the concerned agencies and tollway operators would use the 30-day deferment to finetune expressway operations and further intensify the public information campaign to enable tollway users to comply with the new guidelines,” said Sec. Bautista.
Apart from updating the responsibilities of LTO, TRB, DOTr, tollway concessionaires and users, the JMC also imposes the penalties for lack of installed electronic toll collection (ETC) device or insufficient load balance of the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID), as well as strengthens the deputization by LTO of tollway enforcers of the two groups of tollway operators, among others.
“These revised guidelines should significantly improve traffic along expressways through cashless or contactless toll plazas,” added Sec. Bautista.
In 2021, TRB moved closer to cashless expressways by designating only one exit lane for cash transactions at toll plazas (all other lanes for ETC) in compliance to a Department Order of DOTr.
The transport chief is soliciting the support of tollway users by complying with provisions of the JMC that covers expressways under TRB’s jurisdiction.
stupid.. just plain 'ol stupidity from the Philippine government..
ReplyDeleteTrue and true someone in the government is making money
Deletethis is good. but hopefully, the interoperability will also gain traction and will be implemented soon
ReplyDeleteThe government nor the expressway operators do NOT have the power to force everyone to use RFID. They should still maintain at least one cash lane.
ReplyDeleteImprove the RFID system to benefit those who use the expressway daily. Leave the cash lane for those who rarely use the expressway.
That's where you're wrong. They government already has the power to compell you to get a licence, plate number, sticker, registration etc to use any road. What's stopping them from adding RFIDs to the list?
DeleteThere is no assurance that Cash lane will be used ONLY by rare users of the tollway. There are moderate to heavy users who don't want to get an RFID and will continue to use (or abuse) the same Cash lane. Hence resulting to long queues as we have today.
DeleteAlso, some toll gates only have 3 lanes. Study showed that the Cash lane causes the long queues particularly during rush hours, affecting the other lanes along the toll road mostly due to vehicles changing/merging into the Cash lane.
Other sources of clogging are lack of available balance and the inability to read RFIDs.
There is still a lot to be improved!
All of our vehicles have RFIDs, but in our experience, one of the main causes of traffic and bottleneck is not that the vehicles have no RFIDs, but that the RFID system is weak. We have to literally always look for the white plate sensor that detects your sticker, make sure our car stops at that exact point, and wait for 2-3 seconds, sometimes more, for the detection of our RFID sticker before moving forward. If we make a mistake of overshooting just a bit from this white plate, it fails to detect our RFID and now we have to open our windows and manually tag using our RFID cards with their operators.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we have replaced our RFIDs several times already. With their new stickers, they require these to be placed inside your windshield, as opposed to the headlights before, but the problem is, inside the windshield, detection is weaker which I believe can be attributed to tints, especially those that are lead based tints.
It is not uncommon to see cars going forward and backwards again because they overshot the sensor and the tailgate didn't open. It's such an inefficient system.
You are correct. The number one problem is the rfid. Stop blaming the cash lane for the traffic jam.
ReplyDelete