Cashless, contactless transactions in tollways required soon

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) will soon require tollway users to engage in cashless or contactless transactions “to further protect the public from the infectious coronavirus disease.”

In Department Order 2020-012 signed on Aug. 13, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade ordered concerned agencies to formulate new processes and procedures within three months to ensure the smooth implementation of the new policy.

The Toll Regulatory Board was ordered to promulgate rules and regulations requiring concessionaires and operators of toll expressways to fully transition to an electronic toll collection system while the Land Transportation Office, for its part, was ordered to submit a study exploring ways and means to allow a full cashless and contactless system along expressways.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board was directed to monitor the compliance of all public utility vehicles on the mandatory use or installation of electronic tags or use of other cashless systems in their units.

“We carry with us the burden of ensuring that our transport facilities will not be a transmission vector of the disease while at the same time providing an efficient system of public transport. With both tasks at hand, there is a need to strike a balance. Requiring contactless transactions is one of our ways of doing it,” Tugade said.

“And in achieving the balance, we understand that it will not be easy at first. If there will be initial inconveniences, let us look forward to the long-term benefit of it,” he added.

The DOTr said the shift to cashless transactions would complement the government’s other health protocols, such as physical distancing, as it aims to limit human intervention and remove traffic queuing and congestion at toll plazas.

Contactless transactions would be implemented in the South Luzon Expressway, Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway, North Luzon Expressway, South Metro Manila Skyway, Southern Tagalog Arterial Road Tollway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, and Cavite-Laguna Expressway.

The agency said it would also be enforced on all other road networks, including any extension of the existing expressway facilities mentioned that might be constructed, established and/or operated as expressway toll facilities.

Last June, Tugade urged all stakeholders in the toll collection interoperability agreement to fast-track the necessary measures to fully implement the scheme for the benefit of motorists and commuters.

A toll collection interoperability project was launched in 2017 with the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the DOTr, Department of Public Works and Highways, Land Transportation Office, Toll Regulatory Board, San Miguel Group, Metro Pacific Group and the Ayala Group.

Under the agreement, the toll road companies are required to make adjustments in their systems to enable interoperability and an integrated toll collection.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and San Miguel Corp. have expressed support to the DOTr and its initiative of unifying toll collection across all expressways. – Ralph Edwin Villanueva