Tollways going full cashless on March 15

MANILA, Philippines — Motorists must install a radio frequency identification (RFID) sticker on their vehicles to pass through tollways starting March 15, in line with the government’s policy to transition to cashless payments, the Toll Regulatory Board announced yesterday. The TRB said it would enforce cashless toll collection across expressways beginning next month, requiring motorists to affix an RFID sticker on their vehicles.

Vehicles without a valid RFID sticker will be permitted to enter a toll plaza on the condition that a sticker will be installed.

However, they will be issued a temporary operator’s permit or a show cause order for violating the RFID policy.

The Land Transportation Office, through its deputized personnel on tollways, will impose corresponding penalties on non-compliant motorists.

The TRB said it decided to proceed with the cashless shift to ensure contactless toll payments. The agency believes that transitioning to full RFID will help prevent long queues at toll plazas.

“It is expected that a better and more efficient traffic flow will result once these lanes are strictly used for electronic toll collection only,” TRB said.

With the deadline a month away, the TRB urged motorists to comply with its policy by securing an RFID sticker at installation and loading stations inside and outside tollways.

Toll operators, particularly Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) and San Miguel Corp. (SMC), expressed their support for the directive mandating full cashless transactions across expressways.

Citing data from the TRB, the concessionaires said 97 percent of tollway users have already obtained an RFID sticker for toll payment. As such, they urged the remaining three percent to switch to RFID as soon as possible to avoid incurring penalties.

In 2024, the TRB, under the Department of Transportation, issued Joint Memorandum Circular 2024-01 requiring all motorists to adopt cashless payment of tolls. However, the agency had to put the circular on hold due to issues troubling tollways.

For instance, legislators pointed out that some toll plazas fail to read RFID stickers, as reported by motorists, questioning why penalties should be imposed if the system is not yet fully reliable.

Since then, toll operators have invested in upgrading their RFID scanners to ensure full readability, as instructed by the TRB.