The government has been pushing for tollways to shift to cashless for several years now. One of the biggest problems that reluctant motorists have had for a while, however, is the fact that you have to maintain two different accounts for the different expressways.
That might change soon, though, as the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) is reportedly preparing to roll out the unified RFID wallet for all tollways.
“Para doon sa mga gumagamit ng tollways, meron na lang silang isang account, tapos isang RFID tag na nakakabit sa vehicle mo,” TRB executive director Alvin Carullo recently told the press.
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According to a separate report by PhilStar.com, the TRB will initiate a dry run for the RFID interoperability on January 10. Full implementation, meanwhile, is targeted for July this year.
The TRB is also pushing to have all toll plazas shift to fully cashless transactions by June. This includes all toll roads operated by both San Miguel (SMC) and Metro Pacific Tollways (MPTC).
There’s still half a year to go before we see the initial rollout of the unified electronic wallet. If previous events are anything to go by, we can manage our expectations as early as now and anticipate some birthing pains come July. Here’s hoping things will run smoothly, though, because maintaining a single RFID account for all expressways will really lessen the hassle—not to mention the confusion on which RFID to use for which tollway—for all motorists.
