Toll operators have agreed to conduct joint testing for the interoperability of their systems to make travel easier for motorists and commuters as soon as possible.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) today (December 7, 2020) announced that the SMC TPLEX Corp. (SMCTC), the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), and the NLEX Corp. (NLEX) have agreed to conduct testing for the interoperability of their systems last Friday, December 4, 2020.
The toll operators and concessionaires signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) to jointly test the use of AutoSweep and EasyTrip radio frequency identification (RFID) cashless toll payments for the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) and on the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), and to determine the Read Rate Percentage.
SMCTC, a subsidiary of the San Miguel Holdings Corporation (SMHC), and the concessionaire and the operator of the TPLEX, uses the AutoSweep RFID tag.
On the other hand, the MPTC, the investment holding company of the NLEX Corp. (operator of the NLEX and SCTEX), uses the EasyTrip RFID tag for its electronic toll collection.
Under the MOA, a steering committee will be created to implement and monitor the Parties’ compliance with the agreement.
An AutoSweep RFID sticker will be activated using an EasyTrip account, and an EasyTrip RFID sticker will be activated using an AutoSweep account.
The test will involve 45 vehicles, composed equally of the different vehicle classifications.
The test is part of DOTr's ongoing campaign, through the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), to implement a policy of toll interoperability for seamless travel along toll roads.
The interoperability testing will be conducted for 14 consecutive days.
After the test, the participants will submit their test transaction reports and dashcam video recordings to the steering committee for validation and assessment.
The steering committee is given five days, from the complete submission of the data collected, to determine the read rate percentage or the system's performance indicator when comparing RFID infrastructure.
The Toll Collection Interoperability project was launched in 2017 with the signing of a MOA between the toll operators and concessionaires where they agreed to "timely, smoothly, and fairly implement the interoperability of the electronic toll collection (ETC) systems."
“We are grateful to our private partners who have demonstrated their support in this project," DOTr Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade remarked.
"We need their assistance to fast-track the necessary measures to fully implement toll interoperability. We can't do this alone," he added.