The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Corporation has proposed at least 11 solutions to Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian to address his and the public's concerns about the "RFID fiasco," which eventually caused an "atrocious traffic situation" on its expressways.

In its response to Gatchalian on Thursday, NLEX president J. Luigi Bautista said in a letter that the company will "intensify regular calls to subscribers whose accounts are recorded as unreadable" as well as "intensify sticker replacement program and customer communication" to solve the issue of RFID stickers that easily wear out.

For sensors that cannot promptly read RFID stickers, NLEX also vowed to "install additional RFID antenna and handheld readers to speed up toll payments and traffic flow," deploy "RFID assistants and technicians at the Valenzuela toll plazas to address motorist concerns," engage a "third party expert to conduct a full-scale NLEX system audit and submit recommendations for RFID system improvements," and install "RFID card readers."

Meanwhile, as there are concerns on missing or untimely crediting of loads and bulk charging of toll fees, among others, the company proposed the following as solutions: "Subscriber notification on account balance and other subscription issues, through email, SMS/Viber and text blasts, as applicable, intensify communication and education campaign for motorists on account balance monitoring and reloading, improve coordination with merchant partners which have crediting/technical issues to ensure timely public notification, bayad centre online and on-air reloading."

NLEX told the Valenzuela City government that the implementation of the said solutions has already started. Some of them will be completed as early as December 11, while others during the first quarter of 2021.

Same proposal to Caloocan gov't

The solutions laid out by NLEX Corp. to the Valenzuela City government are the same solutions that the company laid out to the Caloocan City government, which faces the same problems at its Balintawak Toll Plaza.

This came after Mayor Oca Malapitan initiated a meeting with NLEX officials on Wednesday.

As there are about 24 toll booths in the city, Caloocan City government officials vowed that even they would “closely monitor the traffic situation... daily assess whether NLEX is complying with their commitments.”

'Lack details'

Asked for comment about NLEX's recent response, Gatchalian said, "the letter lacks details." However, he added that a "meeting will be set" with the company as the latter said they have "more details to show."

"Since it seems they have withdrawn on their initial TRO (temporary restraining order) statements, the city will gladly sit down with them to draw out those details they were saying," he said.

All toll booths of NLEX in Valenzuela City are currently on toll holiday after Gatchalian suspended the company's business permit in the city last Monday, December 7.

Gatchalian said that the company must first submit a "satisfactory" action plan to address the "RFID fiasco" before the local government lifts the suspension order.