By the end of this month, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) targets to operate 156 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) installation stations on its toll roads, from South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), Skyway, NAIA Expressway to the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).

SMC opened 42 new stations in the last two weeks, in addition to the 53 stations it had as of November, bringing the current total to 95 stations.

More RFID stations means more motorists can easily migrate to the government-mandated electronic toll collection system.

“We’re on track to deliver on our promise to open 100 additional RFID stations," confirmed SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang.

"In fact, it will be a little more than that. Our bulk orders of RFID tags from abroad have been arriving as scheduled, so we’ve also been able to open more stations—42 new ones as of last count. An additional 61 outlets, mostly off-site, are in process and we will open all of these by end of December,” he added.

Todate, most of the active stations are located at STAR, SLEX, Skyway, NAIAx, and TPLEX, with others located at gas stations, customer service centers, and transport terminals.

However, all of the 61 remaining outlets to be opened will be located outside the expressways to provide convenience to more motorists, especially non-frequent users of SMC’s expressways, Ang explained.

These include new installation stations at more gas stations, transport terminals, malls, home builder complexes, local government offices, Land Transportion Office (LTO) facilities, churches and major arenas.

These are on top of its Autosweep RFID caravan program, where wing vans will be deployed to barangays and villages to conduct stickering activities.

“We hear the clamor from the public to make RFID installation even more accessible," he noted. "We hope that these efforts will make it easier for more people to avail of free RFID stickers."

Apart from increasing the number of installation stations, the company will also maintain one cash lane per toll plaza, so vehicles with no RFID stickers may still be allowed entry and given their Autosweep stickers.

This should prevent traffic congestion at its toll plazas.

Anyway, SMC’s Autosweep system, used in STAR, SLEX, Skyway, NAIAX, and TPLEX, has a 98% read rate and a detection range of up to five meters.

This results in faster and more reliable throughput at toll plazas.

The system is also equipped with “real-time” loading, which means that even if a motorist is only able to load shortly before entering the toll plaza, the load will be credited in real time, further minimizing delays and traffic congestion.

On December 1, the first day of implementation of fully cashless transactions, SMC reported no major traffic gridlocks at its expressways STAR, SLEX, SKWAY, NAIAX, and TPLEX.