MANILA – A lawmaker on Friday said the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) should look into penalizing tollway operators for their defective readers of radio frequency identification (RFID) stickers as these cause congestion.
In a statement, Camarines Sur 2nd District Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. said operators should fix their electronic toll collection systems before imposing penalties on motorists entering an access highway without RFID tags or insufficient funds in their accounts.
“What appropriate punitive action, if any, has the TRB taken or plans to impose against tollway operators for keeping devices that cannot read their own stickers or the actual RFID loads?" Villafuerte asked.
“While it is true that motorists whose vehicles have no RFIDs or whose stickers have zero or insufficient balances lead to long queues at the toll plazas, another -- and bigger -- problem likewise responsible for traffic congestion on these tollways is the nagging complaint by travelers about RFID stickers that are defective or unreadable, forcing travelers to retrieve and present their toll account e-cards before the staffers manning the expressway booths,” he added.
He urged the TRB, Department of Transportation (DOTr), and Land Transportation Office (LTO) to suspend indefinitely their planned imposition of penalties against errant motorists whose vehicles have no RFIDs or whose electronic toll collection (ETC) devices have insufficient or zero loads until toll operators are able to fix the problem of unreadable or defective RFID readers and stickers.
“It does not seem fair for transport authorities to start zealously running after expressway motorists guilty of RFID violations that inconvenience their fellow travelers, while allowing the tollway operators to continue getting off scot-free with their defective stickers that are similarly responsible for the long queues and traffic jams on our toll roads,” he said.
He noted that there have been numerous complaints from among the RFID-compliant motorists about their unreadable ETC devices that compel the toll booth staffers to do a manual reading of their e-cards, hence inconveniencing them and leading to long queues.
DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista has deferred the implementation of new tollway guidelines until Oct. 1 to allow toll operators to fine-tune their expressway operations.
“We hope the concerned agencies and tollway operators would use the 30-day deferment to fine-tune expressway operations and further intensify the public information campaign to enable tollway users to comply with the new guidelines,” he said.
Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2024-01, once implemented, would impose penalties for lack of installed ETC devices or insufficient load balance of the RFID, as well as strengthen the deputization by LTO of tollway enforcers.
Motorists who vehicles have no ETC devices on the headlights or windshields were to be fined PHP500 for the first violation; PHP1,000 for the second infraction; and PHP5,000 for the third and subsequent offenses.
Motorists whose vehicles have RFID tags but who are found leaving the toll roads with insufficient RFID loads were to be fined PHP500 for the first offense; PHP1,000 for the second one; and P2,500 for the third and succeeding violations.
Such RFID-related violations are meant “to achieve a smoother and faster flow of traffic at the toll plazas, thereby saving time, money and resources,” the TRB said. (PNA)
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