We’ve all had our fair share of our vehicle’s RFID tags not being read by the toll gate scanners, right? It really is a hassle, plus it leads to more congestion at the gates especially if the faulty tags and/or scanners affect more than just one vehicle. If Sen. Raffy Tulfo had his way, he would want the TRB to do the following in favor of the inconvenienced motorists.
Raffy Tulfo calls on TRB to implement the following in cases of RFID malfunctions
Instances of toll gate barriers not opening have been attributed to two factors, either the RFID tags are placed incorrectly or the scanners cannot read the tags because they are malfunctioning. In a bid to address this, Sen. Raffy Tulfo spoke to the Executive Director of Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) Atty. Alvin Carullo and gave some proposals.
According to the Senator, should an RFID reader malfunction and lead to a 3-car queue, the toll gate operators must open the barriers “in tollway entry points and make tolls free of charge until the issue is fixed”. The TRB is likewise being urged to begin implementing a barrier-less system in all the expressways. This is something that Carullo promised to discuss with the TRB Board for immediate action.
Another concern that Tulfo brought to the table, aside from the RFID woes, is the instances when motorists are unable to enter tollways because of a zero balance being read, despite loading enough credits into their accounts. The current “fix” is that motorists must again reload their RFIDs but would have to wait 48 hours or more for operators to refund the balance that did not reflect in their account.
That said, Tulfo wants bigger fines and penalties against toll operators when violations and inconveniences such as these are committed “against” motorists. He likewise added that operators must be required to refund RFID account owners within 24 hours, not as long as 48.
The TRB is being given until October 2024 to address these RFID-related issues; this deadline follows Carullo’s promise to Tulfo during their call. The backbone of it all is the fact that, according to the Senator, “motorists are paying expensive fees to save time and avoid any hassle and not the other way around”.
Senate Resolution (SR) No. 1060 was filed last July 2, 2024, by Sen. Tulfo to investigate the lapses of TRB and toll expressway operators, to hold them accountable. He is set to conduct a hearing regarding this matter after the Senate recess.
All in favor of toll-free expressway use should RFID readers and/or tags malfunction, raise your hands!
