MANILA - Operators of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) on Thursday explained why there were technical glitches in its radio frequency identification (RFID) stickers, an issue that has led to the suspension of the concessionaire’s permit to operate in Valenzuela City earlier this month .
NLEX has been issuing RFID stickers from different brands, North Luzon Expressway Corp (NLEX) President Luigi Bautista said in a Senate hearing, when asked to explain.
“Right now it’s different. [May] 3M from the US, there is a STAR from Malaysia. . . “Our scanner is from Malaysia,” he said.
When asked why the RFID stickers came from different providers, Bautista said: “We are trying to meet the supply to meet the demand.”
The Department of Transportation earlier required expressway operators to implement a 100-percent cashless transaction system by December to avoid the spread of COVID-19 at toll plazas.
The directive forced concessionnaires to rush the rollout of the cashless system, even if it was “not yet ready,” Senate Committee on Public Services chair Grace Poe had said.
SCANNER WATTAGE
NLEX is also studying whether doubling the current wattage of its RFID scanners would fix complaints that toll stickers were “unreadable,” Bautista said.
NLEX’s RFID scanners currently work at 4 watts, and the company needs the approval of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) before it could increase that to 8, he added.
“Ongoing po ‘yung [wattage] That’s a test. By the end of this month, there will be results, “Bautista said.
“If the result is good, we will implement it.”
While the wattage hike has yet to be implemented, NLEX is deploying personnel with “handheld RFID sticker readers” to speed up cashless transactions in lanes where the scanner could not read a sticker, he said.
SYSTEM CAPACITY
A deluge of RFID users also bogged down NLEX’s online registration system, which delayed the registration and installation process of RFID stickers, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. president Rodrigo Franco said.
“Some of the problems were due to… The heavy volume of transactions,” he said.
Franco called the glitches in the registration process “birth pains,” saying “improvements have been made to make the experience more pleasant.”
“We’ve done some adjustments already. The other database is offloaded,” he added.
“In other words, we freed up capacity so the accessibility of the website and the app is now a lot better.”
MANPOWER
Poe noted that NLEX might need to increase either its lanes or manpower at toll plazas.
NLEX has 715 workers for its 377 toll booths, but San Miguel Corp., which operates the South Luzon Expressway, employs at least 2,000 people for 369 toll lanes, Poe said, citing data from the 2 concessionaires.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, who was also present at the Senate hearing, said concessionaires must also mount RFID installation sites in more accessible open spaces for motorists.
“The stickering and reloading should be done somewhere, at the gas stations, but not there [sa toll plaza]… because that space will be eaten and eaten, “he said.
(The installation of stickers and reloading should be done somewhere, like in gasoline stations, somewhere that is not in the toll plaza because it will just eat up space.)
Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian earlier suspended the business permit of NLEX’s concessionaire after long queues at its toll booths in the city jammed traffic.
Senators have been urging toll operators to implement a system wherein vehicles no longer have to wait for barriers to be lifted before passing through.
“I do not believe that is not possible. That technology is already being used abroad. That is not new and there is a way,” Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Rex’s brother, said.
(I do not believe it could not be done. That technology is already being implemented in other countries. It’s not new and there are ways to do that.)
“We pay toll and we do not pay cheaply… Let’s use the latest technology.”
(We are paying toll fees that aren’t cheap… Let’s use the most advanced technology.)
Poe backed Gatchalian’s proposal, saying concessionaires should be required to adapt more modern toll systems to “motivate” them to “avoid losing money with their inferior [RFID] readers. “
“Obviously, if they want to make money their machines must be in order,” she said.
(Obviously, if they want to earn, they must have good machines.)
“They can no longer use the old machines, their system is flawed, but they will still make money.”
(We can’t allow them to use outdated equipment, faulty systems, and yet continue earning.)