Dry run for cashless toll payment starts September 1, TRB says

The contactless toll collection initiative penned by the Department of Transportation (DOT) is back. So to prepare for that, the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) has ordered tollway operators to conduct a two-month dry run for the contactless program which will start on September 1, 2023. 

Attention motorists, better have your RFID's loaded up and ready by Sept. 1, 2023

According to the TRB, the dry run will happen on selected qualified toll plazas. The agency’s Toll Collection auditing team has already deemed that 717 out of 852 toll lanes are already ready for contactless toll collection. 

If one remembers, the contactless toll initiative was first introduced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to help stop the spreading of the virus. It was, however, met with some backlash from motorists due to numerous reported bugs and errors the tollway’s RFID systems were suffering at the time. 

Now, the agency says 84 percent of toll lanes are ready for doing away with cash transactions. These have already passed the TRB audit team’s qualifications for a working cashless tollway which includes an RFID readability rate of 98 percent, appropriate charging of toll fees, updating of balance information, toll fare indication during lane passage, etc. 

TRB says that most of the RFID bugs have been ironed out 

Note that toll plazas joining the dry run will be joined by other toll plazas as the dry-run period goes on. The first batch listed below meanwhile, will have signages and banners notifying motorists of the cashless dry run. 

For your reference, here’s a list of all the toll plazas which will participate in the contactless toll collection dry run: 

For more car news and automotive industry updates, keep it here on Philkotse.