DOTr defers new toll payment guideline implementation to Oct. 1

MANILA: The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has moved the implementation of the revised toll fee collection system to October 1.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said  that the deferment of the new guidelines to a latter date — scheduled to be implemented by the end of the month — is eyed to help toll operators intensify their respective information drives to ensure motorists’ compliance to it.

In addition, he also asked concerned firms and agencies to use the extended period to “finetune expressway operations.”

To recall, the updated guidelines as stated in the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) 2024-01 signed by Bautista, Land Transportation Office Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II, and Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) Executive Director Alvin Carullo was signed last August 1 and was already published in a major newspaper.

The said JMC imposes the penalties for lack of installed electronic toll collection (ETC) device or insufficient load balance and boosts the strengthens LTO’s deputization of enforcers of the two groups of tollway operators.

“These revised guidelines should significantly improve traffic along expressways through cashless or contactless toll plazas,” Bautista said.

In 2021, TRB moved closer to cashless expressways by designating only one exit lane for cash transactions at toll plazas (all other lanes for ETC).

Further, the statement said that the transport chief is “soliciting the support of tollway users by complying with provisions of the JMC that covers expressways under TRB’s jurisdiction.”

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