MPTC promises hassle-free trips and toll transactions this Holy Week

MANILA: The Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) brings back its seasonal “Safe Trip Mo Sagot Ko” motorist assistance program this Holy Week. From March 28 to April 5, MPTC will deploy personnel on North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX), C-5 Link, and Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) to provide immediate assistance and ensure the security of motorists.

In a statement, MPTC President and Chief Executive Officer Rodrigo E. Franco said, “MPTC expressways are open 24/7 to ensure the unhampered movement of goods and the transit of people for essential travels. Our team is always available to readily assist our motorists and efficiently manage the traffic flow on our expressways.”

MPTC has been conducting the Sakay Mo Sagot Ko program for 12 years now, with the objective of ensuring safe and convenient trips during holiday seasons.

Around 1,000 patrol units, traffic marshals, toll collection personnel, and security teams are deployed at the NLEX-SCTEX in accordance with the motorist assistance program. MPTC has assigned special teams to perform emergency medical service, lane management, and incident response. Lane closures and mainline road works have also been suspended this Holy Week, except for necessary safety repairs.

From March 28 to April 5, the CAVITEX Customer Service Centers (Manila bound and Cavite bound), C-5 Link Flyover Customer Service Station (Merville service road), and CALAX Greenfield Customer Service Station (Mamplasan Exit) are open 24/7 for motorists’ inquiries and Easytrip RFID installation and reloading. These customer service stations also provide emergency medical services on-site 24/7 during the Holy Week.

MPT South President and General Manager Roberto V. Bontia stated, “We are anticipating a surge in the volume of vehicles that will pass through our toll roads from the peak hours of Holy Wednesday, March 31, until Monday, April 5. Our commuter volume is within the NCR+ Bubble namely Manila, Cavite, Laguna. Safety is our priority, and we will increase the deployment of traffic manpower on these dates to maintain ease of passage for motorists traversing our expressways. Also, we continue to remind our motorists to practice minimum health protocols such as wearing a mask inside their vehicles to avoid COVID-19 transmission.”

A total of 78 traffic operations personnel are fielded along MPT South’s toll roads. The company will also deploy additional RFID assist and ambulant tellers on cash lanes to prevent traffic congestion in toll plazas.

MPTC also offers free 24-hour towing service to the nearest exit for Class 1 vehicles on all its expressways. This will be available starting March 31 at 6:00 a.m. until April 5 at 6:00 a.m.

Aside from its Safe Trip Mo Sagot Ko program, MPTC has also made improvements in its RFID system to provide more convenience to motorists. MPTC has upgraded its infrastructure, network, mobile application, toll collection, and account management systems to prevent system issues since more motorists are expected to travel along the expressways this Holy Week break. With the current upgrade, data transmission between the toll collection and Easytrip system was shortened from 45 minutes to almost real-time. Motorists can now receive prompt updates in their lane transactions, account balances, and reloading through their RFID accounts.

MPTC is also set to launch an upgraded customer account management system that allows RFID subscribers to generate their own statement of account for monitoring and self-enroll in the automatic debit arrangement for easier reloading.

NLEX Corporation President and General Manager J. Luigi L. Bautista said, “All these initiatives are part of our commitment to continuously improve and satisfy the needs of our customers. To avoid long queues at the cash lanes, we are encouraging our motorists to have their RFID stickers installed before entering our expressways and make sure that their accounts have sufficient balance to cover their trips. There are many ways to reload the RFID and motorists may choose the option that suits them best, be it online or over-the-counter.”

MPTC has a total of 54 RFID installation sites in NLEX, SLEX, SCTEX, CAVITEX, C-5 Link, and CALAX including roadshow locations in Landers Balintawak, Ayala Malls Cloverleaf, and Shell Balintawak.  To see the full list of Easytrip RFID installation and roadshow sites, log on to the Easytrip website at www.easytrip.ph.

Currently, there are over 50,000 Easytrip reloading stations all over Luzon. MPTC has designated reloading lanes at toll plazas. Motorists may also reload their RFIDs at MPTC’s customer service centers, SM Business Center, Robinsons Business Center, 7-Eleven (Cliqq), Bayad Center, Cebuana Lhuillier, Villarica, USSC, Pera Hub, LBC, Smart Padala, TouchPay, ECPay, and Posbile stores.

MPTC also provides cashless reloading option via online partners such as Paymaya, Gcash, EON, Bayad Center App, Coins.ph, Justpay.to and thru bank partners including Metrobank, BDO, UCPB, and BPI (BancNet, Mastercard, and Visa).

For inquiries, motorists may contact the 24/7 customer service hotline at 1-35000 for NLEX-SCTEX and CALAX and 165-8888 for CAVITEX, or send a message through the social media pages of Easytrip, NLEX, CAVITEX, and CALAX.

Photo from Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation

Also read: Easytrip RFID now boasts 50,000 reloading stations