New toll payment guideline deferred to 2025

MANILA: The implementation of new tollway rules under Joint Memorandum Circular 2024-001 has been deferred to early next year.

Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista said in a press briefing that the supposed employment of the new rules — which includes penalizing those with defective radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and insufficient credits — will commence by January.

To recall, the rules were supposed to be implemented last August 31 but was moved to October 1.

“We are collating inputs from recent consultation meetings with various tollway stakeholders including information and profile of violators. This information will be used to make any amendments to the Joint Memorandum Circular,” Bautista noted.

However, the transportation chief emphasized the need for continuous fine-tuning of tollway operations to achieve the ultimate goal of having seamless expressways. “Let us not lose sight of the goal: convenient and traffic-less travels at all expressways using cashless toll exits,” he added.

For his part, Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) Executive Director Alvin Carullo stated that the deferment will continue until the operational system issues are resolved.

“Pag-aaralan po namin kung sa dumating ang January natin talagang hindi pa rin nakakamit nila ‘yung tinatawag natin na efficiency ng ating toll operations system, maaari po na i-defer pa natin ng further, (Should efficiency on our toll operations system still has not been achieved, it is possible that we postpone it [new tollway guidelines> further),” he said.

Carullo clarified that there will still be a dedicated cash lane for non-regular users of tollways — meaning motorists who seldom use expressways are not required to install an RFID.

Also read:

 SMC Infra says inadequate RFID load 'significantly' affects tollway traffic

Dry-Run for Cashless Toll Collection to Begin on Sept. 1

MPT Mobility Urges Motorists to Install RFID Stickers as Cashless Toll Collection Dry-Run Starts Today