The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) will extend by a month the dry run for cashless toll collection program so that more toll plazas can be included in time for implementation by June.
Alvin Carullo, TRB executive director, told the Inquirer the dry run will now end in April or May鈥攍ater than the earlier March schedule鈥攂ecause of new toll plazas being operationalized.
Last week, the TRB welcomed the 10th batch of toll plazas for the contactless toll collection dry run. These include interchanges at South Luzon Expressway, South Metro Manila Skyway Stages 1 and 2 and Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3.
Carullo said that 153 out of the 170 operational toll plazas were now part of the dry run. Apart from these, the TRB official said there were nine additional toll plazas that would soon be operationalized.
READ: TRB: Contactless toll collection dry run on expressways continues
The TRB observed said that e-payment penetration peaked at 88 percent to 90 percent, from 70 percent, during the dry run.
Meanwhile, the TRB is also doing test runs for interoperability of e-wallets so that motorists can use only one wallet and one RFID sticker for all tollways regardless of the operators.
At present, motorists using tollways owned by Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. use EasyTrip Services to pay for fees while Autosweep is for San Miguel Corp.-owned expressways. 鈥擳YRONE JASPER C. PIAD