The Department of Transportation on Monday, November 23, said motorists who haven’t installed RFID stickers on their vehicles will not be apprehended until January 11.

In a Facebook post, the department said that installation of the said stickers will continue beyond the December deadline especially for “first time toll users and those with newly acquired vehicles.”

The DOTr clarified that the December 1 deadline is “for operators to comply” with the 100% cashless transaction on toll roads.

“If you do not have an RFID sticker by December 1, you can have it installed on the spot at the toll gate. There are RFID installation lanes at toll gates, with available tollways personnel to assist you in the installation,” DOTr said.

“If not at the toll gate, you may acquire it at the installation site/tent right before or after the toll gate,” it added.

DOTr said that installation of RFID stickers at toll booths or near toll gates will be done 24/7 from December 1 to January 11.

By January 12, only a number of lanes will be dedicated for RFID sticker installation.

If a motorist without a sticker lines up at an RFID-only lane, he or she may be cited for obstruction or disregarding traffic signs.

Currently, RFID stickers for all toll operators are not yet interoperable, which means that motorists, for example, can’t use the RFID sticker for NLEX when passing through SLEX and vice versa.

Under the DOTr “Toll Interoperability” project, seamless use of RFID in other expressways will be done in later phases of the project, as the implementation of cashless payments is still under Phase 1:

• Phase 2: A single RFID sticker will work for both south and north expressways, but motorists will still have to main a digital wallet for each tollway.
• Phase 3: One RFID sticker and one wallet

In August, the DOTr ordered all toll operators to shift to contactless payments in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease. The deadline was originally set in November and then was extended to December. – Rappler.com