Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade urged tollway operators to open more offsite RFID installation sites to accommodate motorists who need to put RFID stickers in their vehicles without having to fall in line at toll plazas.

Yesterday, December 1 2020, the North Luzon Expressway experienced severe congestion at their toll plazas prompting motorists to question the efficiency of the RFID scanners of the tollways.

Manila North Tollway executive Atty. Junjie Quimbo clarified that the congestion was mainly caused by motorists who used the toll booths as loading stations or by people who do not have RFID stickers and are having these installed at the toll plaza.

The NLEX and SLEX have assigned a number of toll plaza lanes as installation lanes in order to accommodate vehicles entering the tollways that have no RFID stickers. However, these lanes have only caused more congestion since motorists tend to crowd to these lanes.

Tugade said it would be more prudent for tollway operators to open offsite locations for RFID installation in order to decongest or even remove installations at the tollway entrance.

The Department of Transportation has mandated that all tollways be cashless beginning December 1, 2020. This has caused a stampede of RFID installation among Filipino motorists who decided to have their RFID installed at the last minute.