Electronic Toll Payments To Take Over Fully By 2017, Agrees PLUS And MHA

PLUS Malaysia will go full steam ahead with the implementation of cashless payments at its tolls and expects to be drop the ‘tunai’ lane fully by 2017.

According to Bernama, Mohd Fuad Khusairi, chief operating officer of PLUS, said that currently 14 of the 92 toll plazas under its management of expressways were fully utilising cashless payments. 

This roadmap also follows expectations by the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) that the ETC system would be fully implemented throughout the country by 2017.

"Seventy-eight toll plazas using the closed toll system have yet to go fully ETC. We expect all of them to use only the ETC method in two years.

"This is part of our efforts to reduce congestion at toll plazas because the ETC system saves time," Mohd Fuad told reporters at the Penang Bridge toll plaza. 

ETC, or electronic toll collection, entails that motorists make payment via Touch n’ Go, PLUSMiles cards, SmarTAG or MyKad. 

Speaking in regards to the Penang bridge toll plaza alone, Mohd Fuad said 82,000 vehicles used the bridge on a daily basis, and with the cashless implementation, PLUS foresees a 30 to 50 percent drop in traffic congestion. 

The convenience of the ETC method has not gone unnoticed, with ETC payments at that toll plaza reaching as high as 90 percent. 

An average of only 400 transactions per hour are possible under a conventional cash-only toll booth, a figure that  leaps to 550 per hour with Touch n’ Go cards and rockets to 1,200 transactions each hour with SmarTAG. 

Additionally, September 9th also marks the day that other toll plazas under PLUS embrace fully cashless transactions: Jitra toll on the North-South Expressway, Bukit Kayu Hitam, Lunas (Butterworth-Kulim Expressway) and Kubang Semang (BKE).