- New Bridge Automates Toll Collection with RFID
- Passive UHF RFID Stickers Attached to Vehicles
- Multiple RFID Protocols Being Adopted for Tolling Globally
Oct 03, 2022The Philippines' Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), a new bridge that connects mainland Cebu through Cebu City's South Road properties to the city of Cordova on Mactan Island, is completing its adoption of a radio frequency identification system to automate toll collection. The new bridge and expressway initially accepted cash payments from drivers crossing the bridge from both directions. However, says Allan G. Alfon, president and general manager of the expressway's Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corp. (CCLEC), the UHF RFID solution has been rolled out in the meantime to make toll collection automatic and faster, thereby preventing traffic delays and making travel safer.
CCLEC provides toll management that allows drivers to make payments via an RFID-enabled sticker attached to the right headlamp of each vehicle. The solution, including software to manage funds and RFID tag read data, was provided by Malaysian company RTS Technology. Since early this year, the agency has been deploying passive UHF RFID readers at a single tolling site across a total of 20 lanes, for bridge crossings. With the solution in place, and with cars already equipped with RFID stickers, CCLEC intends to end cash-based toll payments in October of this year.
The Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway
New Bridge Automates Toll Collection with RFID
Allan G. Alfon
The new 8.9-kilometer (5.5-mile) expressway enables vehicles to travel from Cebu City to the town of Cordova, over the Mactan Channel, serving as one of three links Macton Island. It's known as the Cebu-Cordova Bridge, or simply the Third Bridge. As the longest sea-crossing bridge in the Philippines, the structure provides clearance for large vessels at a height of 51 meters (167 feet), and it officially opened to motorists on Apr. 30, 2022. Drivers travel on the roadway at up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour), but they must come to a stop at the toll-collection area, where standard vehicles pay 90 Philippine pesos ($1.55).
The expressway and the bridge are intended to enable trade activities and economic opportunities between Cebu City and Cordova, as well as the Visayas region, Alfon says, and the RFID solution is designed to reduce delays in traffic. The single toll-collection site is located on an artificial island containing 10 lanes, four of which will accept cash until Oct. 1, at which time they, too, will switch to RFID-only payment systems. At the site, an automatic lane barrier ensures that motorists pay for passage and ensures security lane control.
CCLEC, a subsidiary of the toll division of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), developed the automated toll-collection system in partnership with local governments, including those in Cebu City and the Cordova municipality. MPTC is reportedly the largest toll-road operator in the Philippines. The agency has installed Neology UHF RFID readers and antennas at the tollbooths, before each toll lane, placed at what it determined to be a safe distance in front of the automatic lane barrier. In that way, if the solution detects that a sticker is for an authorized vehicle, with funds in the sticker owner's RFID account, the toll system will deduct money from the account and open the barrier to let them pass.
Passive UHF RFID Stickers Attached to Vehicles
To use the system, motorists must have the RFID tag applied by CCLEX installers, which means going to CCLEX's Customer Service Centers to have the tag attached to their vehicle. First, though, users may go online to register, then report to the nearest installation site, where the tag, with an RFID chip built into it, is attached. Drivers must provide funds for a related, prepaid account from which payments will be deducted each time they pass through a toll. Each tag's unique ID number is linked to the corresponding vehicle's information and account in the software.
Users can reload their RFID account through a smartphone app, as well as view their balance. The RFID solution was first taken live in July, which began the process of retiring the cash payment system. "We have been using the RFID toll-collection system already since July 1, 2022, though we have cash lanes also," Alfon states. "Starting Oct. 1, 2022, we will go full cashless."
To date, approximately 90,000 vehicles have been registered in the cashless RFID payment system, and motorists are still in the process of adopting the technology. "We continue to encourage our customers to get the RFID stickers on their vehicles," Alfon says. Adoption rates so far are at about 25 percent of motorists who use the bridge. "We intend to distribute as many RFID [stickers] as we can, or 200,000 for now."
Multiple RFID Protocols Being Adopted for Tolling Globally
There are multiple RFID-based tolling systems in use worldwide, including some that employ similar UHF RFID passive systems, and active RFID such as E-ZPass, used in the Eastern, Midwestern and Southern United States. The active systems require a battery-powered device, applied to each vehicle's windshield, that emits its unique ID consistently. When it comes within range of an RFID receiver, such as those installed at a toll booth, the signal is captured and linked to the specific vehicle. Readers are typically connected to a server via direct AC power, or via Power-over-Ethernet cables.
Passive UHF RFID stickers, on the other hand, do not transmit their unique ID numbers until they receive an interrogation from a reader device. They then use the power from that transmission to respond with an ID, with a read range of about 15 meters (49 feet). Typically, the passive tags come with an adhesive and are attached directly to a vehicle's windshield, after which they cannot be removed from the vehicle without destroying the tag (see Passive UHF RFID Readers Manage High-Speed Tolling in Turkey, RFID Breaks Speed Records for Tolling Solution and Interoperability of Tolls Is Key in Brazil).
The rolling out of UHF RFID tolling systems in some parts of the world have been fraught with delays (see RFID Takes Its Toll), and the CCLEC solution has reportedly faced its own challenges as well. Because motorists had to report to official sites to have the tags installed, some experienced long waits or needed to return multiple times. The weather brought its own impact, when the Category 5-equivalent Typhoon Rai, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Odette, battered the area in December 2021, delaying reader and related infrastructure installation. For CCLEX, however, the goal is long-term, with a plan to ensure fast toll collection without any need for cash transactions at all.
Key Takeaways:
- A UHF RFID toll-collection system being rolled out in the Philippines is going fully live in October 2022, and motorists are now acquiring the vehicle tags that will transmit data to readers.
- In the long term, the solution is intended to eliminate the need for cash payments, and to make traffic flow easier on the nation's new Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway.
