Vehicles pass through the Balintawak tollway along the North Luzon Expressway in Caloocan City on October 22, 2020. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Tollway operators will begin implementing cashless/contactless payments again from March 15, the Toll Regulatory Board said.

That means motorists using toll expressways need to have Electronic Toll Collection or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) stickers installed on their vehicles.

Vehicles that don’t have them will be allowed to enter toll plazas, where the devices will be installed.

“Though allowed to pass through toll plazas, motor vehicles without valid RFIDs will be issued a Temporary Operator’s Permit or a Show Cause Order for violating the ‘No Valid ETC Device, No Entry’ Policy,” the TRB said.

The board claimed the policy is meant to make payments faster, saying lanes used by cash-paying motorists  “are usually congested with long lines of motor vehicles, and the same often hamper the fast and efficient flow of traffic leading to the ETC designated lanes.”

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Toll operators install the propriety stickers and devices and  motorists have to top up their virtual wallets to make sure they have enough credit in their accounts to pay for using the expressways.

The policy was suspended last September due to technical issues and to give the public time to get used to contactless payments.

“It is expected that a better and more efficient flow of traffic will result once these lanes are strictly used for ETC only,” TRB said.

Tollway operators said they are ready to support the policy.

“Based on the latest data from the TRB, 97% of expressway users already use an Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) Device/RFID Sticker for toll payments," they said in a joint statement.

"With the reimplementation of the cashless/contactless toll collection policy, we encourage the remaining 3% of motorists who still pay in cash to switch to RFID for a faster, more efficient, and seamless toll experience.”