In a recent press briefing prior to its formal launch on November 15, Easytrip Services Corp. said its electronic toll collection (ETC) system will make use of a small radio transponder, or e-tag, that can be used for the North and South Luzon Expressways, the Skyway, and all existing and future expressways that implement a standardized ETC system.
The company said it saw an opportunity in the marketEafter it noted that the Toll Regulatory Board has yet to establish a standard for toll systems in the country, according to Easytrip head of business development Gary Espino.
"The local market has four private concession companies at the moment and a number of new projects under development. Out of the four concession companies, only two (NLEX & SLEX) have electronic tolling using the 5.8GHz active tag technology," he said.
Easytrip was thus formed specifically to undertake the proposed unified toll collection management system. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Egis Projects S.A., accompany under the umbrella of Groupe Egis, a French infrastructure company. Groupe Egis, in turn, is owned by Caisse des D’ s et Consignations (CDC) of the French government.
But being a foreign-owned corporation, only the minority stake is controlled by the French principals.
For the majority stake, Easytrip said it is inviting local toll operators and concessionaires to become shareholders even with very minor investments.
In the event that other toll operators and concessionaires would refused to join in as shareholders and do not interconnectEtheir toll systems, Easytrip said it would concentrate and implement the toll system on the NLEX.
Easytrip’s mother firm, Groupe Egis, is part of the consortium that developed and completed the NLEX in partnership with the Lopez group, Leighton of Australia, and the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC).
Stressing its track record, Eastrip’s Espino said Groupe Egis has always been ranked within the top ten companies for transportation PPP/BOT (Public Private Partnership/Build, Operate and Transfer) projects in the world, and has completed successful projects in Poland, China, Australia, United Kingdom, Greece, France, Hungary, Korea, and Malaysia among others.
"What we are proposing is the latest toll way collection system that is being used in the modern countries of the world," Espino said.
The interoperability of the ETC systems becomes more important with the recent opening of a new port in Batangas and the development of the Subic and Clark economic zones which now includes the construction of a 52-kilometer highway from the Port of Subic to Clark Air Base, he added.
Espino also said an interconnected tollway system would significantly reduce the cost of e-tags, as he pointed the flaw of an independent system such as the one implemented in SLEX where consumers have complained of the high cost of the E-Pass tags.
"For the supply, we are ensuring that we have enough e-tags. We’ll be getting our supplies not from just one, but from a number of suppliers. So it’s not proprietary."
In Eastrip’s proposal, among the methods by which an e-tag user can top-up or replenish his account include automatic debit from credit card or bank account, cash replenishment at point of sale or customer service center, Internet, top-up lanes in tollways, kiosks, ATM, cell phones, and over-the-counter.
