RFID-in-road-tax tech to also be utilised for ETC – gateless gantry system on trial at TPM Bukit Jalil

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It seems that there’s more to the Road Transport Department’s (JPJ) plan of introducing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking on all vehicles. The programme, set to be deployed by 2018, will see the tech embedded into road tax stickers – JPJ says this will allow real-time monitoring of traffic conditions and help police track down criminals.

It looks like the system will also integrate the workings of the gateless gantry system for electronic toll payment, which is also set to begin in 2018. At yesterday’s briefing to announce the possible introduction of congestion charges for private vehicles entering KL city centre, a DBKL official told The Sun that the RFID-in-road-tax system will hold the key towards electronic road pricing (ERP) in the capital city.

“It will be just like the Singapore’s ERP, road pricing scheme in Seoul and congestion charges for specific zones in London during peak hours. With RFID, it will also help the authorities to enforce penalties and provide exemption to public transport vehicles and cars driven by disabled people,” the official told the publication during the briefing.

The tracker is set to feature a ‘smart code’ tag embedded into the road tax sticker. The code can be tracked by the relevant authorities and satellites. It will be designed to shatter at any tampering attempt, and can transmit an alert to the JPJ and police should one try to remove it. Questions remain as to privacy concerns surrounding the system.

Field trials on RFID tech seem to be ramping up too. In May, PLUS was spotted running what looked to be a RFID evaluation session at the Batu Tiga toll plaza – two PLUS-liveried Proton Sagas (with card-like devices taped to the windscreens) were sighted repeatedly driving through a closed SmartTAG gate without slowing down, while a group of people were taking notes, possibly to see how fast the system could read individual devices in succession.

Earlier this month, reader Shafiq Aziz sent in some photos of a Multi-Lane Free-Flow RFID gateless gantry that has been erected near the Technology Park Malaysia roundabout in Bukit Jalil. Visible on the gantry are stickers denoting relevant authorities as well as tech partners – listed on the panel are Ministry of Works, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation as well as the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM).

Also to be seen, the names of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Touch’n Go and Quatriz – back in October 2013, MHI announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Touch’n Go and Quatriz System to develop intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in the country.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • alldisc on Sep 30, 2015 at 6:23 pm

    by having RFID in the road tax will enable police to check road tax at traffic lights. can we make without anymore road blocks pleasee…. unless to check on criminals.

    besides, officers checking expired road tax normally found their way to ask for money.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 24 Thumb down 1
  • shawal on Sep 30, 2015 at 6:51 pm

    great….more reason to smash into other ppl’s cars…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 20
    • foley on Sep 30, 2015 at 7:31 pm

      what is the reason for smashing people car? the RFID is sync with the car plat number. even if they steal others RFID, once the system detect the RFID sticker and car number is not synchronize, it will automatically alert the police/jpj that the sticker or the car is stolen.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 39 Thumb down 4
    • Not the brightest headlamp in the carpark are we?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Politicalamity9 on Sep 30, 2015 at 8:33 pm

    tag the plate number, not the road tax..and tamper proof it.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 4
    • Dumbpoliticalamity9 on Oct 01, 2015 at 2:35 am

      You sound pretty stupid saying that, you know? The reason why it has to be road tax is because you have to renew it annually. It’s like a maintanence on the chip without much hassle. Also, it’s easier to distribute than a license plate, dumbo. Lastly, brainless person is that you can still swap the numbers on your license plate to commit crimes. It’s not like a road tax which is not easily interchangeable

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 0
      • Politicalamity9 on Dec 06, 2015 at 10:29 am

        then I guess other western countries that implement the plate number control are dumb as me.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • “The code can be tracked by the relevant authorities and satellites.”
    Great. Now the gahmen can track you all the time.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 1
  • andrekua on Sep 30, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    Wow… something worth reading finally. However I hope they better lived up to the expectation. From I have seen in SG, they have multiple gantry for some area which suggest why they(PLUS, JPJ) are testing them. However I do think that they really need to do the testing on certain path of the roads by getting volunteers or hiring testers driving through them daily for a period of time instead of controlled testing where they are unable to simulate multiple cars passing at the same time, weather effect, or how effective the system was at catching offenders.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • sly_guy on Oct 01, 2015 at 12:45 am

    My only concern on RFID enabled, gantryless toll is that our public transportation services has yet to achieved those countries being benchmarked i.e. Seoul, S Korea; Singapore: London UK etc.
    I wish DBKL or Federal Govt would publish their plans on improvement of public transportation system using revenue generated from High Occupancy Vehicle or Private Vehicular Entry Charges through ETF. I would like to see KPI set based on SMART (specific, Measurable, action based, realistic and time based). This should be publicly published and appropriate actions done to the minister, civil servant in DBKL or Federal Territory. I as tax payer demand this for current inconveniences and future promises.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 1
  • azrai on Oct 01, 2015 at 8:31 am

    So who’s brother got the contract?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 1
  • sparcov on Oct 01, 2015 at 9:52 am

    I welcome the idea.

    But the system must be very efficient and no hanky panky.

    System is good, if hanky panky will become like AES

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • wawasan_2020 on Oct 04, 2015 at 6:24 pm

    just my thought

    you can just put something at the roadtax while cruising under the RFID / toll to be undetected.

    unless they can check by using satellite

    just my 6 sense *peace out

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Arivananthen on Sep 06, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    How yo get it

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Hi,
    We are already in 2019…..what happened to this initiative? Is it still there? What are the challenges?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

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