Malaysia VEP discussion.

[Ghgan]

https://www.malaymail.com/news/opinion/2025/03/27/why-dont-we-just-terminate-the-rfid-lane-at-tolls/171017

MARCH 27 —Picture this.

It is 7am on the NKVE, and a Myvi moves into the RFID lane, its driver clutching a tag that’s supposed to whisper sweet nothings to the RFID reader so the barrier opens.

Silence.

The barrier stays down.

The Myvi reverses in sheer embarrassment.

Behind, half a dozen drivers curse that front car before grudgingly reversing and secretly wishing they had picked another lane.

How many times have you seen this?

For me it’s about once a day (and I just saw it about two hours before banging out the first paragraph to this article).

I mean, it’s 2025, isn’t it?

Fast forward (pun intended) 2025, with 12 new RFID lanes added to the North-South Expressway in 2023 we should’ve been zooming past tolls; instead we’re perfecting the art of reversing at 2kph while praying the car behind doesn’t ram us. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

We’ve got robots in kopitiams bringing you your teh tarik, but we still can’t avoid toll-booth congestions caused by the silliest reasons.

It’s bad enough the highway is choked up daily but here we find additional bottle-necks because either the driver has insufficient e-wallet balance or his RFID scanner screwed up or the system at the booth can’t detect that particular car.

Ergo, dozens of cars will be required to go into Reverse on the road thus causing or aggravating a traffic jam!

I’m just waiting for that TikTok video consisting of drive expression shots from reverse cameras at every toll.

Our roads are already congested from too many cars, too few roads, and drivers who treat traffic lights as optional decor.

Enter RFID, introduced by PLUS Malaysia and Touch ‘n Go in 2018, promising a future where tolls would practically vanish into a cashless, queueless utopia.

Fast forward (pun intended) 2025, with 12 new RFID lanes added to the North-South Expressway in 2023 we should’ve been zooming past tolls; instead we’re perfecting the art of reversing at 2kph while praying the car behind doesn’t ram us.

Congestion solved? Hell, no.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s ERP system laughs at us.

Solutions? Yeah some have said that we need to educate the public on reloading their e-wallet balances, or raise the number of RFID lanes at tolls or ensure RFID readers are adequately maintained and always functioning.

I’m genuinely curious as to why the highway authorities don’t simply remove the RFID lanes, make every toll booth TNG and Debit card payable.

Wouldn’t this solve, uh, 80 per cent of the problem?

Because whoever didn’t top up their TnG can use their Debit card instead. What are the chances of a driver messing up on both options?

Another alternative is for the RFID payment apps to have some hyper-annoying alarm each time the balance falls below RM6 (not unlike in some cars when people don’t put on their seatbelts).

Failing all this, oh well.

Let’s just continue the awkward toll-booth reversings.

[Mkl22]

  On 3/28/2025 at 4:58 AM, Ghgan said:

https://www.malaymail.com/news/opinion/2025/03/27/why-dont-we-just-terminate-the-rfid-lane-at-tolls/171017

MARCH 27 —Picture this.

It is 7am on the NKVE, and a Myvi moves into the RFID lane, its driver clutching a tag that’s supposed to whisper sweet nothings to the RFID reader so the barrier opens.

Silence.

The barrier stays down.

The Myvi reverses in sheer embarrassment.

Behind, half a dozen drivers curse that front car before grudgingly reversing and secretly wishing they had picked another lane.

How many times have you seen this?

For me it’s about once a day (and I just saw it about two hours before banging out the first paragraph to this article).

I mean, it’s 2025, isn’t it?

Fast forward (pun intended) 2025, with 12 new RFID lanes added to the North-South Expressway in 2023 we should’ve been zooming past tolls; instead we’re perfecting the art of reversing at 2kph while praying the car behind doesn’t ram us. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

We’ve got robots in kopitiams bringing you your teh tarik, but we still can’t avoid toll-booth congestions caused by the silliest reasons.

It’s bad enough the highway is choked up daily but here we find additional bottle-necks because either the driver has insufficient e-wallet balance or his RFID scanner screwed up or the system at the booth can’t detect that particular car.

Ergo, dozens of cars will be required to go into Reverse on the road thus causing or aggravating a traffic jam!

I’m just waiting for that TikTok video consisting of drive expression shots from reverse cameras at every toll.

Our roads are already congested from too many cars, too few roads, and drivers who treat traffic lights as optional decor.

Enter RFID, introduced by PLUS Malaysia and Touch ‘n Go in 2018, promising a future where tolls would practically vanish into a cashless, queueless utopia.

Fast forward (pun intended) 2025, with 12 new RFID lanes added to the North-South Expressway in 2023 we should’ve been zooming past tolls; instead we’re perfecting the art of reversing at 2kph while praying the car behind doesn’t ram us.

Congestion solved? Hell, no.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s ERP system laughs at us.

Solutions? Yeah some have said that we need to educate the public on reloading their e-wallet balances, or raise the number of RFID lanes at tolls or ensure RFID readers are adequately maintained and always functioning.

I’m genuinely curious as to why the highway authorities don’t simply remove the RFID lanes, make every toll booth TNG and Debit card payable.

Wouldn’t this solve, uh, 80 per cent of the problem?

Because whoever didn’t top up their TnG can use their Debit card instead. What are the chances of a driver messing up on both options?

Another alternative is for the RFID payment apps to have some hyper-annoying alarm each time the balance falls below RM6 (not unlike in some cars when people don’t put on their seatbelts).

Failing all this, oh well.

Let’s just continue the awkward toll-booth reversings.

Expand  

You forgot that Malaysia implement things where got perfect one. If too good then no chance for 2.0 3.0. Only will multiple fixes needed, will there be more tenders to distribute payout. Got lots of pockets to fill you know. 🤣

[inlinesix]

  On 3/28/2025 at 5:03 AM, Mkl22 said:

You forgot that Malaysia implement things where got perfect one. If too good then no chance for 2.0 3.0. Only will multiple fixes needed, will there be more tenders to distribute payout. Got lots of pockets to fill you know. 🤣

Expand  

What happen quite normal for sedan or hatch.

MY friend Triton does not have this problem.

Maybe RFID transponder too high

[therock]

Two more months to school holidays and fingers crossed that VEP stays on ice ....

[Wt_know]

  On 3/28/2025 at 4:01 PM, therock said:

Two more months to school holidays and fingers crossed that VEP stays on ice ....

Expand  

confirm and chop … 

[Lala81]

I applied half way. But going to be busy at work for the foreseeable future.

So no time to go Malaysia anyway. 

[Zxcvb]

  On 3/28/2025 at 4:58 AM, Ghgan said:

https://www.malaymail.com/news/opinion/2025/03/27/why-dont-we-just-terminate-the-rfid-lane-at-tolls/171017

MARCH 27 —Picture this.

It is 7am on the NKVE, and a Myvi moves into the RFID lane, its driver clutching a tag that’s supposed to whisper sweet nothings to the RFID reader so the barrier opens.

Silence.

The barrier stays down.

The Myvi reverses in sheer embarrassment.

Behind, half a dozen drivers curse that front car before grudgingly reversing and secretly wishing they had picked another lane.

How many times have you seen this?

For me it’s about once a day (and I just saw it about two hours before banging out the first paragraph to this article).

I mean, it’s 2025, isn’t it?

Fast forward (pun intended) 2025, with 12 new RFID lanes added to the North-South Expressway in 2023 we should’ve been zooming past tolls; instead we’re perfecting the art of reversing at 2kph while praying the car behind doesn’t ram us. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

We’ve got robots in kopitiams bringing you your teh tarik, but we still can’t avoid toll-booth congestions caused by the silliest reasons.

It’s bad enough the highway is choked up daily but here we find additional bottle-necks because either the driver has insufficient e-wallet balance or his RFID scanner screwed up or the system at the booth can’t detect that particular car.

Ergo, dozens of cars will be required to go into Reverse on the road thus causing or aggravating a traffic jam!

I’m just waiting for that TikTok video consisting of drive expression shots from reverse cameras at every toll.

Our roads are already congested from too many cars, too few roads, and drivers who treat traffic lights as optional decor.

Enter RFID, introduced by PLUS Malaysia and Touch ‘n Go in 2018, promising a future where tolls would practically vanish into a cashless, queueless utopia.

Fast forward (pun intended) 2025, with 12 new RFID lanes added to the North-South Expressway in 2023 we should’ve been zooming past tolls; instead we’re perfecting the art of reversing at 2kph while praying the car behind doesn’t ram us.

Congestion solved? Hell, no.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s ERP system laughs at us.

Solutions? Yeah some have said that we need to educate the public on reloading their e-wallet balances, or raise the number of RFID lanes at tolls or ensure RFID readers are adequately maintained and always functioning.

I’m genuinely curious as to why the highway authorities don’t simply remove the RFID lanes, make every toll booth TNG and Debit card payable.

Wouldn’t this solve, uh, 80 per cent of the problem?

Because whoever didn’t top up their TnG can use their Debit card instead. What are the chances of a driver messing up on both options?

Another alternative is for the RFID payment apps to have some hyper-annoying alarm each time the balance falls below RM6 (not unlike in some cars when people don’t put on their seatbelts).

Failing all this, oh well.

Let’s just continue the awkward toll-booth reversings.

Expand  

I mean look at the above. So messy. Only solution is make ALL LANES able to accept RFID, TNG, SmartTag, credit card, debit card and cash to the left-most lane. This will solve all problems.

[Wt_know]

  On 3/29/2025 at 2:29 AM, Zxcvb said:

I mean look at the above. So messy. Only solution is make ALL LANES able to accept RFID, TNG, SmartTag, credit card, debit card and cash to the left-most lane. This will solve all problems.

Expand  

cannot la ... you are killing the cash cow leh ... 

TnG = one business opportunity

Smart TAG = one business opportunity

RFID = one business opportunity

there are vendors, contracts, renewals, maintenance, replacements, suka suka change this change that for "each" system

everyone song song to the bank ... 

 

Edited March 29 by Wt_know

[Unltd]

  On 3/29/2025 at 2:29 AM, Zxcvb said:

I mean look at the above. So messy. Only solution is make ALL LANES able to accept RFID, TNG, SmartTag, credit card, debit card and cash to the left-most lane. This will solve all problems.

Expand  

This picture is probably a good example of Malaysia implementation, one or 2 good and stable implementations for the masses, 1 good implementation for the more elite who buys and pays more. other half done, occasionally broken implementations. eventually all of them lead to the same outcome of barriers and stopping to ensure the payment is deducted first.

The crux of the matter is not allowing all lanes to accept all the different modes of payments, the crux of the matter is how to remove the barrier, it would have been something that is impossible in the past due to technology, but it is definitely possible now because we have it in Singapore.

However, the transition to a fully barrier free technology is extremely difficult for Malaysia due to legacy systems, how do you switch everyone overnight, and after removing the barriers, what if they don’t pay and accumulate fines? The biggest problem they have is post payment of these charges, how do you collect payment after they pass the (invisible) line where they are supposed to be charged, so what if you fine them, you can’t collect the fees and have bigger problems collecting the fines.

Solving of this issue needs to be addressed from the root cause, the root cause for the tailbacks are barriers, the root cause for not removing barriers is the collection of $$$, the root cause of not being able to collect $$$ is enforcement and also the people are waiting for the every few years where the government does a mass pardon of fines and fees.

[therock]

And you’ve summarized why I’m grateful for their mess 

If they really get their act together, become democratic and meritocratic with wise use of their natural resources, we will be in trouble 

so for now I just hope the VEP continues to stall 👍 

[Optramagnum]

At least they bother to colour code the signboard. Just need to be familiar which colour is meant for which mode of payment. Not that bad ah.. Lol

[Mkl22]

  On 3/29/2025 at 1:39 AM, Lala81 said:

I applied half way. But going to be busy at work for the foreseeable future.

So no time to go Malaysia anyway. 

Expand  

I never applied and never will. Cause what’s new from boleh land. Half arsed implementations are the norm. 

their prata can be flipped a million times. 
but very happy that they remain status quo with regards to policy flipping. 

[Enye]

Like this messy messy good leh

when rfid queue very long and sometimes got car get stuck then use tng lane and vice versa

usually one of the these lanes is quite empty

 just watch properly and choose correctly 

😅

[inlinesix]

  On 3/29/2025 at 5:12 AM, Mkl22 said:

I never applied and never will. Cause what’s new from boleh land. Half arsed implementations are the norm. 

their prata can be flipped a million times. 
but very happy that they remain status quo with regards to policy flipping. 

Expand  

You don’t drive to Msia

Edited March 29 by inlinesix

[inlinesix]

  On 3/29/2025 at 2:35 AM, Wt_know said:

cannot la ... you are killing the cash cow leh ... 

TnG = one business opportunity

Smart TAG = one business opportunity

RFID = one business opportunity

there are vendors, contracts, renewals, maintenance, replacements, suka suka change this change that for "each" system

everyone song song to the bank ... 

 

Expand  

  On 3/29/2025 at 3:18 AM, Unltd said:

This picture is probably a good example of Malaysia implementation, one or 2 good and stable implementations for the masses, 1 good implementation for the more elite who buys and pays more. other half done, occasionally broken implementations. eventually all of them lead to the same outcome of barriers and stopping to ensure the payment is deducted first.

The crux of the matter is not allowing all lanes to accept all the different modes of payments, the crux of the matter is how to remove the barrier, it would have been something that is impossible in the past due to technology, but it is definitely possible now because we have it in Singapore.

However, the transition to a fully barrier free technology is extremely difficult for Malaysia due to legacy systems, how do you switch everyone overnight, and after removing the barriers, what if they don’t pay and accumulate fines? The biggest problem they have is post payment of these charges, how do you collect payment after they pass the (invisible) line where they are supposed to be charged, so what if you fine them, you can’t collect the fees and have bigger problems collecting the fines.

Solving of this issue needs to be addressed from the root cause, the root cause for the tailbacks are barriers, the root cause for not removing barriers is the collection of $$$, the root cause of not being able to collect $$$ is enforcement and also the people are waiting for the every few years where the government does a mass pardon of fines and fees.

Expand  

Due this mess, there are a lot of opportunities there.

If capitalise on it, arm Chio at St Regis.

If not, kpkb lo

[Voodooman]

  On 3/29/2025 at 6:59 AM, inlinesix said:

You don’t drive to Msia

Expand  

"Never" says a lot about an inherent bias.

Never give chance, people and system can change.

[bsswan]

  On 3/29/2025 at 6:52 AM, Enye said:

Like this messy messy good leh

when rfid queue very long and sometimes got car get stuck then use tng lane and vice versa

usually one of the these lanes is quite empty

 just watch properly and choose correctly 

😅

Expand  

I don't think can be done this way, how you clock in is how you clock out. You make your choice at the start, not the end.

[Dafansu]

  On 3/29/2025 at 6:52 AM, Enye said:

Like this messy messy good leh

when rfid queue very long and sometimes got car get stuck then use tng lane and vice versa

usually one of the these lanes is quite empty

 just watch properly and choose correctly 

😅

Expand  

don't anyhow unless u want to make full payment.