Despite the November 5 deadline where all Touch N Go reload counters along the North and South Plus highways were to stop operating, our team discovered these stipulated highways to still have their ‘Tambah Nilai’ counters in service, 10 days later!
After a backlash from the public and urging from Economic Minister Azmin Ali, both operators of the highways and Touch N Go looked to have backed down on the closing of the reload counters, even after taking a hard stand previously on the deadlines. According to the operators, the objective of stopping collecting cash for top-up was to reduce the handling of cash, reducing operation cost, easing congestion and driving towards a digital payment toll system. However, many users were complaining of the lack of notice given and the unavailability of top-up kiosks at public spaces. In fact motorist usually keep their SmartTag or TnG card in the vehicle and highlighted that its more convenient to make payment at the counters and often found the reload counters to be smooth.
And there is also the question on why it’s taking so long to have Paydirect or RFID implemented at all booths, here’s a juicy news bit. Touch N Go owned by parent company CIMB and the Plus Highway operator have been trashing out on the contracts on how the management of the cashless toll booths should be, the highway operator wants to open the option that will accept all eWallet providers while incumbent Touch N Go wants to have the exclusivity which it had been enjoying as the sole provider for decades. There you have it folks, for business reasons motorists have been left confused and bewildered driving around the highways using RFID on some roads, tags on some and topping up on others. Obviously there was no coordinated efforts between these two monopolistic giants, and the efforts for a seamless travel experience has been purely lip service.
In the meantime, there has been no public announcement on how long the extension will be for the reload counters, the best motorist can do for now is continue as before and hope the next time they decide to close the counters there is an auto relaod kiosk at the toll booths, PayDirect and RFID is accepted at all tolls.
