If you’ve driven along the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) anytime within the last year and a half, you’d have probably noticed these big glaring signs on the E-Pass tollbooths that say “RFID/E-PASS”. They’re pretty hard to miss, considering that the boards are bigger than the others and that they are obscenely yellow.

Anyway, I never paid much attention to these signs (hah, story of my life) because I thought that they had nothing to do with me. Well, a few weeks ago the universe made it its business to get me acquainted with these RFID things. One of the E-pass’s that we have in the house started acting up, being incredibly selective in choosing tollbooths. That distinct dinging sound was also sporadic; sometimes it went off, most of the time it didn’t.

Eventually we figured out that after more than ten years of service (we got that unit early 2000), the battery inside finally gave out. After a bit of research (read: Googling), I found that not only are the E-Pass people not offering repairs or battery replacements, they were also not selling units anymore. Like, at all. Apparently the whole E-pass tag selling business would be discontinued late this year. I read online that buying the battery with the specified wattage would cost as much as a brand new E-pass tag (almost 2000PHP).

What was the replacement? Yep, you guessed it. The RFID sticker things. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and basically both the E-pass tags and the little stickers that the San Miguel Corporation is offering work on that frequency. Only the stickers don’t rely on battery power and are a lot smaller.

I got one a few weeks ago at the Southwoods/Binan exit one day because I didn’t really relish the thought of spending at least twenty minutes queuing up and paying for my toll fee. I came in at four-thirty and was finished ten minutes before five. The cool thing is, they’re open even on weekends, from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon.

Here’re the things that you’d need if you’re planning to get one as well:

1. The car (duh). Unlike the E-Pass tags that can be used between multiple vehicles, the RFID sticker tags are strictly one sticker per vehicle only. I heard you could get one account for multiple tags so they can share the credit balance but I’m not sure how to go about setting that up.
2. The original and photocopies of the vehicle’s Official Receipt (OR) and Certificate of Registration (CR). I didn’t bring photocopies and it took a while for them to scan them to their system. NOTE: If the car isn’t registered under your name, you must have a copy of the owner’s valid ID and a letter of authorization stating that you allow your vehicle to be registered with the RFID.
3. Your Valid ID. Again, if you could, bring photocopies.
4. A pen to fill up the registration form. Or not, because they have pens there stuck to the chairs.
5. 500PHP in cash for the account’s initial load and 200PHP in cash for the sticker. I was lucky enough to get the sticker tag for free because San Miguel Corp is giving out the first 200,000 units away. If you lose or damage your sticker though, it’s 200PHP for the replacement.
6. Optional: the credit card you plan to use if you’re going to set up an auto-debit system. I believe they’re offering to replenish the balance at the 500php, 800php and 1000php increments.

After scanning all of your documents (or getting the photocopies, lol), they’re going to issue you a Sweep card that’s registered to your account. The plate number of the vehicle you registered is printed on here and this is the card you’d use at the loading stations to replenish your balance. In case your tag isn’t detected or if your balance is insufficient, you’re going to show this card to the tollbooth person so you must keep this card in the vehicle where the registered sticker is mounted. The good thing is that the card also doubles as a Petron Value card, which is nifty I think.

After giving you the card, the RFID personnel will assess your car for sticker placement. They will either mount the sticker on your windshield or on your headlight. Their first option is on the windshield, of course, and the personnel will test a hand held reader if your car’s tint job will allow the tag to be detected. If not, then they’d place it on your headlight. Fortunately for me, the reader had no problems detecting the tag so on the windshield it went, after the personnel confirmed that he’d be sticking it on there.

The last step is that they’ll take a photo of your car with the sticker on, for their records, I think.

I’ve had the sticker for a few weeks now and aside from a few mishaps during the first couple of days because the activation took longer than I was advised, I can’t really tell that much of a difference from the E-Pass though. Sure, the ‘ding’ sound is sometimes missed but considering that the sticker isn’t dependant on battery power, I think it’s a fair tradeoff. Some people might be put off by the thought of a non-transferrable unit, but with that whole shared balance account thing, this might not be such a big hurdle.