PLUS Malaysia, the country’s largest highway concessionary, has announced that it will initiate the first public pilot of its RFID system from 22 July onwards. Specifically, the public pilot with be implemented at nine toll booths up in the Northern states of Kedah and Pulau Pinang.
These nine dedicated RFID lanes will be found at Sungai Dua, Bertam, Sungai Petani Selatan, Sungai Petani Utara, Gurun, Pendang, Alor Setar Selatan, Alor Setar Utara, and Hutan Kampung. On that note, PLUS also confirms that TNG cards and its SmartTAGs will still be supported at these booths.
PLUS was initially meant to implement its RFID payment system throughout all of its 84 closed-toll plazas by 1 April. Sadly, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation was delayed. For the uninitiated, a closed toll charges drivers based on their vehicle class and distance traveled. Between the first toll booth they used and the exit booth.
One of the several benefits that come from using PLUS’ RFID is that it uses an e-wallet as a source of funds and that it can be replenished online. PLUS says that this form of transaction would help reduce the number of cases of insufficient card balances at toll booths, that in turn cause an unwanted hold up. It also argues that the negation of human interaction eliminates the risk and spread of COVID-19.
On that note, PLUS also announced that it will be giving away up to 1500 free RFID tags to Penang and Kedah users. To redeem them, residents in the two states will be required to register as PLUSMiles member via its official page. Once the 1500 complimentary tags have been fully redeemed, PLUS will then offer 500 PLUSMiles rewards points to the following 15000 users that purchase an RFID tag at select Fitment Centres. Each RFID will cost RM35.
