USUALLY congratulatory messages will be greeted with a sense of praise and admiration but not this Facebook poster by Touch ‘n Go Malaysia (TnG).
In its quest to congratulate PLUS Malaysia Bhd (PLUS) for the implementation of the radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology on the North-South Expressway route from the Juru Toll Plaza in Penang to the Skudai Toll Plaza in Johor on Jan 15, the smart card operator received “a barrage of brickbats” from learned netizens.
“All you had to do was add RFID readers in Smart Tag lanes. Let vehicles use both. Simple solution,” opined Eli Hu.
“Instead you all had to mess it up by removing the Smart Tag readers. What a supremely dumb move! Or were there other reasons? Just because you have a monopoly you are using your ‘powers’ to force us to convert from a cost effective SmartTag to an inconvenient RFID.”
Kelvin Wing suggested that TnG should improve its RFID sensor which is “insensitive and sometimes cannot detect vehicles that move too fast”.
“Please study the RFID system used in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia. It provides a smoother pass-through experience for drivers compared to ours,” pleaded the expressway user. “Take a look at the RFID installed at New Pantai Expressway (NPE) (exit to Kuchai and exit from/to Sunway). The system is a bit ‘slow’ and can’t detect (passing vehicles) sometimes.”
Pritpal Singh summed up the furore among expressway users: “Instead of congratulating, you should be apologising to Malaysians suffering in this absolute mayhem (uncalled for congestion).”
Sazrina Sham called for the expressway concessionaire to allow smart tag to run as usual while slowly add RFID lanes when the system has proven to be able to ensure smooth traffic flow.
“Over-zealous to chase your RM350 mil revenue at the wrong time so soon after the major flooding and movement control order (MCO),” she quipped.
Bryan Chow has a rather cynical “RFID standard operating procedure (SOP) to share:
- Change your gear to neutral and slowly move forward.
- If the gate never opens, change to R/reverse gear, move back a bit.
- Change to gear 1/D, move forward again
- Repeat Step 2 & 3 if the gate is still not open.
- After three attempts and still unsuccessful, change your lane to TnG.
Tuck Choy has an axe to grind with TnG outside the realm of RFID.
“Hi TnG, your e-mail and FB are not responsive for weeks even after I sent a follow up e-mail,” he lamented.
“My Touch ‘n Go Account is locked and when I go to ‘Forgot Password’ or ‘Forgot Username’, it shows me ‘We were unable to verify the data you entered, please try again’. It is my IC number, it should be valid. Please response.”
On hindsight, kudos to TnG who despite being hurled with brickbats, gentlemanly stood behind its poster, unlike PLUS which temporarily blacked out its Facebook comments section that was flooded by negative criticism from disgruntled expressway users.
In a related development, the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) said it has held a discussion with PLUS and TnG in relation to the implementation of RFID along the North-South expressway.
While it welcomes innovation such as the introduction of RFID in the toll collection system, MyCC believes that implementation of the system should be carried out effectively in order to achieve its objective.
“Taking into account the special responsibilities arising from the dominant positions of both enterprises in the relevant markets, MyCC will continue to monitor the situation from time to time and when any competition concern is identified, the Competition Act 2010 will be enforced,” MyCC’s CEO Iskandar Ismail pointed out.
“Secondly, it is pertinent to remember that innovation-related markets can create uncertainty. Thus, MyCC will work closely with the Government to ensure these changes will always serve the consumers’ best interest.” – Jan 20, 2022
