Smartcard developed for toll road users

Smartcard developed for toll road users

JAKARTA (JP): In a bid to improve its service to users, state-
owned tollroad operator PT Jasa Marga plans to introduce a new
card for drivers to use to pass through tollgates, an official
said on Saturday.

Operational director Marijanto told reporters on Saturday
that, by using the card, drivers should expect to spend just one-
and-a-half seconds at the tollgates, which is four-and-a-half
seconds less than the current system. "Hopefully, there will be
no car queue at the gates", he said.

Drivers who don't want to use the card can still buy regular
tickets at tollbooths.

The company, in cooperation with Bank Exim, had previously
launched a similar card, like a credit card, Marijanto said.
"Drivers had to slide the card through the machines made
available at the booths." However, this kind of card failed to
gain popularity.

"We will try the new service around Greater Jakarta this
coming November, particularly on the highway leading to Soekarno-
Hatta International Airport," he said. "But the official
launching of the card will be early next year."

The new card will cost at least Rp 50,000 and will also
function as a debit card. "This means that each time the card is
used the value will decrease as much as the toll. And the owner
will be able to refill the card like a cellular phone prepaid
card," Marijanto told The Jakarta Post.

When using the card, called Contactless Smartcard, drivers do
not need to make any contact with tollbooth attendants, or card
machines at the gates. "Drivers just need to insert the card into
a machine located half-a-meter from the tollgate and everything
is processed automatically," said Marijanto.

The company would invest a total of Rp 30 billion for the
production of the cards and the machines as well as the
installment of the new system, he added.

Marijanto noted that as many as 20,000 cards would initially
be made available. "Should the demand for the cards increase, we
will produce more cards."

Profit

In a related development, the company director of development
and commercial, Frans S. Sunito, revealed that only five of 13
tollroads managed by PT Jasa Marga made a profit.

"The lucrative highways, which have more than 50,000 cars
using them everyday are the Jagorawi, the Jakarta-West Tangerang
and the Prof. Sedyatmo Tollroad leading to Soekarno-Hatta
Airport, the Jakarta-Cikampek and the Surabaya-Gempol highways."

All the other tollroads were used by less than 10,000 cars
everyday, he said.

Separately, president director of PT Jasa Marga Syarifuddin
Alambai said that the government was still discussing the
proposal of increasing the tariff for tollroads, which had been
refused by the House of Representatives.

The hike would be between 17 and 50 percent.

"The revised proposal will be submitted to the House in
September," Syarifuddin said.

He said the company needed more money to improve its service
to tollroad users and to build new highways. (04)