For those who will be motoring to Desaru, Johor, for their holidays in the coming weeks, there should be a smooth and easy drive via the Senai-Desaru Highway (E22) which connects from the North-South Expressway (NSE). E22 is accessed from the Senai Utara Interchange and a 45-minute drive along the highway will bring motorists to the Bandar Penawar Interchange. From there, a short 10-km road (FT92) will lead to their destination. So the entire journey after exiting from the NSE should take about an hour.
As on all the highways operated by PLUS, the E22 route will also have a safety team patrolling and ready to offer assistance. They complement the 221 highway patrolling teams and 548 officers of the PLUSRonda team on the NSE round the clock.
We would like to remind those planning to embark on their year-end holiday trips to always adhere to traffic laws and regulations. Keep to the speed limit, drive carefully and avoid tailgating. Stop and rest every 2 hours of driving at the rest areas. Make sure your Touch‘NGo cards and eWallet balance is sufficient to ensure smoother passage at the toll plazas,” said PLUS Managing Director, Datuk Azman Ismail.
The 1.7-km long bridge over Sungai Johor on the Senai-Desaru Highway.PLUSRonda and E22 Safety Teams will be patrolling the highways to offer assistance to motorists.The Touch’NGo tollcards can be reloaded in many places (convenience stores, petrol stations, etc) and if you use the self-service machines, you don’t have to pay any extra fee.
“Rest areas provided on both highways allow customers to travel comfortably and provide the perfect pit stop for long distance travellers to break their journey. PLUS’ R&Rs such as Seremban, Ayer Keroh, Pagoh and Machap, coupled with E22’s Layang (Eastbound and Westbound) R&Rs provide F&B outlets, suraus, rest shelters (wakaf), petrol service stations, public restrooms and ample parking bays,” added Senai-Desaru Expressway Berhad CEO, Jamal Abd Nasir Taharim.
The highway concessionaires also remind highway users that they must strictly follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set by the National Security Council (MKN) and the Ministry of Health (KKM). These procedures include wearing of facemasks in public areas and social distancing in areas where there are a lot of people.
The country is still under various levels of the Movement Control Order (MCO) since it was introduced in March this year as a way to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. However, over the year, as the situation has changed, the conditions of the MCO have been varied and right now, with interstate travel being permitted again (except through Red Zones), many more vehicles are on the highways.
PLUS Malaysia Berhad expects a big increase in traffic volume on its highways over the next few days, especially as today is a holiday in Selangor (Sultan’s birthday). As the Klang Valley has the biggest vehicle population, it is expected that many may take the opportunity to travel to see relatives in kampungs, or just go on a long-missed holiday.
Plan your route, get help from PUTRI
The high volume of traffic may not be like the festive season periods but nevertheless, PLUS advises motorists to plan their journeys before departing. To do journey planning, they can check live highway CCTV feeds and consult PUTRI, a real-time customer texting interface to assist with any enquiries & feedback. Alternatively, they can also call the PLUSLINE 1-800-88-0000 or send an e-mail with their enquiry or feedback to customerfeedback@plus.com.my.
The concessionaire is prepared for the increased traffic but also hopes that motorists will cooperate by ensuring their Touch‘NGo cards and e-Wallets are sufficiently reloaded to minimize disruptions and need for physical interactions. There are over 13,000 locations nationwide to help highway customers reload their cards early.
RFID for quicker passage
For those travelling northwards, PLUS recommends that they set the auto-reload on their e-Wallets to facilitate a new, contactless experience via RFID, currently available as part of public pilot at the Sungai Dua – Hutan Kampung stretch of PLUS (in the northern region) as well as all Open System toll plazas nationwide.
Remember the SOPs
While there is freedom to travel longer distances and across borders, the Standard Operating Procedures must still be followed, meaning social distancing, use of facemasks, temperature checks and washing hands, among others. You would also be required to register in a record book or scan a QR code.
“PLUS is taking all necessary precautions to ensure our customers’ safety, comfort & convenience including at the Rest & Service Areas (R&R). I would like to appeal to all our customers to support PLUS’ efforts in ensuring compliance with all health and safety procedures throughout their journey by wearing face masks, maintaining physical distancing and practicing good personal hygiene. In order to promote safe physical distancing, we also recommend our customers to pre-order food and drinks using the PLUS mobile app,” said PLUS Managing Director, Datuk Azman Ismail.
Drive cautiously in rainy weather and have your lights on.
He also reminded motorists to be cautious and to practice safe driving at all times, especially as this is the season of rainy weather throughout the country. Having a bigger gap between vehicles and switching on headlights is recommended.
With 1.5 million vehicles using PLUS highways each day, interaction between motorists and PLUS personnel is inevitable. As such, the highway concessionaire is reminding highway users that they must strictly follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set by the National Security Council (MKN) and the Ministry of Health (KKM). These procedures include wearing of facemasks in public areas and social distancing in areas where there are a lot of people.
This reminder comes in light of the increase of COVID-19 cases in certain states where PLUS highway network operates. Its is especially critical at this time to adhere to the SOPs to prevent further spread of the coronavirus by protecting each other.
Kita Jaga Kita
“We urge our highway customers to please follow the established SOPs set by the government. In the spirit of ‘Kita Jaga Kita’, the onus is on us to take good care of each other every step of the way. Every single PLUS employee, from our CSA, PLUSRonda Officer to Toll supervisors are fully compliant to the SOP’s of facemasking in public and maintaining a safe 1-meter physical distance when interacting with you our customer, we ask the same of you. Please reciprocate by doing the same when we serve you on the highway,” implored Datuk Azman Ismail, Managing Director of PLUS.
Under the New Normal practices by many organisations that manage premises which are open to public, customers are denied entry/transactions if face masks are not worn. PLUS is also adopting the same. There must also be 1-metre physical distancing when at the R&R areas, lay-bys as well as interacting with PLUS personnel at the toll lanes and toll plazas.
Remember to wear a facemask and stand 1-metre apart when visiting R&R areas along the highways.
SOPs strictly observed at R&R areas
All PLUSRonda personnel are required to wear face masks and practice 1-metre physical distancing when attending to highway emergencies. From compulsory body temperature checks at each R&R and contact tracing via MySejahtera, PLUS prioritises food hygiene as well as the cleanliness at all the R&R premises as well as lay-bys and toll plazas via regular routine cleaning and periodical sanitisation.
PLUS Malaysia Bhd has established an RTD Enforcement Highway Monitoring Centre (Highway Enforcement Unit) as one of the ways to improve safety on its highways. The facility, opened on July 1 this year in collaboration with the Road Transport Department (RTD), is located at the old Jelapang Toll Plaza Supervision Building near Ipoh, Perak.
The control centre, located at KM268, on the North-South Expressway will provide faster access onto the highway to manage traffic incidences and improve safety. It also regulates all Highway Enforcement Unit activities at four major enforcement zones.
Since 2018, PLUS has provided four offices for the Highway Enforcement Unit at R&R Pagoh in Johor, R&R Dengkil in Selangor, and R&R Gunung Semanggol, besides the latest Enforcement Highway Monitoring Centre, in Ipoh.
“PLUS continuously explores new approaches and ideas to improve safety on our highways to help our customers enjoy safer and more convenient travel. Apart from focusing on engineering and education aspects through road safety advocacy programmes, we also look at law enforcement aspects by collaborating with enforcement agencies such as the RTD to improve safety on the highways,” said PLUS Chief Operating Officer, Zakaria Ahmad Zabidi.
“At the same time, the presence of JPJ enforcement officers on our highway mainline is crucial in addressing issues relating to heavy vehicles such as the use of low-quality rethreaded tyres, overloaded and improperly secured consignment and so on. Based on our data, most of the obstacles found on the highway which consist of tyre fragments, wood, iron scraps or debris and many more originated from heavy vehicles, pose a threat to our customers,” he added.
During the official opening ceremony, PLUS and RTD also signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a strategic collaboration involving operations and enforcement to improve safety on the PLUS highway.
According to Dato’ Sri Shaharuddin, RTD’s Director-General, the initiative that has been carried out between PLUS and the RTD is a strategic and smart partnership which is the key to improving the safety and well-being of the people.
“PLUS proves its role as a good ‘Rakan Negara’ in helping RTD to enhance the level of safety and enforcement on the highway. PLUS’ contribution and various initiatives to ensure the safety of its customers have been globally recognized by winning the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in December 2019 and was recently ranked as the number one top performing closed toll highway in terms of safety and comfort by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS),” added Dato’ Sri Shaharuddin.
Motorists travelling to the North-South Expressway from the Kajang, Bangi and Serdang areas will have to use an alternate route if they regularly use the Kajang Toll Plaza Access Road heading to Kuala Lumpur. This connection will be temporarily closed to all vehicles from Wednesday September 9 to Friday October 9 2020 between 10 pm and 5 am nightly.
Motorists travelling from Kajang to Kuala Lumpur are advised to utilize an alternative route by entering the SILK and Besraya Highways. They can utilize SILK and Besraya Highways to enter the PLUS highway via the UPM Toll Plaza during the period.
Motorists who are travelling along the North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE) are advised that there are maintenance works at the Shah Alam Interchange on the Ebor-Shah Alam Access Road at KM0 (Northbound). It will be closed to all vehicles from 10 pm to 5 am daily until Sunday, August 9. 2020.
Highway users travelling from Ebor/ELITE heading to Shah Alam/Bukit Jelutong are advised to utilise the alternative route by exiting the highway via the Setia Alam Toll Plaza. They can re-enter the highway by doing a U-turn at the Setia Alam Toll Plaza and continue their journey to Shah Alam/Bukit Jelutong.
With the volume of traffic having grown substantially over the years, toll plazas are a bottleneck along the highways. To eliminate this issue, PLUS and other highway concessionaires are working towards implementing a Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) system. With this system, toll booths won’t be needed any longer as all payments will be totally electronic.
Our highway Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) process started off with a tollcard manually swiped on a reader, progressing to a SmartTAG which uses an infrared beam to transmit the card information to a receiver over the lane. In both cases, the vehicle has to slow down considerably which caused traffic to build up at toll plazas.
The future is RFID – Radio Frequency IDdentification – using a tiny tag stuck on the headlight or windscreen which send a radio signal to a receiver to execute ETC. This allows quicker communication that will speed up the flow of traffic through the toll plaza.
RFID has been available for almost two years now and with PLUS – the largest highway concessionaire – having also adopted the system for its toll plazas this year, its acceptance and usage by motorists has been steadily increasing.
Positive response to pilot run
On July 22, PLUS began a pilot run of accepting ETC by RFID on a closed-toll highway system (this system charges by distance travelled) in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. All 9 toll plazas from Hutan Kampung all the way to Sungai Dua in the states of Penang and Kedah have lanes dedicated for RFID. It’s clear that the benefits of RFID have appealed to motorists as the penetration has increased from 2.3% two weeks ago to 10% today.
“It is encouraging to see the positive take up of the RFID with a short period of 14 days. I am confident that this will increase as more will see the multiple benefits of this payment solution. The most compelling reason for RFID is that the technology itself propagates physical distancing as compared to the existing card. Once it is linked to your e-wallet, it reduces the probability of being stuck in the toll lane because of insufficient balance and need to physically reload and risk transmission of the coronavirus,” said Datuk Azman Ismail, Managing Director of PLUS.
“We are grateful for the Malaysia Highway Authority’s endorsement of this public pilot. The support by our highway regulator enabling PLUS to proceed with the first 9 designated closed toll plazas namely Hutan Kampung, Alor Setar Utara, Alor Setar Selatan, Pendang, Gurun, Sungai Petani Utara, Sungai Petani Selatan, Bertam and Sungai Dua, is a testament of the promise that the other remaining closed toll highways will be primed for RFID very soon,” Datuk Azman added.
The tiny RFID tag can be installed on the windscreen or the headlight.Besides going to the Fitment Centres, motorists can also purchase the RFID tag online and attach it to the headlight or windscreen themselves. The price is the same as at the Fitment Centre but you probably have to pay a delivery charge.
Mindset shift necessary
PLUS, however, recognises that to embrace the RFID technology will require a level of mindset shift. For one thing, motorists will have to make use of the Touch’NGo eWallet which means they must have a smartphone or tablet (which can connect to the internet). Data from the RFID tag is linked to the Touch‘NGo eWallet and reloading can therefore be done online. This is more convenient than having to look for a reload kiosk or outlet to top-up the balance.
Eligible motorists can apply for the PENJANA economic package offered by the government where RM50 reloads will be transferred into successful applicants’ eWallets. However, this benefit does not apply to SmartTAG and Touch‘NGo card.
ETC is still accepted by Touch‘NGo cards and SmartTAGs at all PLUS toll plazas. However, at smaller toll plazas with limited lanes, SmartTag lanes were replaced with dedicated RFID lanes, but the card can still be used at the Touch‘NGo lanes. This will also apply with nationwide roll-out of RFID soon.
If you are driving on PLUS highways in Kedah and Penang and your vehicle has a RFID tag, you can now enjoy faster passage through the toll plazas. From today (Wednesday, July 22). All 9 closed toll plazas from Hutan Kampung all the way to Sungai Dua will open their dedicated toll plaza lanes.
The RFID lanes, which can only be used by privately-registered vehicles, have been available at other toll plazas (open toll system) since the beginning of this year. Those have been at Jitra, Lunas, Kubang Semang, Penang Bridge, Mambau, Lukut, Kempas, Perling, Lima Kedai and Tanjung Kupang.
However, plans by PLUS to roll out across its plazas with 84 closed toll systems (payment based on distance travelled) from April 1 2020 had to be deferred due to COVID-19 pandemic which subjected the country to the Movement Control Order (MCO). Since the implementation of the Recovery MCO, PLUS has resumed its program of RFID implementation.
“Our Northern highway customers can enjoy the convenient, swift and safe RFID experience. Aligned to the Government’s directive to move towards Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) toll highway, the introduction of RFID on closed toll system is a next step to make this goal a reality. The RFID technology allows for faster throughput thus reducing congestion at the toll lanes, which is the primary objective for PLUS adopting it,” said Datuk Azman Ismail, Managing Director of PLUS.
“Coincidently, its cashless and contactless transaction not only reduces human interaction at the lanes, but also eliminates the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Linked to an e-wallet as the source of funds, the RFID will reduce cases of insufficient card balances that cause hold up at lane. The ability to top up the e-wallet online helps replenish e-wallet balances regularly and negates the human interactions at toll plaza (for insufficient card balances) that increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission,” he explained.
Datuk Azman Ismail said PLUS anticipates a positive uptake of RFID tags from Penangites, while highway users in Kedah will want to start using the complementary electronic payment system to the SmartTag.
Touch’nGo Sdn Bhd is giving away 1,500 free RFID tags in a limited time only promotion, and PLUS currently offers complimentary RFID tags on a first come-first served basis (and while stocks last) at selected Fitment Centres in Penang and Kedah only. This is in conjunction with the #JomRFID campaign, especially during the Hutan Kampung-Sungai Dua the public pilot program kick-off.
Besides going to the Fitment Centres, motorists can also purchase the RFID tag online and attach it to the headlight or windscreen themselves. The price is the same as at the Fitment Centre but you probably have to pay a delivery charge.
To redeem these complimentary RFID tags, customers are required to register as a PLUSMiles member at jomrfid.plusmiles.com.my. They will then receive a voucher code for redemption. After the full redemption of 1,500 complimentary RFID tags, 15,000 users will be able to receive 500 PLUSMiles reward points when purchasing an RFID tag at RM35 each at the selected Fitment Centres.
From today (July 12) until July 17 (Friday), the slow lane and emergency lane at KM23.14 to KM24.21 (Southbound) along the at the Putrajaya-Gamuda Cove Interchange on the North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE) will be closed.
PLUS says the closure is to facilitate and enable safer pavement maintenance works at the area. This will improve safety, which PLUS continuously works on.
In the event of congestion at the area, motorists can utilize the access road to the Dengkil R&R as an alternative route to continue traveling to the south. PLUS personnel at the locations can also suggest alternative routes to use when passing through the stretch.
Though affected by the MCO having suspended business activities for a long period, the private sector (with assistance from the government) is trying to also help the rakyat in these difficult times. Household incomes have diminished with some family members losing jobs or having pay cuts or for those who have their own small businesses, the daily income is down.
PLUS Malaysia is also doing its part by offering motorists using the Penang Bridge a discount of 20% on toll charges. Only applicable to private vehicles, the discount will be only for those who have the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag on their vehicles.
From mid-July 2020
The discount will be available from the middle of July 2020 and is only for those studying or working in Penang. We understand that in order to qualify for the discount, the motorist must have a letter to show he or she is studying at an institution of higher learning or from the employer with an address on the island.
At least 20% of vehicles crossing the Penang Bridge are expected to benefit from the lower rate which will be RM4.59 instead of the current RM5.74. The duration of the discount has not been mentioned.
PLUS has been encouraging the use of the RFID tag which will promote faster and more efficient passage through toll plazas. Motorists can reload the stored value in their accounts using online applications, reducing the need to be in close contact with personnel at the toll plazas. This will reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
RFID tag available online
Previously, motorists had to go to fitment centres to get the RFID tag installed but Touch’nGo is now offering it online at RM35. The tag can be easily stuck on the headlight or at the upper section of the windscreen and then activated online.
