This is a move aimed at “easing peak-hour congestion”, and it’s starting from September 9th 2024.

So, where are these changes taking place?

1. The Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) after Jurong Town Hall, heading towards the city.
2. The Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE), eastbound, just before the exit to Central Boulevard, and at the slip road from Marina Boulevard.
3. The Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) after the Defu Flyover.

The LTA explained that this decision comes after their routine traffic monitoring in July, where they observed traffic building up at these locations. No surprise there if you’ve been caught in the morning or evening rush.

But even with this adjustment, the number of locations and times that ERP is charged remains lower than pre-COVID times. So while the extra dollar might sting, we’re still not back to the ERP levels we were dealing with in the past.

Of the three locations, the KPE gantry after the Defu Flyover takes the crown for the highest charge. If you’re traveling between 8.35am and 8.55am, brace yourself, you’ll be hit with a S$6 ERP charge.

That’s S$6 just for passing through a stretch of road at the wrong time, but hey, maybe it’ll help shave a few minutes off your commute, or at least keep things moving a little smoother.

As always, the LTA is keeping a close eye on traffic speeds and congestion, and they’ve assured us that they’ll assess whether further adjustments are necessary. For now, let’s hope that this extra dollar does its job and keeps traffic flowing just that little bit better when we need it most.

After all, time is money.

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Ready or not, like it or not, your next car will come fitted with this thing we’re testing today; the ERP 2.0 On-Board Unit (OBU). The gantry-based ERP system has been around for 25 years and these gantries are set to be replaced by a new Global Navigation Satellite System that will simply be known as ERP 2.0.

For ERP 2.0 to work, vehicles must be fitted with compatible OBUs. This is a three-piece system that replaces the previous one-piece In-vehicle Unit (IU).

Recently, we had a chance to test the new OBU to find out what the future of driving around Singapore will feel like with this new contraption. Public reaction has been controversial, to say the least, and we wanted to see for ourselves if the reaction is justified or unfounded. 

OBU installation and setup

The OBU we tested was fitted to a Toyota RAV4 hybrid sports edition. Installation was said to take less than two hours, but we were unable to verify this as servicing was also combined with this appointment. 

At first glance, the installation appeared to be neat with a minimum of wires visible. Although the display screen is optional.

Instead, the vehicle owner can opt to have the cashcard balance and other ERP 2.0-related information shown via a smartphone app. So, drivers who are used to mounting their smartphones where the OBU display is located can continue to do so.

Another good reason to go the smartphone app route is that the OBU touchscreen was found to be somewhat glitchy – it was slow to react to inputs at times and would freeze if you tried to navigate too quickly between screens. 

The display graphics and User Interface (UI) feel not unlike that of the early generation “Papa-Go”-type of GPS navigation devices that appeared before the dawn of Google Maps and Waze. 

OBU test drive

The OBU touchscreen display is about the size of an iPhone 15, which diagonally measures about 6.1 inches or 15.5cm in today’s money. This means that the display is certainly sizeable and impossible to miss. 

In addition to the Cashcard balance displayed at the top left corner, the default setting displays the time in a big and bold font, underscored with the day and date.

Within a few minutes of driving, this writer found the display to be distracting and thankfully, the date and time display can be turned off. In any case, the Cashcard balance amount will always be shown in the top left corner. 

The screen brightness can also be adjusted via the touchscreen and thankfully, so can the volume of the sound output that comes out of the Cashcard reader mounted on the front passenger’s side of the transmission tunnel near the footwell. It’s a very strange and inconvenient location to install this unit. 

For starters, the card reader is out of the driver’s sight, so he or she would have to fumble around to find the said item and retrieve or insert the cashcard purely by feel. Naturally, the driver’s eyes are fully off the road at this point so changing Cashcards on the move is a big no-no. 

Speaking of no-nos, one can imagine the high jinks that would ensue with dodgy drivers using the “I was reaching for my Cashcard” routine as the driver’s left hand would be in precarious proximity to the front passenger’s legs!

In a car such as the Toyota RAV4, my 1.8-metre frame can just about reach the Cashcard reader. In larger vehicles such as the Toyota Vellfire for example, this would be an impossibility and the driver would have to walk over to the other side of the car to insert a cashcard.

This would be problematic in situations where one might need to remove their Cashcards to utilise complimentary parking tickets for example. After exiting the car park, the driver would have to stop the vehicle, get out and insert the Cashcard, not so easy if you have just driven out of Ion Orchard for example… (Update: As of April 19 2024, ERP 2.0 OBUs now feature a button to remotely disable the Cashcard without needing to remove it. Read the full article here.)

I’m not sure if the ERP 2.0 OBU was designed with an ageing population in mind, but not only does the display flash “ERP $1.50 Deducted from Card” in a font size even Mr Magoo can see without his glasses, the default volume of the speaker in the cashcard reader is so loud and shrill, canine passengers might start howling uncontrollably whenever there’s a Cashcard deduction.

Quite why it needs to be so intrusively loud is beyond me. 

Some OBU features are useful

It’s not all bad news for the ERP 2.0 OBU. There are some handy features to be found. For one thing, the Global Navigation Satellite System is freakishly accurate when it comes to recognizing that you’ve just turned into a street when the bus lane timing is in effect.

For obvious reasons, I didn’t further test the accuracy by actually driving onto the bus lane to see if it could tell I was committing an offence. 

No longer will there be a need to search for Autoapp.sg’s bus lane timings page to find out if and when they can drive on the leftmost yellow lane.

The OBU also warns the driver to reduce speed when a school zone is in effect as well as when approaching speed cameras nearby. Tellingly, there’s an Apps menu which is blank for now, but it points other possibilities that we may see in the future.

On the whole, there’s nothing the ERP 2.0 OBU can do that a well-designed smartphone app can’t do. It may have been less complicated to issue a pre-loaded smartphone to every motorist and that device could also have a built-in dash cam feature added for good measure.

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It sucks your hard-earned money and doesn’t give it back. Seemingly the only thing in Singapore that cannot break down, it’s the legendary ERP.

Electronic Road Pricing, or ERP, was a scheme conceived as a means to regulate the use of roads and handle traffic congestion. First implemented in 1998, these gantries are placed on selected routes and will kick in during morning and evening rush hours.

By doing so, the authorities hoped to promote the use of alternative routes, thus reducing the reliance on popular routes. So now you have two options: Pay the fee, or find another way around.

Of course, to this day the ERP is still a hot complaint topic. With its extensive coverage, the ERP has become virtually unavoidable for many drivers, provoking heavy criticism. Plus, whether it is really effective is still debatable.

So how does the system work?

There are a few components that make the ERP system work. The first is your In-Vehicle Unit or IU, which is where you insert your cashcard into.

Second, each ERP gantry consists of two sets of sensors. As pictured here, the first gantry has a short-range wireless system that communicates with the IU. The second gantry has cameras that are used to capture the rear license plates of vehicles as they pass by. This is to allow the authorities to identify errant drivers who do not pay the required toll.

Despite being fully automated, motorists can still fail to pay ERP rates from time to time. 

The most common causes for failing to pay the ERP is a missing cashcard or one that has run out of value. In some cases, it can even be the result of a faulty IU. 

What happens when I get fined?

If you drive through without paying, you will be subject to a fine. If you pay your fine within 2 weeks of receiving your notice, you will only have to pay the ERP charge plus an administrative fee of $10.

Miss the 2-week deadline, and you will be slapped with a $70 fine and a traffic offence. If you still do not pay up after 28 days, prepare to be brought to court. As with most things on our sunny shores, the authorities do not take this lightly.

Pre-COVID, the most expensive ERP charge was $6 for just a single gantry, although typical charges are between $1 to $3. As a rule of thumb, these charges are also usually the highest between 8-9am. Prices have started to rise again now that the pandemic is behind us, so make sure your cashcard has some value in it at all times.

It’s also worth noting that ERPs are operational every day except for Sundays and public holidays.

The rates are also reviewed once every quarter and during the June and December school holidays. The charges have also been fluctuating due to the COVID pandemic. At the time of this video, there are currently 78 active ERP gantries in Singapore. 

Will it ever be removed? Of course not.

As controversial as it is, the ERP is here to stay. Its main purpose is to encourage alternative routes or forms of transport, in the hopes of reducing overall congestion on our roads. Whether the system truly works or not is up for debate, but I digress. 

Love it or hate it, we can’t deny the ERP has become a cult icon, and we’re all just waiting for that special day, when it finally, FINALLY, breaks down.

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