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You now need to tell Waze that your car has RFIDs

Unless you want to spend time crawling on narrow provincial roads

Waze now has to know that your car is equipped with RFIDs. PHOTO BY MIGGI SOLIDUM

Most of you know by now the whole brouhaha surrounding our expressways, contactless transactions, and RFID stickers—the demand for which seems to surpass that of any Blackpink concert pass (my boss would probably disagree). But while this toll-road drama has taken social media by storm, let me share with you something that should benefit everyone whose vehicles are already equipped with the electronic tags.

I’ve been doing shuttle runs between Metro Manila and La Union during the past few months. In fact, these trips have been so frequent that even without using Waze, I already have a rough idea of how long the drive is supposed to take—normally three hours from my home in Quezon City to the end of TPLEX in Rosario. But I still use the app just in case there are accidents on the expressway, and I need to reroute.

This is how long it would have taken the author to drive to La Union without using toll roads. SCREENSHOTS FROM WAZE

However, I got confused with the phone-based navigation app’s routing when I went up north yesterday. Not only was the calculated travel time more than twice as long, but it was also directing me away from the expressway. I thought something big had happened on NLEX, but my instincts prevailed and I “forced” the app into recalculating my route for the toll roads.

It was on my way back when I learned that I needed to configure Waze so that it knew my car was equipped with RFID stickers and thus allowed on the expressway. I’ve seen this feature before, but since both Autosweep and Easytrip weren’t in the selection yet, I never bothered messing about with the settings until my recent discovery. Anyway, here’s how to reconfigure Waze for those with RFIDs fitted already (the steps should be similar for both Android and Apple users):

  1. Hit My Waze on the home screen.
  2. Tap the Settings cog at the upper-left side of the screen.
  3. Select Toll & HOV passes.
  4. Press the Add button for both Autosweep and Easytrip.
  5. Return to the home screen.

After adjusting the settings, you should see an immediate change in Waze’s routing. In my case, the estimate travel time was reduced from over seven hours to less than three. Furthermore, the app is now directing me toward toll roads and expressways.

Once Waze is reconfigured, it can now provide you with a route that uses toll roads. SCREENSHOTS FROM WAZE

I suspect that either the software or the map was updated on December 1, the day when all expressway operators must completely transition to cashless transactions. If you want to spare yourself the trouble of mental mix-up on tollways, follow the above simple steps to get Waze ready for expressway use.



Miggi Solidum

Miggi is an editor-at-large at VISOR. Professionally speaking, he is a software engineering dude who happens to like cars a lot. And as an automotive enthusiast, he wants a platform from which he can share his motoring thoughts with fellow petrolheads. He writes the 'G-Force' column.



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