SMC Infra waives toll for 84K vehicles affected by ETC disruption

SMC Infrastructure sincerely apologized to all motorists affected by traffic jams along portions of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), Skyway, NAIAx and STAR Tollway on November 17, resulting from a momentary network outage in its electronic toll collection system.

SMC Infrastructure information technology teams traced the source of the downtime to a cut in the company’s fiber optic network. The company was still determining the root cause of the damage, but there were indications that a major vehicular accident might have contributed to the situation.

To help ease traffic congestion, SMC Infrastructure deployed additional manpower to provide support for motorists.

The company also opened affected toll plazas and waived toll fees. All in all, remedial measures covered around 84,000 vehicles that passed through the expressways from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. that Thursday.

The measures included motorists whose ETC accounts were deducted upon entry; they would receive electronic refunds in their Autosweep accounts. While the system was restored around 9 a.m., SMC Infrastructure decided to keep barriers at toll plazas up to enable all affected motorists to pass through for free.

SMC Infrastructure apologized for the inconvenience and asked for the motorists’ understanding as the company worked to ensure that it delivered the same high level of efficiency and reliability that motorists had come to expect of the company at all times.