Jakarta Transportation Department implemented the second phase trial of electronic road pricing (ERP) system on Jalan HR Rasuna Said, Kuningan, South Jakarta, Tuesday (9/30). This time, the trial is handled by a PT Q-Free, a company originated from Norwegia, and IBM, an informatics technology company from the United States.

Vehicle owners can check and top up the balance in their OBU devices through the smart phone application or via SMS

“Similar to the first phase, this trial also aims to find out the ability and performance of ERP devices, such as their ability to record vehicle’s plate number and so on,” stated Head of Jakarta Transportation Department, Muhammad Akbar, during the soft launch of ERP trial in Kuningan.

According to Akbar, a very noticeable difference from ERP system on Jalan HR Rasuna Said is the L-shaped device, unlike the one on Jalan Sudirman that is wicket-shaped. In addition, the devices also have a Variable Message Sign and integrated with smart phone application. Thus, vehicle owners can check and top up balance in On Board Unit (OBU) device through the application and short messaging service (SMS).

“Vehicle owners can check and top up the balance in their OBU devices through the smart phone application or via SMS. We plan to test the ERP gate in Kuningan for three months to know its performance. 100 OBU devices will be installed in cars owned by Transportation Department, PT Q-Free, and also road users,” he uttered.

Moreover, Akbar informed that the ERP tariff to be charged is around Rp 30-35 thousand. The nominal is based on evaluation from traffic density and vehicle speed in areas installed with ERP software.

“The tariff is dynamic, in accordance to the results of evaluation where we saw the average speed of passing vehicles. Currently, the vehicle speed is still below 20 kilometers per hour. If it reached 30-40 kilometers per hour, we might lower the tariff,” he said.

As known, ERP is one of Jakarta Provincial Government’s breakthroughs in resolving traffic congestion problem. However, its implementation is predicted next year because Transportation Department must conduct the selection of auction documents first until next December, then continued with auction and contract process until early February or March 2015.

Meanwhile, PT Q-Free Technical Manager, Harry Gunawan, disclosed that ERP devices on Jalan HR Rasuna Said can take vehicle pictures at speed up to 200 kilometers per hour.

“Each device consists of two laser scanners to detect vehicles and two OBU readers. And on each lane, there are two cameras installed to take pictures of license plate numbers in front and rear of the vehicles,” he explained.