In the last 1 week, I drive to office via city toll road. I drive from Jatiasih (Jakarta Outer Ring Road), pass small part of Jagorawi toll, and get in to the Jakarta Inner City Toll road. Starting 19 of October, there is an interesting thing happening at Cililitan Ramp. There are two special toll payment gates that are using E-Toll Card. They are suppose to be an automatic gate. User use the E-toll card by putting the card close to the reader, get the print out receipt and drive into the toll road. People using that gates should at least get out of the gate faster than the normal cash payment gates. However, as far as I observe, the gate is even slower than the normal cash payment gate. Once I counted 14 seconds to finish one transaction at the e-toll gate. the standard time for cash transaction is 10 seconds (or maybe faster). this has caused delays and longer queue in the gate. the e-toll gate should be a faster option of the ramp, but i failed so far.
What have caused that sluggishness? There are at least two options that eventually lead to the technology. E-toll card uses different type of machine to read it. It is not like credit card or debit card that use swipe machine. E-toll card only needs to be "in touch" with the reader. The process should take very short time (2-3 seconds) and the transaction is done. It is true that after the transaction (payment and money is deducted) the gate is opening, but usually the car stays there maybe to get the printout of the receipt. The gap of the system might be in the printing stage. The whole system is actually quite complicated. It has to integrate car identification system (whether it is a small passenger car, bus, or trucks) and payment system. So far the installed one only handles small passenger car (type 1), so the complication is reduced. The system should work faster because it is not (yet) very complicated. The system integrator or designer has failed to provide fast reliable automatic gate system.
The second reason why the e-toll gate is so slow is because of its potential to replace manual gate operators. Can you imagine how many people will have to leave the job if the automation works fine? I do not know. Maybe hundreds of people directly in the job and thousands of people depending on them will be affected. Using this automatic gate will surely cut jobs and create unemployment.
The second reason might not have very strong technical relation to the slowness of automatic toll gate, but the potential condition can make certain people do something or more things strange, like tempering the machine so that it does not work properly. I hope, my second guess is not happening and the reason for slowness is purely technical reason.
Anyway, I am still waiting for better public transport so that I do not have to drive 60-70 kilometers per day. Bike? Let’s see. I am rather old to do it.
What have caused that sluggishness? There are at least two options that eventually lead to the technology. E-toll card uses different type of machine to read it. It is not like credit card or debit card that use swipe machine. E-toll card only needs to be "in touch" with the reader. The process should take very short time (2-3 seconds) and the transaction is done. It is true that after the transaction (payment and money is deducted) the gate is opening, but usually the car stays there maybe to get the printout of the receipt. The gap of the system might be in the printing stage. The whole system is actually quite complicated. It has to integrate car identification system (whether it is a small passenger car, bus, or trucks) and payment system. So far the installed one only handles small passenger car (type 1), so the complication is reduced. The system should work faster because it is not (yet) very complicated. The system integrator or designer has failed to provide fast reliable automatic gate system.
The second reason why the e-toll gate is so slow is because of its potential to replace manual gate operators. Can you imagine how many people will have to leave the job if the automation works fine? I do not know. Maybe hundreds of people directly in the job and thousands of people depending on them will be affected. Using this automatic gate will surely cut jobs and create unemployment.
The second reason might not have very strong technical relation to the slowness of automatic toll gate, but the potential condition can make certain people do something or more things strange, like tempering the machine so that it does not work properly. I hope, my second guess is not happening and the reason for slowness is purely technical reason.
Anyway, I am still waiting for better public transport so that I do not have to drive 60-70 kilometers per day. Bike? Let’s see. I am rather old to do it.
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