New Pantai Expressway (NPE) have begun to deploy payment card terminal at toll plazas in preparation for the upcoming launch of the open payment system for toll payments. This is based on what we discovered earlier today at the highway’s PJS5 toll plaza heading towards Petaling Jaya.
As you might be able to tell from the image below, we stumbled upon this setup at one of the lanes that were dedicated to the Touch 'n Go card. While the reader is already turned on, it has not yet been activated and the only thing shown on the display is the logo of its manufacturer, PAX Technology which is based in Shenzhen, China:
At a glance, the setup seemed rather rudimentary but we decided to dive a little bit further into PAX Technology's website to check out the specs of the terminal. Called PAX IM30, the card reader is powered by an unnamed 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 processor and 1GB of LPDDR3 although it can support up to 2GB of RAM.
Running on a proprietary Android-based operating system, the IM30 also features a 5-inch 720p TFT touch display covered by an anti-glare coating and a brightness level of over 600 nits. It comes with a LAN port as standard but can be fitted with 4G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth capabilities as well.
Aside from contactless payment, IM30 can also support chip & PIN payment as well. The terminal does support magnetic swipe too but such a method was already deemed obsolete over here after Bank Negara Malaysia prohibited signature-based card payment on 1 July 2017.
Meanwhile, the IM30 is also able to support QR code payment through its downward facing 0.3MP camera. The feature opens up the possibility for NPE to directly support QR-based eWallet services and banking apps as payment options.
In general, the deployment of the card terminal by NPE for toll payments did not come as a surprise to us since we are only two and half months away before the open payment system is supposed to go live. However, we do hope that the highway as well as other related parties have thoroughly tested out all the elements associated with credit and debit card payments to guarantee smooth transactions all the time.
Aside from NPE, other highway concessionaries such as Duta-Ulu Kelang Expressway (DUKE), Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP), and Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS) will also implement credit and debit card payments by this coming September. Hence, expect to see card payment terminals popping up on these highways very soon which will mark the end of Touch ‘n Go domination over toll payment.
Related reading
- Road to MLFF: These 5 highways will support credit and debit cards by September 2023
- Works Minister explains why open payment system for highway tolling is taking so long
- Works Minister says MLFF is now known as Multi-Lane-FAST-Flow and here's why
- Credit and Debit card support and MLFF for highway tolls: 3 big questions
