Motoring Today Column

Mar 28, 2018

The men and women of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) have their work cut out for them in ensuring safe and hassle-free travel in tollways under their watch all year round.

"We are implementing a more extensive motorists assistance program starting this Holy Week to further improve our services for safe and convenient travel to our motorists traveling between Metro Manila and Central and North Luzon provinces," announced MPTC's dynamic President and CEO, Rodrigo E. Franco.

In a recent media gathering attended by Motoring Today it was announced that starting this year, MPTC, the holding company of NLEX, SCTEX, and CAVITEX, is expanding the coverage of its annual "Safe Trip Mo Sagot Ko" (SMSK) motorist assistance program to include not only this year'sHoly Week, Undas, and Christmas holidays but also the forthcoming long weekends specifically Araw ng Kagitingan (April 7-9), National Heroes' Day (August 25-27) and Bonifacio Day (November 30-December 2).

The SMSK is MPTC's annual motorist assistance program intended to ensure hassle-free travel during holidays by enhancing all services in all three MPTC-owned expressways.

"Apart from expanding the coverage to the long weekends, the SMSK will also render 24-hour free towing services for Class 1 vehicles during the specific periods instead of the usual 12-hour operation," added Rod, MPTC's friendly top honcho in his usual soft-speaking demeanor.

Motoring Today also learned that from March 23 to April 2, NLEX-SCTEX traffic personnel will devote extended working hours and intensified patrol coverage to closely monitor and manage the expected surge of vehicles in Balintawak, Mindanao Avenue, Bocaue, Sta. Ines, Tarlac, and Subic-Tipo toll plazas. Additional patrol and incident response teams will also be ready to assist motorists at all interchanges and fuel stations.

Additionally on the peak hours starting today,March 28, 29, and April 1, the Balintawak Toll Plaza will open 24 toll collection points while Mindanao Avenue and Tarlac Toll Plazas will open 10 and 29 toll collection points, respectively. Portabooths and portable toll collection equipment will be used to speed up transactions.

By April 1, the Bocaue Toll Plaza will have a maximum of 62 toll collection points in operation for motorists going back to Metro Manila.

During the same period, CAVITEX will deploy more traffic patrol officers and security personnel to manage the traffic and assist motorists. Ambulant tellers will be on standby to facilitate faster toll transactions.

Road works at the NLEX-SCTEX and CAVITEX will be suspended beginning March 23 until April 2 unless safety repairs are required.

On March 28 to April 1, MPTC and its partners will set up SMSK Motorist Camps and provide free services such as free calls and Wi-Fi, free drinking water, free basic mechanic services and first aid treatments in designated locations along NLEX, SCTEX, and CAVITEX.

Free towing services to the nearest exit will be offered to Class 1 from 6:00AM starting today,March 28 to 12:00 midnight of April 1.

Indeed, MPTC leads the way in world-class tollways management and operations.

Way to go, Rod.

It may not have been known to some, including myself until last week's launch of its all-new RZ4E Blue Power engine that Isuzu has more than 80 years of experience manufacturing diesel engines and with more than 27 million diesel engines produced.

In a statement released during the event it was announced that Isuzu now sits on the Number One position in various commercial vehicle categories in 29 countries worldwide, including the Philippines.

"The global trend of producing smaller capacity engine that has an output of larger engines has come to Isuzu," said IPC President Hajime Koso in his opening remarks during the event . "The new RZ4E Blue Power engine, carries with it our years of experience as a diesel engine manufacturer. Carefully developed to provide optimized power and torque; this engine performs efficiently, with much care for the environment, running with less noise & vibrations, and is very easy to maintain," he added.

During the intimate luncheon launch at the Makati Shangri-La exclusive to the motoring media, Isuzu Philippines stated that given its new design and quite a number of new engine parts installed, the new RZ4E performs efficiently which has been proven in the recent fuel-efficient testing conducted by the company. During their testing, IPC conducted their test using the Isuzu mu-X RZ4E LS-A variants running alongside its current Isuzu mu-X 2.5L variants which presently runs economically based on previous testing. The Isuzu mu-X RZ4E LS-A MT recorded37.27 km/l, while theIsuzu mu-X RZ4E LS-A AT logs a total of 35.80 km/l. The test is conducted under the supervision and verification of the Automobile Association Philippines (AAP) following the Department of Energy (DOE) testing parameters and standards.

The all-new RZ4E Blue Power engine is set to replace Isuzu's existing 2.5-liter variants and will be made available for both the Isuzu mu-X and D-MAX models.