SINGAPORE - Drivers of around 5,400 cars have faced problems with their Electronic Road Pricing on-board units (OBUs), including issues with wiring that have necessitated return visits to workshops.

This represents 1.8 per cent of around 300,000 cars that have had the unit installed so far, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) told The Straits Times on June 10.

LTA said that as at June, more than 500,000 vehicles - including other vehicle types such as commercial vehicles - have been fitted with OBUs since installation started in November 2023. This means the installation exercise has crossed the halfway mark towards equipping the entire vehicle population of around 1 million units with OBUs by 2026.

The OBUs are used for road toll and carpark payments, among other things, as part of Singapore’s move to the new ERP system, known as ERP 2.0.

LTA said: “As with any large-scale technology roll-out, some vehicles may experience issues that require follow-up checks.”

Some motorists told ST they could not enter carparks or pay road charges with their OBUs, which became unresponsive.

A spokesman for Lim Tan Motor in Sin Ming said owners of around 5 per cent of the 200 or so cars on which the workshop has installed OBUs have come back for help, mostly because the carpark gantries could not detect the units.

He said this is more common at private and commercial building carparks than at those operated by the Housing Board. Another complaint is that the touchscreen display freezes.

OBU installation is free for all vehicles registered before May 1, 2024, if the unit is installed by the deadline stated in an LTA invitation letter to owners. All vehicles registered from May 1, 2024, have come fitted with the unit.

Depending on the vehicle, an OBU installation takes between two and four hours, and it can take just as long to troubleshoot and replace the unit.

For vehicles other than motorcycles, the OBU consists of three parts: an antenna, a processing unit that holds the stored-value card, and an optional touchscreen display.

For service and workshop manager Lester Yong, 48, the OBU touchscreen display on the van that his company, an industrial equipment supplier, leased showed a blank screen in April - five months after the unit was installed.

The leasing company that ...