Update on Roll-out of On-Board Units for ERP 2.0 System

12 Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether an update can be provided on the roll-out of the installation of On-Board Units (OBU) for the Electronic Road Pricing 2.0 system; and (b) whether the Land Transport Authority is on track to complete OBU installations by end-2025.

The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Transport): As of 31 December 2024, more than 217,000 vehicles have been fitted with the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) 2.0 On-Board Units (OBU). We are on track to complete the installation by 2026.

Mr Speaker: Mr Melvin Yong.

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her very short answer and I note that the roll-out is on track.

My supplementary question is on the third-party applications. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) released this software development kit to encourage third parties to develop applications that can complement the roll-out of the ERP 2.0 system. As a driver, in fact, I am one of the early adopters of the ERP 2.0 OBU, I am appreciative of some of the third-party applications, such as the real-time information on parking availability. So, I would like to ask how many of these third-party apps have since been developed for ERP 2.0? What are some of the new features that drivers can look forward to and when will these be rolled out? Does LTA have any plans to further encourage the development of such apps to further improve the robustness of ERP 2.0?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I thank the Member for his supplementary question. Firstly, with regard to third-party apps, we now have three third-party apps: one is by NCS, an app called Breeze; another app is by Galactico; the third one is by Motorist.sg. In addition, we have our own LTA in-house developed app. We are more than happy to work with third-party developers. In fact, we encourage and work with the industry app developers to develop apps that use our ERP 2.0 data with the Software Development Kit and develop apps that will be useful and will enhance the usefulness of the ERP 2.0 OBU through using the handphone.

With regard to the OBU features, which are available on the OBU screen itself, as well as through the handphone or it can be pushed to the handphone, currently, we have features to indicate School Zones, Silver Zones, bus lanes and, of course, Traffic Police speed cameras. We have enhanced that so that it is not just indicating the fixed speed cameras, but also the mobile speed cameras and the red-light speed cameras.

Then, we also have travel time along expressways, car park availability. In fact, we have enhanced that. It is no more just in the city area, but you can also get car park availability in Buona Vista and Jurong. Also, information on road closures for major events, like the National Day Parade or Purple Parade, for instance. Also, height advisories for goods vehicles.

And then we are looking at developing other features and among them would be, for instance, reminder of missed ERP payments that you can pay via the OBU and dynamic road traffic messages, like if there is a traffic accident.