ERP rates for a car run from S$0.50 to S$6.00 per gantry in 2026, set in half-hour blocks and reviewed every quarter by LTA. The toll only hurts your wallet badly when you get it wrong: drive through an operating gantry with no working unit or no stored value, and the charge becomes a S$70 fine per gantry. To avoid ERP fines you mostly need a working unit and a balance the system can draw on. With Singapore halfway through the switch from gantry-mounted In-Vehicle Units to the satellite-based ERP 2.0 system, the payment and penalty rules have shifted, and a few of them catch drivers off guard.
ERP is congestion pricing. You pay a fee to use a priced road during the busy window, and the fee is set to keep traffic moving at a target speed. The amount depends on three things: the location, the exact time you pass, and your vehicle type.
For a passenger car, taxi or light goods vehicle, charges currently sit between S$0.50 and S$6.00 per gantry. Rates step up and down in half-hour blocks, so the same gantry can cost S$3 at 8:30am and S$1 by 9:30am. LTA reviews rates every quarter and adjusts them where average speeds drift outside the target band, which is why the number you remember from last year may be wrong today.
Vehicle type changes the bill. Motorcycles pay roughly half the car rate. Heavier vehicles such as lorries and buses pay more than a car for the same gantry. The published rate tables are built around the car rate, with the other categories scaled off it, so always check the table for your own vehicle class rather than assuming the headline car figure.
ERP does not run all day, every day. Knowing the free windows is the cheapest way to cut your bill without changing your route.
There is no ERP on Sundays or on public holidays at all. On weekdays and Saturdays, charges apply only during the specific operating periods at each gantry, mostly the morning and evening peaks plus some midday windows in the CBD. Outside those blocks the gantry reads your unit but deducts nothing.
LTA raised rates at four locations from 23 March 2026 after January traffic data showed congestion building on several expressway stretches. Each affected charge went up by S$1. The Ayer Rajah Expressway after Jurong Town Hall towards the city rose across its morning blocks (for example 8:30 to 9:00am moved from S$3 to S$4), the AYE towards Tuas after North Buona Vista went up in the evening, the northbound Central Expressway after the PIE rose to S$4 in the evening peak, and the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway after Defu Flyover rose to S$4 in the morning.
The 2 June 2026 review went both ways. LTA cut rates at six locations across 18 time periods for the June school holidays, from 2 to 28 June 2026, because school-run traffic eases over the break. From 29 June 2026 it raised rates by S$1 at two locations to manage the return to normal: the AYE after Jurong Town Hall towards the city, and the PIE at Kallang Bahru and the slip road into Bendemeer.
Orchard is the one to watch. The Orchard cordon has been unpriced since 2020, but LTA has said it is monitoring traffic there and will resume ERP for the Orchard cordon if congestion worsens in a coming quarter. If you drive through town regularly, budget for the possibility that those gantries start charging again.
| Location | Time window | Old rate | New rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| AYE after Jurong Town Hall, towards city | 8:30-9:00am | S$3 | S$4 |
| AYE after Jurong Town Hall, towards city | 9:00-9:30am | S$2 | S$3 |
| AYE after Jurong Town Hall, towards city | 9:30-10:00am | S$1 | S$2 |
| AYE after North Buona Vista, towards Tuas | 6:30-7:00pm | S$2 | S$3 |
| CTE northbound after PIE | 5:30-6:00pm | S$3 | S$4 |
| KPE after Defu Flyover | 7:30-8:00am | S$3 | S$4 |
Do not guess. The only reliable rate is the current published one, because quarterly reviews move the numbers and a sign you remember may be stale.
LTA publishes the full rate tables on the OneMotoring portal, broken down by gantry, day type and half-hour block, with separate tables for cars, motorcycles and heavier vehicles. The portal also has a Check ERP Rates digital service where you enter your route and time. For commuters, the practical move is to look up your specific corridor once, note the cheapest crossing window, and plan around it.
The toll itself is small. The pain comes from the penalties, and almost all of them are avoidable. There are two ways a normal driver ends up paying far more than the gantry rate.
First, no working unit or no stored value. If you pass an operating gantry without a functioning In-Vehicle Unit or On-Board Unit, or with no payment source the system can charge, the penalty is S$70 per gantry. Drive a congested route with three priced gantries on a flat CashCard and you are looking at S$210 before you have finished your commute. This is the expensive mistake, and it is entirely about hardware and balance, not bad driving.
Second, insufficient balance on a stored-value setup. Since 1 October 2024 there is a grace period: when a deduction fails, LTA sends an SMS and you have five days to pay the missed ERP charge with no administrative fee. Settle it inside the window and you pay only the toll you owed. Miss the window and a physical notice follows with the original ERP charge plus a S$10 administrative charge per outstanding amount, and continued non-payment can be treated as the S$70-per-gantry offence.
Most ERP overpayment is self-inflicted. Two habits fix the penalty risk, and a bit of route discipline trims the toll itself.
On the penalty side, the rule is simple: never let your payment source run dry. With an older IU and a physical CashCard, that means checking the balance and topping up before a long drive, or moving to an auto top-up or backend payment service so deductions never bounce. With an OBU under ERP 2.0, link a backend payment method so charges settle automatically. On the toll side, shifting your crossing by 20 to 30 minutes, or one street over to an unpriced parallel road, often saves a dollar or two per gantry every working day, which compounds across a year.
Let an app do the route maths. Google Maps, Waze and the ERP 2.0 app all flag priced gantries and can route around them, so you see the cheaper path before you set off rather than spotting a signboard too late. For a corridor you drive daily, work it out once and lock in the timing and route.
Singapore is replacing the 1998-era gantry-and-IU system with ERP 2.0, a satellite-based system that uses the Global Navigation Satellite System and an On-Board Unit instead of a roadside gantry reading an In-Vehicle Unit. By 31 May 2026, more than 96 per cent of vehicles, over 960,000 of them, had an OBU installed.
The headline for drivers: in 2026 the congestion pricing framework has not changed. Physical gantries are still operating and ERP is still deducted at them. The OBU is the device doing the paying, but where and when you are charged is the same as before during this transition. The pricing engine has not moved to distance-based charging.
From 1 January 2027, an OBU is mandatory for all Singapore-registered vehicles, and IUs are being phased out by end-2026. Installation is free during your notified window; LTA began sending final reminders from 15 February 2026 with a three-month window to install for free. Miss it and you pay S$35 for a motorcycle or S$70 for other vehicles, excluding GST. Foreign-registered vehicles have been able to fit an OBU since 1 April 2026 at S$158.70 including GST, plus a workshop installation fee.
The car OBU comes in three pieces: an antenna on the dashboard, a processing unit fitted out of sight, and an optional touchscreen display. Motorcycles get a single weatherproofed unit instead.
The touchscreen shows charges and alerts, but its notifications grey out once the vehicle is moving so it cannot distract you at the wheel. You can also read charges and top up through the LTA's ERP 2.0 app, and navigation apps such as Breeze and Galactio plug into the same data. The display is optional; the unit charges you whether or not you fit the screen.
The OBU itself is not the cost story for most Singapore-registered drivers, since the unit and standard installation are free if you act within your window. The cost story is the same one it has always been: the running tolls, plus the much larger fixed costs of owning the car around them.
If you are weighing whether daily ERP, parking and the rest make car ownership worth it, look at the full picture rather than the gantry alone. The COE, road tax, insurance and fuel dwarf your monthly ERP.
The gantry can only charge you if it has something to draw on. Three setups do that job, and picking the right one is the single biggest thing standing between you and a missed deduction.
A stored-value card sits in your unit and pays from a balance you load yourself. That works until the day you forget to top up. Auto top-up links the card to your bank or wallet so it refills before it runs flat. A backend payment service skips the card balance entirely and bills a saved card or account after each trip, which is the closest thing to set-and-forget. Under ERP 2.0, the OBU pairs with the same backend options, so once it is linked you stop thinking about balances at all.
| Method | How it pays | Failure risk |
|---|---|---|
| Stored-value card (NETS CashCard, EZ-Link Motoring, NETS FlashPay) | Draws on a balance you load yourself | High if you forget to top up |
| Auto top-up (SimplyGo or NETS) | Refills the card automatically before it runs low | Low, as long as the linked account is funded |
| Backend payment service (AXS Drive, EZ-Link Motoring, NETS Virtual CashCard) | Bills a saved card or account after each charge | Very low, no balance to run dry |
If you drive in from Malaysia or further afield, ERP still applies to you. You have two ways to settle it, and the cheaper one depends on how often you cross.
A foreign-registered car can pay a flat S$5 per day, deducted from an Autopass Card, instead of installing a unit. That covers all ERP charges for the day no matter how many gantries you pass, which suits an occasional visitor. Drive in often and it is usually cheaper to fit a unit and pay the actual per-gantry rates like a local car.
ERP 2.0 reaches foreign vehicles too. From 1 April 2026, foreign-registered vehicles can install an OBU at S$158.70 including GST, valid until 31 December 2026, plus a workshop installation fee. From 1 January 2027, a foreign vehicle without an OBU pays a flat fee on each ERP operating day instead of per-gantry rates: S$3 for a motorcycle and S$10 for other vehicles.
Some drivers try to dodge a charge by pulling onto the expressway shoulder until the rate drops or the gantry switches off. It is a worse trade than the toll it avoids.
Stopping on the carriageway, shoulder or verge of an expressway is its own traffic offence, enforced by the Traffic Police, not LTA. It carries 4 demerit points and a composition fine of S$150 for a light vehicle or S$200 for a heavy one. You would be paying 75 to 100 times a typical gantry rate, collecting demerit points, and creating a safety hazard, all to save a dollar or two. Cross the gantry, or take an unpriced parallel road instead.
Numbers make the penalty risk concrete. Say your daily commute crosses three priced gantries each way at an average S$2 per gantry. That is S$12 a day, around S$240 over a 20-working-day month in tolls alone.
Now run a flat CashCard for a week without noticing. Each operating gantry you pass with no valid payment becomes a S$70 charge. Three gantries each way over five days is 30 gantry passes. Even if only the morning legs catch you before you fix it, you can rack up several hundred dollars in penalties on top of the tolls you still owe. The fix costs nothing: a working unit and a balance the system can draw on.
For a car, taxi or light goods vehicle, ERP runs from S$0.50 to S$6.00 per gantry depending on the location and the exact half-hour you pass. Motorcycles pay roughly half the car rate, and heavier vehicles pay more. LTA reviews and adjusts these rates every quarter, so check the current OneMotoring rate table for your route.
If you pass an operating gantry with no working In-Vehicle Unit or On-Board Unit, or with no valid payment source, the penalty is S$70 per gantry. Several gantries on one commute mean the penalty stacks. The fix is a working unit plus a stored-value balance or backend payment method the system can charge.
Since 1 October 2024, a failed deduction triggers an SMS giving you five days to pay the missed charge with no administrative fee. Pay inside the window and you owe only the toll. Miss it and you get a physical notice with the original charge plus a S$10 administrative charge, and ongoing non-payment can escalate to the S$70-per-gantry penalty.
There is no ERP on Sundays or on any public holiday. On weekdays and Saturdays, charges apply only during each gantry's operating windows. On the eves of New Year's Day, Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali and Christmas Day, ERP stops at 1:00pm.
An OBU is mandatory for all Singapore-registered vehicles from 1 January 2027, with IUs phased out by end-2026. The unit and standard installation are free if you install during your notified window. Miss the free window and you pay S$35 for a motorcycle or S$70 for other vehicles, excluding GST. As of 31 May 2026, over 96 per cent of vehicles already had one fitted.
No. Through 2026 the congestion pricing framework is unchanged. Physical gantries still operate and ERP is still deducted at them; the OBU is just the device doing the paying. The system has not switched to distance-based charging, so where and when you are charged is the same as before.
Use the OneMotoring ERP rate tables or the Check ERP Rates digital service on the OneMotoring portal. Look up your specific gantry, day type and half-hour block for your vehicle class, and confirm the effective date on the table so you are reading the current quarter's rates rather than an old version.
A foreign-registered car can pay a flat S$5 per day from an Autopass Card, which covers every ERP gantry it passes that day, or install a unit and pay the actual per-gantry rates like a local car. Frequent visitors usually find a unit cheaper. From 1 April 2026 a foreign vehicle can fit an OBU for S$158.70 including GST plus a workshop fee, and from 1 January 2027 a foreign vehicle with no OBU pays a flat S$3 per ERP day for a motorcycle or S$10 for other vehicles.
Use auto top-up or a backend payment service rather than a manually loaded stored-value card. Auto top-up (via SimplyGo or NETS) refills the card before it runs low, and a backend service such as AXS Drive, EZ-Link Motoring or NETS Virtual CashCard bills a saved account after each charge with no balance to run dry. An OBU under ERP 2.0 links to the same backend options, so a linked unit settles charges automatically and the S$70 no-payment penalty stops being a risk.
Motorcycles pay roughly half the car rate at each gantry, so where a car pays S$0.50 to S$6.00, a motorcycle pays a correspondingly lower figure. Check the motorcycle column of the OneMotoring rate table for your exact gantry, day type and half-hour block, as the categories are scaled separately rather than a flat percentage everywhere.
No. Stopping on the carriageway, shoulder or verge of an expressway is a Traffic Police offence carrying 4 demerit points and a composition fine of S$150 for a light vehicle or S$200 for a heavy one, far more than any single ERP charge. If you want to avoid a gantry, change your timing or take an unpriced parallel road instead of stopping on the road.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.