ERP 2.0 and parking in a rental car

Singapore is replacing the first-generation ERP units with the ERP 2.0 On-Board Unit, or OBU: a processing unit tucked away from the dashboard, a small antenna on it, and on many cars a touchscreen. LTA is phasing the old units out by the end of 2026, and from 1 January 2027 every Singapore-registered car must have an OBU to use public roads.

Every SwiftDrive car already has one. ERP charges are taken as you pass under a gantry, with nothing for you to stop for, insert or tap.

ERP and parking are passed on at cost: what LTA or the carpark charges is what you pay, with no mark-up, and the charges appear on your receipt.

Rates depend on the gantry, the direction and the half-hour you pass through, and LTA reviews them every quarter. If you would like to keep them down, OneMotoring publishes the current rates and gantry locations, so you can plan around the busiest gantries at peak times.

From 1 January 2027, a missed ERP charge becomes the vehicle owner's responsibility rather than the driver's, with a S$10 administrative fee if it is not paid within five days of LTA's SMS. In a rental, that notice comes to us.

Singapore carparks take payment in one of three ways, and the signs at the entrance tell you which.

• Gantry carparks, in malls, condominiums and many HDB estates, charge automatically when you leave. Not every carpark takes the OBU's backend payment yet, so LTA suggests keeping a CEPAS card, such as NETS FlashPay or an EZ-Link Motoring card, to hand.
• Coupon carparks, in older HDB estates and on URA streets, are paid through the Parking.sg app: enter the car's number plate, start a session, and extend or end it from your phone. Unused minutes are refunded. Sessions are paid from your own app account.
• Paper parking coupons still work in coupon carparks, displayed on the dashboard, if you would rather not use the app.

Short-term parking at HDB carparks outside the central area is S$0.60 per half hour. Inside the central area it is S$1.20 per half hour from 7 am to 5 pm, Monday to Saturday, and S$0.60 at other times. Many HDB carparks are free from 7 am to 10:30 pm on Sundays and public holidays, and overnight parking from 10:30 pm to 7 am is capped at S$5 per night (rates as summarised by Evolt, July 2026).

If you will have the car for a month or more, season parking may be cheaper. It is sold by the calendar month, for one to twelve months at a time, against the car's number plate. A resident's first car pays S$80 a month at a surface carpark and S$110 at a sheltered one; other cars pay more. Check HDB's e-service for the rules that apply to a car not registered in your name before you rely on it.

Condominiums set their own rules through the management corporation's by-laws. Register the rental with the management office or guardhouse when it arrives; many ask for the rental agreement as proof, and some limit how many nights a visitor's car may stay. A quick message to the guardhouse before your delivery window also gets our driver through the barrier on time.

Driving onto Sentosa, there is an island entry charge at the Sentosa Gateway gantry, which varies by time of day. The CBD has the densest cluster of ERP gantries and the highest carpark rates, so for a meeting in town, a carpark just outside the CBD and a short walk is often both cheaper and quicker. At Changi Airport, cars may not wait at the arrival or departure kerbs; use the short-term carparks.

Fines and camera notices are addressed to the car's registered owner, which is us. We pass the fine on to the driver at the time, with an administrative fee of S$30 per fine, and where the offence carries demerit points, the authorities may ask us to name the driver. Speed and red-light cameras are common on Singapore roads, and parking wardens are thorough.