The Digital Marbete: how it works

It is an electronic tag stuck to your vehicle’s windscreen that replaces the sticker marbete that has always existed. You get it by registering an eligible Toll Tag through CESCO Digital, or by receiving it at the point of sale during an in-person renewal. Once the process is complete, that tag does not have to be replaced every year.

By vehicle category, DTOP’s page lists as eligible the automobile (regular vehicle), the cargo vehicle or light truck, the motorcycle, ambulances (ATLS and BTLS) and the hearse. It lists as NOT eligible at this phase the omnibus (school buses, for example), the heavy truck, the trailer, the tow-behind, the crane truck and all-terrain vehicles. Leased vehicles, or ones not in your name, cannot register the tag through CESCO Digital, though they do get the Marbete Digital at their next renewal by the usual process for that kind of vehicle. You also need an eligible Toll Tag already stuck to the windscreen, or to the headlight on a motorcycle.

• An eligible Toll Tag already stuck to the vehicle’s windscreen or the motorcycle’s headlight, with a number starting in "PRHT".Verified against the official source
• That the vehicle be in one of the eligible categories and not leased or in someone else’s name, if you are registering it through CESCO Digital.Verified against the official source
• A CESCO Digital account. If you have none, the system asks for your driver’s licence number or plate, the last 4 digits of your Social Security number and your month, day and year of birth.Verified against the official source
• To renew: the vehicle inspection if it is more than two years old, and no unpaid toll charges or fines and no critical liens.Verified against the official source

• Your Toll Tag number. At an in-person renewal you must give the cashier the 8 digits following "PRHT", so it is worth photographing the tag before you go.
• A Visa or Mastercard credit card, if you are paying through the app.

1. 1

   Step 1: Confirm the vehicle and the tag are eligible

   They are two different eligibilities and you must pass both: the vehicle’s, by category, and the tag’s, by type. The eligible tag number starts with "PRHT". DTOP’s page shows the eligible and non-eligible tag types as images this guide cannot transcribe, so if your tag is old, compare it there before counting on it. If you have no tag, the page says you can wait for your next in-person renewal, where the electronic tag is handed to you at no additional cost.

2. 2

   Step 2: Register the tag in CESCO Digital

   Log in to your CESCO Digital account, choose the registration option and select the vehicle. On the registration screen type the tag’s identification number, the one starting with "PRHT". Confirm the information is correct and accept. The system confirms the Marbete Digital has been registered. If you have no account, the app opens one asking for your licence number or plate, the last four digits of your Social Security number and your date of birth.

3. 3

   Step 3: Registering is not yet permission to use it

   This is the page’s central warning, worth reading twice: "registering your Toll Tag does not mean you can already use it as a Marbete Digital; you must wait for the expiry date, inspect your vehicle and make the corresponding payments in order to use it officially". Until that happens, the marbete that counts is the sticker you already have on.

4. 4

   Step 4: Renewal through CESCO Digital

   If the vehicle is more than two years old, inspect it as usual. Then log in to CESCO Digital, select your vehicle and the Marbete Digital Renewal alert, and pay the annual fees with a Visa or Mastercard. Along the way the app asks you to confirm the Marbete Digital number and your email, checks whether the vehicle has a traditional policy in force, lets you choose the ACAA coverage and the liability insurance, shows the summary of charges and fines if any, and offers the UPR donation. A vehicle is eligible to renew 31 days before expiry, and can also be renewed after expiry.

5. 5

   Step 5: In-person renewal, with or without a tag

   Inspect the vehicle if it is due and go to the inspection centre, bank, cooperative or colecturía of your choice. There you pay the annual fees, the ACAA and the compulsory insurance. If you have an eligible toll tag, give the cashier the 8 digits following "PRHT". If you do not, the point of sale provides the official Marbete Digital, and that tag can afterwards be registered with AutoExpreso to use at tolls. The new tag goes in the centre of the windscreen, below the rear-view mirror.

6. 6

   Step 6: When to peel off the sticker

   At the end of its month, not before. The page repeats it in capitals: do not remove the sticker marbete before its expiry date, before inspecting the vehicle and before making the payments; every marbete expires on the last day of the month shown. Once that day has passed, you peel the sticker off the windscreen — or off the plate, on a motorcycle — and discard it.

7. 7

   Step 7: If you sell the vehicle

   The Marbete Digital is not removed when you sell the vehicle: the page says so as an important note. The transfer follows the same steps as always, and the toll account must be handled by buyer and seller directly with AutoExpreso.

In the CESCO Digital app, to register the tag and to renew; or in person at an inspection centre, bank, cooperative or colecturía, where the tag is also handed over if you do not have one. DTOP’s call centre is 1-833-9-DTOP-PR.

• Peeling off the sticker the day you register the tag: you must wait for the last day of the expiry month, after the inspection and the payments.
• Assuming a leased vehicle can be registered through the app, when the page excludes it from that route.
• Counting on a toll tag that is not among the eligible ones and removing it before completing the renewal.
• Going to the point of sale without the tag number: you must give the 8 digits following "PRHT".
• Believing the Marbete Digital wipes out fines: at renewal, fines and debts must be covered as always.
• Thinking the tag has to be replaced each year, when the whole point of the Marbete Digital is that it does not.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP)

  DTOP

  www.smarttransportation.pr.gov

• DTOP — Tolls and AutoExpreso in CESCO Digital (Renewal section)

  dtop

  www.smarttransportation.pr.gov