2


TOLL MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE #2: VIOLATIONS AND BILLING ERRORS


A toll facility may use AET, but that does not mean the transaction shown on the invoice is accurate. License plate readers (LPRs), for example, can have difficulty due to dirty cameras, smudged plates, and reflection from the sun. LPRs typically capture the trailer plate. But that trailer may belong to an interlining carrier, shipper, or a rental company, not to the carrier actually operating on the toll facility. Or a trailer may find its way from one regional operation of the motor carrier to another – without the operating carrier first properly registering it with the local toll agency.


With LPRs, toll authorities can mistakenly assign charges to the wrong company or flag a truck as an unregistered vehicle. Resolving these LPR issues takes time, and the toll agency may add service fees and penalties if the underlying toll charge goes unpaid during the dispute process.


Toll transponders help avoid some of these problems because they are far more accurate than LPRs. Transponders also cost less because they do not require the manual back-office matching of fuzzy photo images to vehicle registration lists. Toll agencies pass on those LPR costs through significantly higher rates for “plate reads” than for transponder transactions. Plate reads do show up on the monthly toll invoice but finding them requires a close review.


Still, even with a 99.9% dependability rate, transponders can generate misreads – the occasional power outage, power surge or dead battery may disable a toll gate’s readers or create an electrical blip that misses a truck entering or exiting the tollway. Something as simple as placing the transponder in the wrong place on the windshield can create a misread. When the transponder is not read at entry or exit, the toll agency will assess maximum tolls, also known as max tolls, as if the truck traveled the entire toll route. Max tolls are very expensive – on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the New York Thruway, for example, a max toll runs well over $100!


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9