Posted on 09/22/2017 7:57:46 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Cashless payment systems like E-ZPass have helped make highway driving a less irksome experience by speeding up lines. Rental car companies even offer this option so you don’t have to worry about an embarrassing last-minute scrounge for change at the tollbooth, but rental car customers are now realizing that this convenience can come at a huge price.
We’ve previously told you about some of the steep fees involved in using a rental company’s toll-paying device, but those fees could be small change compared to penalties for drivers who use the car’s device without even realizing it.
The Pew’s Stateline recently took a look at how the convenience of cashless toll roads has turned into a cash machine of sorts for rental car companies, while draining the pockets of their customers.
• You rent a vehicle from your favorite car rental company.
• The car you receive is equipped with a transponder that detects when the vehicle passes under an electronic toll.
• While driving through a designated toll lane, the transponder records the toll, adding the charge to your bill.
While that sounds innocent enough — you use a toll road, you pay the toll — lawmakers and consumer advocates say there’s more to it.
Many rental car companies will charge convenience, administrative, or service fees for this toll service, turning a hypothetical $1.50 toll to a more than $20 charge on your bill.
Stateline reports that rental company’s fees for these services vary depending on how the company handles the service — for example, if they contract with a third-party, the fees could be more — and how it is presented to a customer.
For instance, an Avis customer driving on Maryland’s Intercounty Connector might be charged $3.95 in fees after going through a $2.11 toll, Stateline reports, adding that the fees don’t stop there. Once the customer goes through the toll, the customer will continue to pay the $3.95 fee each day they have the car.
Most car companies cap these fees, Stateline reports. Hertz, for example, limits toll rental fees to $24.75, while Avis caps its fees at $19.75/month.
In the case where a customer opts out of a tolling option, Hertz subsidiaries Dollar and Thrifty will charge drivers as much as $90 if they trigger electronic tolls during the course of their travels, Stateline reports.
This is all too much, according to lawmakers and advocates who have begun to file complaints against companies charging the fees.
Back in March, the city of San Francisco sued Hertz for allegedly gouging tourists by fraudulently charging them millions of dollars in extra fees when they drive over the Golden Gate Bridge.
According to the suit [PDF], Hertz offers customers an automatic toll-paying service called PlatePass that they can use on California’s toll bridges, or just pay cash. But paying cash isn’t an option on the bridge, where motorists can use a FasTrak toll tag, or pay online, in person, or by phone after their car has gone through.
The lawsuit claims that Hertz doesn’t tell customers about these other options and instead, once they drive over the bridge, PlatePass is triggered. Hertz customers are charged an undiscounted toll rate of $7.50, the city says, as well as a $4.95 “convenience fee.”
But they often aren’t charged that fee once, according to the complaint, and instead can be hit repeatedly by that fee for up to $24.75.
San Francisco isn’t the only municipality or governing body to take on toll fees.
Stateline reports that earlier this year the Florida attorney general agreed to a settlement with Avis, along with its subsidiaries Budget Car Rental and Payless Car Rental. Under the agreement, the companies must disclose their fees on their websites and at service counters, and inform customers they can forgo the company’s tolling system by using their own transponders or avoid toll roads altogether.
Renters also have other options when it comes to paying for tolls. However, Stateline notes, these options might not be clear to customers.
Some states allow drivers to pay for fees in advance online, while in others it is perfectly legal to use your own transponder in a rental car, as long as that car has been added to the customers’ account.
Stateline notes, however, that this option doesn’t work everywhere, as the tolling systems vary by state. This, despite, a five year old federal law [PDF] requiring states to begin implementing a single one-device system.
I must admit that I have not used the GG Bridge for a few years, and it isn’t part of the rest of the toll bridges and roadways in the SF Bay Area, but I can tell you that ALL of the rest of the toll bridges have both cash and FasTrak lanes and some lanes where you can use either.
I must admit that I have not used the GG Bridge for a few years, and it isn’t part of the rest of the toll bridges and roadways in the SF Bay Area, but I can tell you that ALL of the rest of the toll bridges have both cash and FasTrak lanes and some lanes where you can use either.
In IL, you are able to register the rental vehicle on your account. This may change as state is changing some of the toll regulations.
We’ve rented a lot at DIA because our son went to CU at Boulder and now our daughter lives just north of Denver. We usually rent from Thrifty and they politely told us about the E-470 and the transponder. I did some querying and they told it was a daily fee whether we drove on the road or not that day. So we declined, drove down to I-70 and then up CO-36. We may have spent a few more minutes in the car, but saved about $20 per trip that way.
I drove the tollway past the Denver airport and got a letter in the mail for the toll of a few dollars. That was at 4 in the afternoon as I headed north.
I sent them the payment and a few weeks later got another invoice. That one was for about 6 pm that day as I headed north. I called them and complained about why one day of tolls wasnt combined. No clue from them. Real pain writing two checks, two stamps etc. Then they tried to sell me a pass.
What I love about toll roads is that only the people who use them pay for them.
(or at least that’s what I’m told say)
I live in Michigan, and have family in Minnesota, so I have ben travelling through the Illinois tollway system for more than the last half century. The worst part was waiting in lines for more than half an hour in order to be permitted to throw 40 cents in a bucket which allowed open travel for ten minutes or so, in order to wait again at the next toll booth.
I vowed to never buy gas in Illinois, EVER. and I never have. They may get my quarters and dimes, but they don't get my dollars.
They now have "open tolling", which works well enough that I obtained a transponder and Ipass account. However, I was recently informed my transponder had "expired". Just like with the bucket lines, last Monday I waited in line for another half hour to replace it at the one and only location to replace it on the Illinois border-to-border tollway.
Bwahaa, piles of change. Try stacks of bills now. It’s around $30 to run the PA Turnpike now
The GG Bridge system is great for both the daily and occasional user. Nobody stops — everybody just zips through. It’s done wonders for the Sunday afternoon crush returning to SF from Marin and points north.
The occasional user gets an invoice in the mail that you can pay either online or by sending a check. It takes FAR less time to open the envelope, go online, enter your payment info, and click “Pay” than it did to wait in the line on the bridge.
Also on them plus side...you are far less likely this way to be on the bridge when the next M7 or M8 hits.
govt...full of Nazis.
To put this in some perspective:
I traveled to Iceland a couple years back.
Stayed at a modern and very nice hotel in Reykjavik.
When checking in they handed us a cell phone. They said it was our room phone and we could use it anywhere in Iceland, unlimited calls and text and no extra charge (but no out-of-country calls).
They saved when building the hotel - no miles of land-line phone lines to run throughout the building. And I’m sure they got some “bulk rate” with a local cell phone service provider. And, the room rate was not out of line with competing hotels we looked at.
Now, you’d think the U.S. rental car companies (a) would have negotiated “bulk” deposit rates for their “Ezpass” transponders, and then charged nothing but actual toll charges to customers using them, as a service to their customers, AND that they would COMPETE with providing that service.
But American companies are often NOT competing for customers at all. They are ONLY competing on Wall Street for being more profitable, which means competing for favor of Wall Street investment analysts and collude with each other against the consumer.
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