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LAST YEAR, I fouled up my Pennsylvania EZ Pass account. I bought a used car in Maine and forgot to add it to my EZ Pass account. Much later, when I got back up to Maine this Memorial Day, my post office box was bulging with dunning notices from Pennsylvania, New York, Maine and Delaware.
For most of a year, I had driven from Washington D.C. to Maine blissfully unaware that my EZ Pass transponder wasn’t paying a cent. Instead, I had entered the murky world of toll by plate, where a snap is taken of my license plate and a bill is sent to my address—in this case Maine.
Two problems: Toll-by-plate charges are much higher than EZ Pass rates. Second, I don’t live in Maine in the winter, so I wasn’t getting those bills. Yes, I am loosely organized.
It was months before I turned the key on my post office box in Maine to discover I was a notorious scofflaw. New York had sent my overdue tolls for crossing the George Washington Bridge to a collection agency. Maine had piled on late fees until a $1 toll turned into a $14 charge. Delaware, however, was the highway robber.
I used to wonder how the State of Delaware could provide services without having a sales tax. Now I realize that it simply soaks the people who drive through it. A $4 toll in Delaware had blown up into a $91 charge, and this had happened to me four times.
In a blur, I wrote some checks, made some calls, and filed some appeals. Delaware dropped its tolls down to $51 each. Maine kindly rescinded all the overcharges, so I paid them $1. New York wouldn’t budge, so I paid the collection agency $55. Pennsylvania was the easiest to deal with, discounting my tolls back down to the EZ Pass rates.
I’ve learned two lessons from my experience: One, register a new car and its license plate with EZ Pass in your state. I’ll concede I should have known this, but we covered a lot of subjects in the car salesroom and I don’t remember this discussion. Two, I need to do a better job of having my mail forwarded.
By falling into this limbo, I realized that EZ Pass can be a trap. The system is not constructed to forgive and forget. It’s more like a day in the life of Franz Kafka. Tolls can become astronomical, and you’re at the mercy of each state’s transportation authority. If you’ve tried to get a Real ID, you know how well that works.
What a hassle. Consider signing up for USPS informed delivery: https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm
It’s not a panacea (and candidly I haven’t used it myself) but it seems like it would be helpful in your situation. Mail forwarding would also seem like a winner (as you allude to).
I utilize informed delivery as our mailboxes are all in one location at the entrance to our neighborhood. It is pretty accurate, but not 100%. Unless something important is going to be delivered that day we only collect once a week as it is primarily junk mail.
Wow, thanks for this. I often use my pass in Ohio and Indiana, and have never had an issue using it in our other car, even though it wasn’t registered. I will fix this immediately.
You need to pay for and register a transponder for each vehicle you own.
EZ Pass is an extremely profitable collection system.
I’ve been done multiple times in rental cars in California now plate based tolling is in effect.
Once Fastpass billed me for the subsequent rental (returned Saturday evening) the next day and argued that 00.00 Sunday was the end of Sunday not the beginning.
Others have been where despite registering my payment card and a time slot for crossings they’ve billed to the rental car owner who have been more than happy to add on $30 as a “convenience fee”. Scam on rental cars IMV and given the Bay Area is supposedly the most tech forward place in the world, appalling use of tech.
I’d much rather have the old school option for the occasional user of handing over a wodge of bills to a tollbooth human (Assuming Sonny Corleone isn’t in the car with me).