West - Denver Toll charges -Thrifty Rental Car

Please note that car renters in Denver can be charged $25 per toll booth by local rental car agencies. Thrifty did not warn me that my option to pay cash at booth was no longer available. They just charged my credit card for $100.

Could you be more specific? Is this in the cars that have the automatic Easy Pass gadgets? And which toll locations do not take cash?

As of a few months ago, at least the portion of E470 north of the airport to I-25 has only 2 methods to pay: the "Easy Pass gadgets" and license plate toll (where they send a bill to the address the tag is associated with). The rate is slightly higher with the license plate method, I understand.

A acquaintance of mine recently visited and was hit with the same "surprise" surcharge. I don't know which company he rented from. The toll surcharge was non-negotiable. Since he had a little extra time on his last day, I think he was going to do some "sightseeing" on E470 for a while, maybe to see how may toll collection sites there actually are on the freeway.

Having just moved from Denver and knowing how to get around avoiding the toll road, I will not be having this surcharge on my bill.

Car renters should be informed of this possibility and they should have change machines at the rental agencies.

Webpage with information for car renters:
https://www.expresstoll.com/Default.aspx?pn=Rental Car Information

I was hit with this about a month ago. Never a mention anywhere about the "no cash" option on E470. Luckily I figured it out at the last minute and was able to take a different route. Later that day I found a flyer about the need for an Easy Pass gadget that was buried inside the rental folder. Big thumbs down to Thrifty for not making this more visible.

I will be using Thrifty next month. If I read this correctly, I can opt out, which is what I want to do.

The OP is either, obviously to me, a troll or learned that they spead through a toll station and were later tracked down by the rental company.

It doesn't sound to me like they are a troll. To be clear, there are *no* cash payment toll booths anywhere on E-470 any more. You either have a transponder in your car associated with an existing payment account, or they send a bill based on who owns the vehicle from the license plate.

If you read the link in TRRed's post, it even says that Thrifty may charge you up to $25 "per incident". Which could easily be "per-toll" if they want it to be. E-470 isn't very rental car friendly.

It doesn't sound to me like they are a troll. To be clear, there are *no* cash payment toll booths anywhere on E-470 any more. You either have a transponder in your car associated with an existing payment account, or they send a bill based on who owns the vehicle from the license plate.

If you read the link in TRRed's post, it even says that Thrifty may charge you up to $25 "per incident". Which could easily be "per-toll" if they want it to be. E-470 isn't very rental car friendly.

I just got bagged on this as well, got on the Toll road in Boulder on our way back to the Airport in Sept.. there were 2 Cash Toll booths that we stopped at(and paid) at the beginning. then we went through a couple more that looked like they had been shut down. there was signage on the exits that mentioned Licence Plate tolls.but there was no warning that the E470 portion of the toll road was no longer accepting cash. this week I recieved a bill from Thrifty for 2 Toll Violations. $54.50
which represents (2) $2.25 tolls and (2) $25 dollar fines! I'm a Blue Chip member so Pick up of the car was pretty quick, I signed a paper that the agent said "this states that you are responsable for any tolls or traffic violations" it seemed pretty much boilerplate so I didn't give it a second thought, it would have been nice if he would have mentioned that the E470 had gone "Cashless" as of 7-4-09 and I needed a transponder if I was going to use the Toll Road! I guess they "Got me" RT

Big thumbs down to Thrifty for not making this more visible.

While it would be nice of Thrifty to provide a more prominent notification, the onus is always on you to be aware of local laws and customs.

I never go anywhere without reviewing at the minimum the Wikitravel article on the city I'm traveling to. That would have made you aware of this issue.

I know we live in an age where no one wants to take personal responsibility for his or her own actions, but if rental agencies hand-held customers through all of the things they could do wrong, the rental transaction would take 30 minutes. There is some point at which they have to leave it in the hands of the customers.

While it would be nice of Thrifty to provide a more prominent notification, the onus is always on you to be aware of local laws and customs.

I never go anywhere without reviewing at the minimum the Wikitravel article on the city I'm traveling to. That would have made you aware of this issue.



So, which part of this Wikitravel entry on Denver (http://wikitravel.org/en/Denver)would have made someone aware of this issue? It certainly wouldn't be the section on E-470, which reads (bolding mine):

E-470 connects the airport to the southeast, east, northeast and northwest suburbs, C-470 at its southern terminus, and the Northwest Parkway at its northern terminus, leading to Boulder. Mainline toll plazas are staffed 24/7 and will make change, but ramp locations are unstaffed and require exact change. Tolls are $1-3.

While it does make sense to educate oneself about a location prior to travel, it is impossible to anticipate every local quirk and nuance. Cashless tolling is not a universal practice...still quite rare, actually. And considering that the toll road in question is basically an access road to DIA, it's reasonable to expect that car rental agencies that are interested in providing good customer service would be sure to outline a customer's options when it comes to paying tolls on a road that they are likely to use. But I can understand how a rental agency that is solely focused on its bottom line would prefer to slap high service charges on a customer after the fact.

I got hit by this for a Thrifty rental at DFW. I called Thrifty and because the agent did not inform me of the auto-pay only toll roads, they eliminated the $25 charges and instead billed me the amount of the Thrifty-provided toll service (about $8/day, as I recall) as if I had opted for it in the first place.

I'd suggest you call Thrifty ASAP.

So, which part of this Wikitravel entry on Denver (http://wikitravel.org/en/Denver)would have made someone aware of this issue? It certainly wouldn't be the section on E-470, which reads (bolding mine): Hopefully I've cleaned up the entry so that bad information won't affect others.

While it does make sense to educate oneself about a location prior to travel, it is impossible to anticipate every local quirk and nuance. Cashless tolling is not a universal practice...still quite rare, actually.Rare and, in the case of E-470, borne entirely out of greed. The whole "cashless" thing is ridiculous, and comes on top of unbelievable increases in tolls over the years.

And considering that the toll road in question is basically an access road to DIA...This part is not really true. Pena Boulevard is an access road to DIA. I suppose from the north and northwest E-470 is an "access road," but alternatives to E-470 exist, even to the north.

...it's reasonable to expect that car rental agencies that are interested in providing good customer service would be sure to outline a customer's options when it comes to paying tolls on a road that they are likely to use.I'm guessing that perhaps 75% of traffic out of DIA wouldn't even consider E-470, but would use Pena Boulevard and I-70 to head to downtown, or Pena and I-225 for the Tech Center and points south. E-470 really isn't a major egress from DIA, which makes the whole "cashless" thing highly annoying I'm sure, but not really a major obstacle to getting around.

But I can understand how a rental agency that is solely focused on its bottom line would prefer to slap high service charges on a customer after the fact.More greed to be sure. I believe Hertz cars are set up to automatically handle the tolls without additional paperwork, but I don't know if Hertz slaps a service charge on top of the tolls as well.

While it would be nice of Thrifty to provide a more prominent notification, the onus is always on you to be aware of local laws and customs.

I never go anywhere without reviewing at the minimum the Wikitravel article on the city I'm traveling to. That would have made you aware of this issue.

I know we live in an age where no one wants to take personal responsibility for his or her own actions, but if rental agencies hand-held customers through all of the things they could do wrong, the rental transaction would take 30 minutes. There is some point at which they have to leave it in the hands of the customers.

Hey, I'm with you on the Personal responsability thing, and I'll pay the freight if I cant negotiate with Thrifty. BUT this is truely a bad setup. we've used the E470 the past 2 years and there were manned toll plazas the whole way.
Thrifty Agent made sure I was aware that I was signing the form that stated I was responsable for all tolls and Violations. I assumed due to many people blowing through EZ-Pass lanes in Rental cars fearing no repercusions. I had never seen or heard of a totaly electronic toll road (and I live in New England, we have the market cornered on toll roads) plus the signage was poor or non existant except seeing exits that mentioned licence plate only tolls. which at the time we had no idea what that was. the section of the toll road we entered in Boulder evidently is seperate from the E470 and still takes cash, but I dont recall any signage warning that the game was changing as it morphed intio the E470. I'll pay the $50 in Thrifty fines but I'll let them know how sleazy I think it is! RT

But I can understand how a rental agency that is solely focused on its bottom line would prefer to slap high service charges on a customer after the fact.

the Thrifty-provided toll service (about $8/day, as I recall)

Rental agents are solely concerned about the things they get commission on. So what if the location gets $25 per customer (or even per incident)? They don't get a cut of that any more than they get a cut of the $6/8/whatever-per-gallon gas charges or the cost of vehicle damages. The rental agent doesn't care. In fact, as mglvrug alludes to, they're more likely to want to tell you about the toll and suggest you get their paid toll service, as that is (most likely) something they do get commission on. (I don't know if the toll transponder is offered in DEN.)

At a small franchise owned by a greedy person, I could believe the suggestion that the boss is telling the employees to not mention the toll roads in the interest of making money off of the administrative surcharges. At a large corporate location, no. Thrifty might be a value brand, but their corporate operations people are not sleazy. Besides, the $25 administrative fee isn't exactly a huge profit margin: it takes time for them to go back and pull up the rental car, match it with the time and date to see who rented it, add the charges, send off the payment to the toll authority, print an invoice or receipt, and then mail it to you. $25 just about covers the person's time and the cost of postal supplies--hardly a profit center.