Hertz - Any Hertz cars in Texas with TxTag?

Does anyone know if Hertz installs the TxTag toll-paying stickers on any of their cars in Texas? I know that in other parts of the country that their cars have the EZ-Pass fobs. Does Hertz at least equip them in their Austin or Houston locations even if they don't do it in non-toll areas like San Antonio?

The reason I ask is that I have heard stories of people getting $1 tolls plus $25-$30 "violation fee" service charges from the rental car companies. Many recently installed toll roads have few (if any) manual pay stations and operate almost entirely via electronic surveillance. At least in Texas the toll authority just mails the car owner the toll bill (no service charges unless you are like months late), and it is not a violation to not pay prior to entering the toll road (since there is no physical place to pay). In principle this is supposed to be easy and painless because it reduces the need for manual pay stations and the traffic congestion associated with those areas. Unfortunately it seems that the new toll situation is a big mess as far as rental car companies and their customers are concerned because the only way for the customer to pay is to wait for the authority to mail the $1 bill to the car rental company and then for the car rental company to assess the $30 violation on the customer.

All of our vehicles in Florida, Colorado and Texas are PlatePass® enabled. There is no need to sign up or reserve anything. If you would like to use the cashless toll lanes all you have to do is drive through. In this area, your rental car license plate acts as the transponder.

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?targetPage=USplatepass.jsp?leftNavUserSe lection=globNav_3_5_1&selectedRegion=United%20States

In the past 6 months I've had four Hertz rentals from the airport in Austin and three Hertz rentals from Hobby Airport in Houston. All the cars I got in Austin had the TxTag stickers and none of them from Houston Hobby have had the stickers. I don't know if the stickers are necessary since the toll bill is based on the license tag number, but the most recent Hertz car I got has Florida tags so I don't know what happens in that situation. I went almost halfway around the Houston outer beltway (the Sam Houston Tollway) with a car I rented in Austin one time and don't remember seeing anything added to my bill or anything showing up on my credit car later. I think I drove through 4 or 5 toll plazas in the fast lane at what should have been $1.50 each.

Just why can't there be a national service for this.

Hiring cars in OK and driving to KS, passing through 4 different toll zones.

No, if there was a system in which you could register and then tell these systems the license plate and times you hired the vehicle and it then charges after the fact. Would save a lot a trouble. Hmm, maybe there's a business there?

BM

The problem is that each state uses a different electronic toll collection technology. Some states have chosen to join the EZPass consortium, but FL, for instance, insists their SunPass uses superior technology.

FYI, the rental car I just drove from Miami to New York did not have a PlatePass advisory sticker. Perhaps it was removed since they don't use PlatePass in NY. Likewise, in the fall when cars from NY are sent down to FL, do they take away the EZPass box prior to the rental?

I don't think they remove them. Even if NY tries to send cars to FL there is no guarantee that they will stay there. Most cars usually end up somewhere different within a month of arriving. Anyway, NY usually doesn't send cars to FL. FL dumps every spring. I'm sure there is some kind of financial incentive that makes it cheaper to add tons of fleet in FL just to one-way them out.

A rental car will only last about 12 months (Although a little longer now since cars are being kept to higher mileage). If a rental stays at HLE it will last about 8-9 months to reach 35,000 miles...if it spends the majority of it's life at airports then it will usually last about 12-15 months.

The problem is that each state uses a different electronic toll collection technology. Some states have chosen to join the EZPass consortium, but FL, for instance, insists their SunPass uses superior technology.


I appreciate that, but ALL of the systems use cameras to catch offending cars that have not paid and do not have the local plate-pass system.

I was suggesting that as part of the process of recovering fines, they could check a database in which as frequent travellers could register the license plate of the cars they have been driving and pass the toll fees that way.

BM

"FL dumps every spring. I'm sure there is some kind of financial incentive that makes it cheaper to add tons of fleet in FL just to one-way them out."

Good point. I know FL has a different, typically lower tax structure. All the snowbirds I know have switched their vehicle registration to FL, even if they split their time here.

"A rental car will only last about 12 months (Although a little longer now since cars are being kept to higher mileage). If a rental stays at HLE it will last about 8-9 months to reach 35,000 miles...if it spends the majority of it's life at airports then it will usually last about 12-15 months."

Interesting. The Cobalt had 17,200 miles at MIA pickup, and 18,500 miles as expected at NY HLE dropoff. On the keychain, I noticed some faded writing that said something like, "original city: Volusia." I'm guessing the car originally came one-way from Volusia County.

The MIA garage did have two midsize cars parked nearby registered in NY and NJ that looked recently detailed. As I was taking my car out, an Impala registered in PA just came in from EWR. The driver told me she had to pay an exorbitant rate to do that out of season.