bigboi

There is a sunpass transponder, but you can also link license plates to your sunpass account. If you go through a toll lane in a car with a plate linked to your sunpass account, it will charge the toll through your sunpass account, even without any transponder. This is what i did once in a rental when i forgot to bring my transponder on a trip up to Orlando, i just linked the plate and my tolls got paid through my sunpass account and i got no platepass invoices or anything.

CrazyOne

Basically what others have mentioned: doesn't read and I haven't added the rental car's plate to my E-Z account (which will result in billing to Hertz and extra fee tied back to the rental info eventually), or adding the plate and getting charged for tolls for that car that are not in my rental period.

Thus I've stuck with cash on personal rentals. Usually I don't go through a lot of tolls on those (a short stint on the Mass Pike sometimes, plus a toll bridge at the Hudson). I might use PlatePass on a biz rental, but they just haven't turned up much recently, or they turn up for the one place I go where I don't have tolls.

stc

OK, I've never had a problem with my personal ez-pass not reading in any car (or truck) I've had it in in the Northeast down as far as Baltimore.

My spare (third) ez-pass has just shown up. I'll have one in each of my cars and one with my travel stuff. Until something changes, my plan is to NOT add any rental cars to my account and just use my personal spare ez-pass.

johnathome

So checked my Amex card today and saw a charge for Platepass for Hertz. Problem is that I can't remember when I used it last on a Hertz rental. It appears the website for platepass is down so I can't get an invoice.

The last time I used it in Houston, the surcharges were greater than the tolls

aviator4512

Platepass has replaced the clunky transponder boxes on all of the newer issued vehicles although there is a problem with this. I was in New York and getting on the Throg's Neck Bridge which has EZ Pass lanes, but they have a swing arm gate to prevent people from just driving through without paying. I drove into the EZ Pass lane and expected the arm to lift, but of course it didn't. At this point, I had pissed off drivers stacking up behind me (mind you I had a Massachusetts license plate in NY) so everyone started honking. I managed to call over a transit policeman and pay in cash, although I rarely carry a ton of cash (toll is $6.50 each way) but I can foresee this being an issue for Hertz renters at some toll booths. The bottom line is I rarely carry more than $20 on me in cash because I use my cards everywhere so I will have to be prepared next time, but Hertz needs to think their strategy over or there will be other people like me stuck in a jam.

jasonvr

You say they replaced them, but with what? Is there still a transponder? Did the vehicle say it was PlatePass enrolled? If so, I don't understand why the gate didn't go up.

ijgordon

about that post as well. If there was no transponder, there's no EZPass, at least not in NY, AFAIK.

jasonvr

At least I'm not the only one who was confused. Interestingly, Massachusetts is also part of EasyPass, so I would think that a car from there would also have a transponder.

weave

Might be intended to work like in other areas. I use platepass in Florida. The plate is scanned and but instead of a violation, it gets charged to the rental. There were places with green/red light indicators in Florida I went through that went red for violation, but I just got charged the normal toll.

So yeah, if there's a gate, that's a problem.

ijgordon

As I mentioned, this is not a feature of EZ-Pass in New York. You have to have a transponder. I'm pretty sure all the other states in the EZ Pass system require one, or you will be charged a violation.

Florida is different, Canada is different, and I think California might be different (and allow registration of the license plate).

stc

And no one has yet to explain what the OP meant by "Platepass has replaced the clunky transponder boxes on all of the newer issued vehicles although there is a problem with this."

1) The new transponder boxes don't work?
2) There is no way to disable the new transponder boxes?
3) Something else?

themicah

I'd be willing to wager that the OP got a car without a transponder (plenty of cars in the NYC area lack transponders) and mistakenly thought the car was still enrolled in Platepass but with a different transponder design.

That wouldn't be that hard a mistake to make for someone without a lot of EZ Pass specific Platepass experience since since (1) there are other parts of the country (like Florida) where a transponder isn't needed for Platepass to work with the local toll systems and (2) I'm pretty sure that the Platepass boilerplate is now included in all Hertz contracts in the NYC area (if not all of the US), which might lead someone to think that their car had Platepass even if it didn't.

rfrost

My last Hertz rental had an EZPass but no clunky silver box. The back of the EZPass had the label instruction to close if paying cash, but I could find nothing to close. I carry my own personal EZ Pass and refuse to pay Hertz's PP surcharges, so that meant either wait in the csh lane or avoid tolls. I chose the latter.
If I had slipped a piece of paper in front of the EZ Pass, would that have effectively "closed" it?

stc

No. It needs to be in a "metal" bag similar to electronics are shipped in. When I got my spare EZPass from New York (we have three, one for each car and a spare for traveling), I got such a bag. I carry my spare EZPass in the bag. Then it doesn't read on the way to the airport and if the Hertz one in the car doesn't have a box, I can just put it in the bag.

themicah

I'm not sure about other EZ Pass websites, but if you have a NY-issued EZ Pass you can order extra/replacement "read-prevention bags" for free. On e-zpassny.com, login to your account, click "Vehicles and Tags" in the left column, and click "Request Supplies" in the sub-menu that shows up. You'll find the ability to order read-prevention bags (and adhesive velcro strips) there and they mail them to you in about a week.

Anybody who travels with their own EZPass should be carrying it around in a read-prevention bag. I've many times replaced the EZPass in Hertz on Demand cars with my own and put the Platepass one in my read prevention bag while I drove around. It's saved me quite a bit of money (especially since Hudson River crossings are $3.50 on the car pool plan, but $12 with Platepass).