docbert

Yeah, it looks like the 10 cents was basically a placeholder while they worked out the real price.

As of May 16th it was supposed to go up to 50 cents for locals, and $3.75 for everyone else (which would include rentals), however the increase was delayed until June 12.

I do suspect you win the award for the highest ratio of PlatePass fees to actual tolls!

nova08

So I have a question about PlatePass.

I rented a Hertz car from a hertz at a collision center in Southern NJ. The car did not have an ezpass in front of the rear view mirror so I used my personal ezpass. Does Hertz put the transponder actually on the license plate?

A few days after I returned the car I received a $35 charge for Hertz Tolls. I haven't had a chance to call and complain but I want to understand if I was charged for tolls when the car didn't even have an ezpass.

docbert

No. The tolling company reads the licence plate and charges whoever is registered in their system as being the owner (in this case, PlatePass).

They only do this if the car doesn't have a transponder, or if the transponder doesn't work. Thus if you had your transponder in the car and you still got a charge, then it means that the toll booth failed to detect the transponder at least once.

HoratioXXXXblower

was the charge from hertz, or a platepass invoice?

if the latter, it's possible the transponder got thrown in the glove, or something like that.
do you remember seeing any of those velcro strips on the windshield or dash?
sometimes people pull them off and stash them in random places, or even steal them.

nova08

I believe the charge says Hertz Rental Tolls and it is separate from the Hertz base charge. There was no little swivel case or remnants of Velcro.

Although after some investigating there are 2 tolls on the platepass invoice that do not appear on my personal ezpass account and they seem to be valid.

So as a previous poster mentioned maybe my peronsal transponder did not read properly so it went onto my platepass. Is the platepass service fee only charged when you actually use it or is it charged on every car?

The amount is for 2 tolls and then the monthly maximum service fee (I had the car for 2 weeks).

HoratioXXXXblower

platepass service charge is only activated if you use the platepass transponder.

bedelman

In my experience, if you can demonstrate to Platepass that you intended to use your own Platepass, they will remove all service fees -- leaving only the actual toll fees, which are fairly passed along.

You'll need to contact their support department and provide copies (PDF, screenshot, etc.) showing your statement with other charges during the rental.

Note that the above is based on my personal experience, but I don't think Hertz or Platepass widely announces this benefit. They'd probably prefer that customers not know about this benefit.

HoratioXXXXblower

platepass is a separate company that hertz partners with, if they didn't actually buy it.
anyway, if the invoice is from platepass then you'd deal with them, and there'd be a service charge involved.
if the car went through a toll with no transponder read then the tollway authority would bill back to hertz who would in turn bill the customer.

jasonvr

I have done this in the past and it does work. However, I would argue that the tolls are not passed on fairly. In the Chicago area, the cash rates are double those for a transponder/plate. The rates charged by PlatePass are at the cash rate even though they are clearly only being charged the electronic rate since the plate is registered for the car (or it is a transponder read). Of course, this is true even in the case where you use their transponder - they still charge the cash rate IIRC.

saneman

Rented a car last weekend from BOS. On I-93 in NH, I mistakenly went into the EZ Pass only lane. I was a little distracted by the toll and I was looking for a dollar in my pocket and asked my passenger to look at the road to make sure I am steady in the lane. Mistake 1 on my part. By the time, I looked up, the split with the EZ Pass only lanes was coming up fast and one car sped up to my right and I couldn't navigate to the toll both lanes in time. Anyway, my mistake. Now I was stuck going through the EZ Pass lanes.

So I wanted to avoid the Hertz or Platepass or whatever company assigned $25 penalty that I keep hearing about. So I went on NH's EZ pass (https://www.ezpassnh.com/en/home/index.shtml) to do a post pay and the system looks great. Just pay the dollar online and tie to the license plate, time and toll area(the one near Exit 11 near I-89) and i am off the hook. I talked to one operator and she said get the time as close as possible. The next day, everything was getting filled in fine and I called their number before finalizing. The operator said that if I don't get the time EXACTLY right and the lane number right(1,2,3, 4, 100 are my choices) and no one knows what lane number I went through, then I may be out of luck. I called again a day later to make sure which operator was correct and this new operator says I need exact details. I am paying the freaking dollar anyway with my best guessed time and am guessing toll lane 100 refers to the EZ Pass only lanes.

What if this doesn't work and the invoice is generated and Hertz gets it? What is the best way to ask for a one time waiver of the fee? If Hertz charges me, I can at least hope that they would give my status some consideration. If platepass charges me, is there any recourse to ask for a one time waiver?

P.S.: Once in Dallas, I paid all the tolls by cash, but near the airport, somehow I inadverdently went through one which was not marked well and I didn't even know that I went through one until I got a 50 cent +$25 fee invoice from Thrifty which waived the 25 dollar fee on request. I wonder if Hertz or Platepass will extend the same courtesy on a one time basis.

mikebg

Actually this is good news for you. I have my own E-ZPass tag which I use for rentals. If the car itself is registered to E-ZPass then your tag will work. If not, then you (paradoxically) may have problems. I lent the tag to a relative who rented from a small car rental company. After one day the E-ZPass no longer worked. It seemed to have been flagged as being on an unregistered vehicle.

I rented a car from Hertz last week with no PlatePass tag on it. I was concerned at having the same problems as my relative, so I went in a cash lane. The person there told me the E-ZPass had gone through OK. I checked on my account, and sure enough, I could not register the car to my account as it was already registered to another account.

Bottom line: Hertz obviously register all their fleet to E-ZPass, whether or not there is a tag in the vehicle. This actually means that if you use your own E-ZPass tag you will have no problems at all. It is when you get a non-registered car (from a small rental company) that you may get problems.

ijgordon

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/10/ny...cars.html?_r=0

Funny how they bring up the issue that the MTA says you don't need to own a car to get your own E-Zpass but you can't get an E-Zpass without putting in a license plate. And they're supposedly "going to fix it in a few days." Give me a break, it's been like this for YEARS. I must have been one of the earlier people to figure this out, as my license plate is DUMMY2 (DUMMY was already taken )

Hangtime79

Something I would like to see that we had to do in the credit card industry. You could not charge a late fee larger then the actual payment requested. Apply the same approach. You can't have an administrative fee larger then the tolls used. For those of us who live in the NYC area we would ALWAYS meet that as just to go over one bridge is $15, but in other parts of the country where its only $2 - $3 and you get nailed with a week's worth PlatePass administrative fees it adds up quick.

docbert

So you're saying that for $60 (cost of custom plates) I could have you pay my tolls for a month?

FWIW, the license plate DUMMY is actually taken - but DUMMY2 is free!

ijgordon

Hadn't thought of that.
But yeah, I guess I didn't actually choose DUMMY2, but I just checked and it was something along those lines. I suppose I shouldn't say much more...