aliris

I live where there is no EZ pass or Fastrak or whatever else it's called elsewhere; I really don't know how this works.

I'll be driving from Cleveland to Phila in November so that must mean toll roads.

3 car rental agencies all offer (to the penny; no price collusion there?) the same rate, but none has any information to say about what it costs to rent the transponder. I called and each company said "the rate ranges from $9.99 to ...$19.99 or $22.95 or $49.95 depending on company. Not a one of them could tell me the real rate.

For a week-long rental this can double the cost and if different agencies charge differently that can be significant too. How can they expect me to rent without telling me what it will cost first?

Ohio's site looks to me as if the transponder costs just $3 to mail; if you buy it while there it would take 24hr to activate the account...

Am I misunderstanding?

I would sure appreciate some explanation. Thank you!!!!

guv1976

Will you be starting the drive on the same day that you arrive in CLE? Are there cash lanes available on the toll roads you will be driving?

guv1976

From the Ohio Turnpike website:

"Q: Can I use a credit card to pay my toll fare?
A: All interchanges accept major credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express) or debit cards that are associated with a major credit card. The Ohio Turnpike does not accept foreign currency. ATMs are located in each of the Turnpike service plazas so that customers can easily obtain US currency."

And all but four interchanges on the Pennsylvania Turnpike allow tolls to be paid with cash:

https://www.paturnpike.com/toll/cash.aspx

So it looks like one can drive from Ohio to Philadelphia without using E-Z Pass at all.

IAHtraveler

I live in NC but got a transponder from NJ without issue (by mail). I use it all the time in rentals. It's $1/month to keep it so well worth the hassle of dealing with receipts and toll booths whenever I visit any north east state with tolls.

For Avis, I think they charge $2.95/day (max of about $20 per rental). Cost is per day of the rental, not per day it's used! Plus the cash cost if each toll.

pa3lsvt

And, PA Turnpike now permits payment to be made with CC at cash booths as well, although the process is slower than cash and only really meant for last resort use:
http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...dit-cards.html

Assuming you exit at or prior to the Delaware River Bridge and avoid the PA 29 (EZ Pass only) and Street Road (Eastbound EZ Pass only) exits, you can use cash or credit the whole way from CLE to Philly.

If you get off at 326 (Valley Forge), be sure to brace yourself for the Sure-Kill Expressway experience into the city.

aliris

Thanks everyone! IAH just fyi it appears OH charges a mere 0.75/mo. I can see doing this if I visited with any regularity but I think this is pretty much a one-off.

That is unless Fastrak is interchangeable with EZPass? I'm only idly curious about this; I don't use fastrak either but at least it exists in CA, so even if the answer is "yes" I think I'll stick to cash.

I will do my best to avoid PA29 and Street Road exits though that's Greek to me from here. Going to West Phila or downtown.

"Sure-Kill" is dutch then?

der_saeufer

Late to the party here, but there's no reason to pay any service fee on an EZPass account unless you're using it to get a local discount rate. IL, VA, NH, MA, and NY (Thruway, at least) will all let you have an account without charging a service fee. A couple of those (IL and NY for sure) don't even make you pay for the tag unless you lose or destroy it.

I live on the East Coast again, but for the almost 10 years I didn't, I kept my NH EZPass account and used it in tons of rental cars. Just don't forget to take the plate back off your account; I paid a bunch of tolls in the Chicago area for someone who got 'my' rental car 3 weeks later. Oops.

And no, Fastrak and EZPass are not interoperable. Uncle Sam has set a deadline of October 2016 for interoperability... which is totally gonna happen When it does, most likely it'll be nothing more than a shared license plate database--EZPass equipment can't read Fastrak tags and vice versa, but if your plate is registered to an account, they can charge you that way.

aliris

lol and thanks

Brighton Line

Might not happen 100%, NYC's MTA crossing are not "barrier free" which was a point of contention when the EzPass program first came out. But when you charge $16 cash at a crossing I kind get why you want a barrier.

If you get a bad read, or do not have money on the account (or too negative) or do not have a tag in an EzPass lane than a uniformed officer has to come over and manual process from holding the tag on a reader to writing an administrative "ticket" (toll + $2).

marlborobell

The MTA is moving to a cashless system over the next couple of years. It'll be either EZPass or toll by mail. That's already the case on the Henry Hudson Bridge and the Tappan Zee Bridge.

And of course, as of today, all Massachusetts toll roads have gone cashless (and a few roads now have tolls where they didn't before, notably the tunnels to Logan Airport).

der_saeufer

Sooner or later, I think this is where everyone's going.

If you have a local/compatible transponder, you get charged that way. If not, they take a photo of your plate and either charge your non-compatible toll account (e.g. a California FasTrak user on the East Coast) or mail you a bill. Some of those mailed bills will never get paid, but the loss in toll revenue there is probably still less than paying toll collectors and maintaining the booths and related equipment.

My semi-educated guess is that it's significantly cheaper for the toll authorities to charge incompatible toll system accounts by photo of the plate than to install compatible equipment. The US currently has at least three separate incompatible systems, and I can't imagine Caltrans installing EZPass equipment for the 5 people a day who have an EZPass and drive across the Bay Bridge. The equipment to take pictures of their license plates is already there.

Bobberjet

Would you advise doing this if you were renting in an incompatible area, e.g., a Californian renting in the Northeast should bring their FasTrak, add their rental car to the account, and get billed by plate? I feel like that's how a lot of these stories with $75 toll bills get started...

pa3lsvt

FasTrack is incompatible with the EZ Pass system used in the Northeast. Some locations (Mass Pike, PA/NJ Turnpike connector bridge entering PA) have gone to cashless tolls, where only EZ Pass or Toll-by-Plate are used and the Toll-by-Plate does not require any advance enrollment but does incur higher tolls than EZ Pass. Most (all?) other locations accept cash or EZ Pass.

If you are going to travel regularly to the EZ Pass service area, you can buy an EZ Pass transponder from any EZ Pass authority and use it in any EZ Pass state. Each authority has a different fee structure, and some offer discounts when their own EZ Pass is used in their state, so do some research.

My EZ Pass is from the PA Turnpike Commission. I am permitted to use that tag in any vehicle without preregistration of the vehicle's plates, so it is perfect for use with rentals. They do request that I add my own vehicle's plates to my account but that is only used if the EZ Pass does not read, so they can look up my plate and assign the toll to my account properly instead of issuing a violation. I have only had that happen twice in over 10 years of using the EZ Pass system (once on the PA Turnpike and once on a DRPA bridge entering Philly).

pa3lsvt

Well, it turns out I need to correct myself (and commit the faux pas of quoting myself). I just checked the T&C for PTC's EZ Pass program and find the following:

That is a change, because I know I checked when I first started travelling for my job in 2007 and it specifically stated that I can take my EZ Pass between any vehicles at will.

I just wanted to make sure I corrected my previous post in case anyone was uncomfortable violating the T&Cs. I have had no issue with using the transponder in many, many rentals without registering the plates. YMMV

Brighton Line

Well from my current use of a NY State issued EZPass MTA to be specific and I don't own a car.
I bought it from the cash lane at MTA crossing, could not register it on line because it requires your car registration information. I called the service center and after reading a warning about charges being passed to the car owner for any violation or misread of my ezpass it was all setup.

You can also get EZPasses from other states if you want their discount if it makes sense to tie up the money you need to keep on the pass.