PrePass
Motor carriers and professional truck drivers find operating trucks on toll roads a lot easier these days. Toll facilities are rapidly eliminating toll tickets and staffed toll booths and moving to all-electronic-tolling (AET). Many toll roads are even removing entry and exit gates, allowing uninterrupted travel at highway speeds through “open road tolling.” The resulting smoother flow of vehicles also benefits roadway safety.
As is common, money is a driving factor behind these toll road improvements. The COVID-19 pandemic led to drastic reductions in revenue for many toll authorities, and eliminating close personal contact at toll booths accelerated these changes. Manned toll booths are the most expensive way for toll roads to collect fares.
The AET adopted by toll roads comes in two versions: toll by plate and toll by transponder. Both reduce the delays and hassle of toll tickets and toll booths. However, toll by plate and toll by transponder accomplish collecting tolls very differently and those differences affect your bottom line as a toll road user.
In the new PrePass whitepaper “The Pros and Cons of Truck Tolling by Plate,” you will learn that toll by plate relies on cameras and videos. Poor weather and lighting conditions cause issues when capturing images of license plate numbers so they can be properly matched to registered vehicle owners. Errors and delays in toll billing are common occurrences in toll by plate systems, among other problems.
Toll by plate also adds costs to the business of running a toll road. And toll facilities pass on those costs through significantly higher charges for toll by plate transactions. Comparatively, toll by transponder uses RFID technology which is unaffected by weather and customer identification and does not require manual labor. “The Pros and Cons of Truck Tolling by Plate” provides real-world rate comparisons between toll by plate and toll by transponder.
