Others have already lamented the new fees that one now has to endure for the privilege of having an EZPass to use at the toll facilities in Maryland (and, by extension, most of the East Coast). In case you don’t know, here is the new fee breakdown.
- Monthly Account Charge
- A monthly account charge of $1.50 will be deducted from all E-ZPass Maryland accounts. Please note: this charge is per account and not per transponder.
- E-ZPass Transponders
- All new or replacement devices must be purchased. The following rates apply for transponders:
Standard – $21.00
Exterior – $33.00
Fusion – $40.00
- All new or replacement devices must be purchased. The following rates apply for transponders:
- Commuter Discount Program
- The duration of E-ZPass Maryland commuter discount plans will be reduced from 60 days to 45 days.
- E-ZPass Shoppers Plan for the Bay Bridge
- A new Bay Bridge plan will be offered for Bay Bridge customers. The Shoppers Plan costs $10 and is good for 10 trips that may be used Sunday through Thursday only and expires after six months.
- Notice of Toll Due
- Traveling through any lane in the toll facility without providing sufficient payment for the toll due will cost $3 + toll due. The notice will be mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle.
- Toll Violation Charge
- Failure to pay the toll due by the deadline will result in a $25 fee in addition to the $3 + toll due.
The big fee that has many people up in arms is the monthly account charge. According to public information from the Transportation Authority, the cost of maintaining dormant accounts is huge–$1.9 million.
The cynic in me is not surprised that the state would levy a fee as opposed to actually addressing the root cause of the problem. The more reasonable stance would be to create a policy of inactivating accounts after a set period of unuse. Of course, that would rob the Transportation Authority of money. Still, this seems reasonable to do.
Of course, my favorite part of keeping abreast on this change has been reading Michael Dresser’s coverage of this. I continue to be amazed that this man has a job. His post admits to his journalistic failings as a better investigator–he stood by while the EZPass program was touted as the wave of the future. Still, though, I have to question why he is not challenging the authority more on this question of account maintenance. Why not push them to inactivate dormant accounts? Dresser FAIL!
What I don’t get is about this whole ordeal is that people never mention the actual cost of hiring more toll workers if you lose EZ pass account holders. Each and every EZ pass user saves the state money when they pay the full rate on the toll, because the overhead of maintaining an EZ pass is less than staffing a toll box with yet another worker. This is actual money the state is saving. Yes, the EZ pass users cost the state money, but common sense dictates to me that they cost the state less than drivers paying cash. I’ll happily shut my mouth if figures prove otherwise, but I doubt it.
At the same time, all of those non-commuter EZ pass accounts have $25 or so in them. You pay the state in advance, not per trip. So all of those “dormant” accounts are coughing up about $25 to sit in a nice, big account on which the state earns interest.
So I don’t buy the idea that we EZ pass users are costing the state anything.
I was not happy when I heard about this. For this reason, I returned my transponder and signed up for another one in VA. Although they frown upon this, it’s not against any rules. You can check on wikipedia which transportation authorities provide transponders at no cost.
“Get off my lawn”
~Michael T. Dresser (the “t” is for Twitchy)
And alas, the number of states that doesn’t charge a monthly fee is dropping….
@mark: I didn’t consider the overhead involved in having to hire and/or maintain people to staff toll booths. That is a surprisingly good point.
You do make a good point about the money one puts into the account. You are not debited for use, but you are debited for $25 that gets deducted for each toll facility you pass. I can only presume the state earns no interest since that probably sits in some EZPass coffer. Something tells me that was negotiated poorly.
@Jorge A: The problem of moving to another state is that it is only a matter of time before the other states do the same thing.
@Evan: HA! So true. Next thing you know, he is going to call us whippersnappers.
@Alex: It was inevitable.
Whoah hey Alex, small world
I switched to Massachussetts. Transponders are free and no monthly fees. I would have understood the fee beeing applied to only the months that I use the E-Z Pass. I am obviously an infrequent user.