How the Pennsylvania Turnpike is Working to Collect Unpaid Tolls
How the Pennsylvania Turnpike is Working to Collect Unpaid Tolls
The PA Turnpike is a limited access toll road that drivers pay a fee to use. As a result, we rely on toll dollars to maintain, construct and operate our roadway. While riding our roadway is a choice, paying tolls is not.
To ensure a fair and equitable toll road system, the PA Turnpike has made toll enforcement a top priority. That is why we are actively focusing on toll collection performance, investing in advanced technologies and working with the Legislature to support bills that crack down on customers who are choosing not to pay their invoices.
The PA Turnpike’s Leakage Has Consistently Remained at 6% and Aligns with the National Average
Unpaid tolls are the result of customer behavior, not PA Turnpike policies or procedure.
The PA Turnpike successfully collects revenue from approximately 94% of transactions on the turnpike system within 150 days of the transaction being recorded.
“Leakage” is the industry term used to reference uncollected transactions. Since phasing in All-Electric Tolling, our leakage has remained consistently around 6%, which aligns with the national average among toll entities and is comparable to our financial performance prior to our cashless all-electronic tolling (AET) conversion.
The majority of that 6% consists of customers who do not respond to multiple invoices and fail to pay within 150 days. When you consider that data point, it becomes clear that “leakage” is a customer-behavior issue—not a system issue.
Since E-ZPass customers establish an account and pre-pay their tolls, uncollected tolls are mostly from drivers who do not have an E-ZPass transponder. To help offset the financial setback of uncollected tolls, as well as the higher cost involved with running the Toll By Plate program, Toll By Plate customers, which account for only 13% of our customers, are charged a higher toll.
Electronic toll collection is effectively revenue neutral, as Toll By Plate prices offset costs of invoicing and enforcement initiatives. While we are not losing money from uncollected tolls due to a revenue-neutral system, toll evasion is an issue of fairness.
The PA Turnpike Has a Multi-Tiered Approach to Collecting Unpaid Tolls
First, to encourage prompt payment, we have made paying tolls as easy and efficient as possible by offering a variety of payment methods.
Customers can choose to pay via our website, through the PA Toll Pay App, in-person at our service center, through the mail and or over the phone.
We have partnered with KUBRA, a cash payment option that allows customers to use cash to pay their toll-by-plate invoices or make payments on their E-ZPass accounts. Customers can make payments at more than 700 retail locations across the United States.
We added a QR code to invoices so customers can scan and pay right from their mobile devices.
We also offer a 15% discount for toll-by-plate customers that pre-register their address and/or credit card for invoicing.
And we recently announced that customers can now use Google Pay or Apple Pay as payment options.
Second, we implement initiatives that focus on impacting the largest percentage of uncollected tolls. The PA Turnpike has a three-tiered escalating approach to encourage customers to pay their tolls, specifically targeting habitual offenders who are making the intentional choice.
Enlist a Collection Agency: While the PA Turnpike mails multiple notices, invoices that are unresolved after 60 days are sent to a collection agency with fees added. Collection agencies pursue payment using various methods including letters, phone calls, text messages, and e-mails.
Initiate Vehicle Registration Suspension: If a customer has $250 in unpaid tolls or four unpaid Toll By Plate invoices, the customer’s vehicle registration can be suspended.
Take Court Action: The PA Turnpike can take civil action against the most common and egregious offenders and commercial carriers. Under the civil complaints, we can collect judgements, including Sheriff Office scheduled asset sales and the filing of liens against toll scofflaw assets.
Through March 2024, approximately 550 civil complaints have been filed in Commonwealth courts, totaling $3.4 million in tolls. Of the civil complaints filed through December 2023, nearly 100 cases have either paid in full or are in payment plans.
Third, we have worked to reduce the number of unbillable transactions due to unreadable license plates. We have initiated proactive transponder replacements for E-ZPass customers, enhanced commercial vehicle identification processes and increased the frequency of system checks. These initiatives have enabled us to reduce unbillable transactions due to unreadable license plates by 27% since 2020.
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The PA Turnpike is a National Leader in Discussing and Addressing Leakage
To ensure transparency, we regularly report on toll and traffic revenue and have published quarterly reporting on our Revenue Assurance Plan since 2020. These are all available on our website. In addition, we have been a thought leader on the topic of “leakage,” presenting to leaders across the industry.
As a result of our multi-tiered approach, the PA Turnpike has collected $30 million in unpaid tolls and fees for violators who were in violation of paying their tolls.
If you believe you may have unpaid tolls and need to pay a bill, please visit the Pay A Bill page on our website.