Texas Turnpike moves to collect from 3% non-payers on open road toll system

Texas Turnpike Authority division of TxDOT (TTAD) is moving to use the courts to enforce payment by hardcore non-payers on the Central Texas turnpikes about a year after the current network (130 Toll 1-4, 45 North, Loop 1) was completed and about 30 months after the first substantial segments were open. One of the first tollroad networks to offer the option of transponder (brand: TxTag) or video tolling at full highway speed down the center (open road tolling or ORT) and cash off to the sides it has by our calculations aggregated 1.3% non-payment measured by transactions and nearly 3% by revenue.

Non-payment data come from TTAD spokesman Karen Amacker who says that as of the end of June they have 140k vehicle owners who have failed to pay nearly 2.1m toll transactions comprising about $3.2m in tolls. These 140k motorists have in the process now rung up $58.4m in fees and penalties, an average of $417 each.

Unlike some other states Texas doesn't use refusal of registration renewal to get motorists to pay unpaid parking and tolls and late fees, so hardcore non-payers have to be cited in local courts called Justice of the Peace Courts to enforce payment.

TTAD is planning to begin these court citations in the next few months but director Mark Tomlinson is proposing a one-time amnesty offer to the 140k scofflaws to allow them to avoid being hauled into court. Details have not yet been worked out but the proposal is likely to involve payment of tolls owing plus a proportion of penalties. This will be presented to the Texas Transportation Commission for a decision at their July 30 meeting.

Present setup

The present setup at mainline plazas is that motorists can use the open road toll lanes in the center with either a TxTag account and a stickertag type transponder, or they can fly through without the transponder and their license plate will be read, reference made electronically to the state motor registry database to extract their name and address and they should receive a toll bill in the mail (called in the industry 'video tolling' for the use of the camera.} Motorists can in fact pay these camera tolls online, by stopping at a customer service center, or by mail.

Under present TTAD procedures video tolling or 'Pay by mail' as they describe it generates a bill for the toll plus a $1.00 administrative fee. Two such invoices will be sent within 45 days.

If TTAD doesn't receive their money by day 75 $5.00 is added to the bill.

TTAD agrees to waive half the fees if the motorist pays the bill and establishes a TxTag account at the same time.

At day 112 the unpaid bills go to a  collection agency which adds another $25 fee.

At day 200 the nonpayer can be taken to Justice of the Peace Court, and TTAD plans to begin this process with the biggest nonpayers later this summer, along with an amnesty.

On the TTAD network motorists have a cash payment option with toll collectors at toll booths. Cash is paid by about 10% with 90% using the open road toll lanes in the center at mainline plazas producing a split is 74% TxTag transponder and 16% video toll over the three tollroads.

To get an idea of the scale of non-payment we aggregated transactions and revenue from TTAD transactions reports since the network opened. TTAD also operates toll systems for several small tollroads like Loop 49 Tyler and Camino Columbia in Laredo, but Central Texas accounts for over 90% of TxTag transactions and unpaid tolls. So the numerator is a bit high because of including unpaid tolls on the smaller systems as well.

It is a bit low however in measuring toll avoidance because a portion of video tolls are unreadable. TTAD can't extract a license plate number from the camera picture so it can't look for an owner in the motor registry database and it can't send out a toll bill.

But for good license plate reads - likely to be 90% - nonpayment by our calculation is running at a bit over 10% of video tolls by number with a portion of TxTag account tolls also unpaid because of an expired or overdrawn credit card. By revenue the problem seems to be over 20% non-payment of video tolls so far.

The amnesty plus justice of peace activity should reduce those numbers.

The Central Texas Turnpike network is a medium sized US toll system already, doing 230k transactions per day and collecting $57m in tolls/year in its third year. Loop 1 and 45 North in the northern part of the metro area are heavily commuter traffic and have higher transponder usage. 130 Toll serves local traffic but also substantial through traffic looking to avoid I-35 or go to/from the area airport from further afield, so it has substantially lower transponder account usage and higher cash and camera tolling.

BACKGROUND: Central Texas Turnpike System comprising Loop 1, 45N and 130 Toll has a toll management system (TMS) designed and maintained under contract by United Toll Systems. Back office functions, customer service and toll collection is contracted to Washington Division of URS. 45 South in the Austin area as well as Loop 49 in Tyler NE Texas and Camino Colombia near Laredo have Raytheon toll system management and WD/URS doing back office and toll collection.

see http://www.centraltexasturnpike.org/ctts/investors.aspx?agree=true

Picture top left is from Austin Statesman newspaper

Central Texas RMA slightly ahead

Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) which operates the 183A tollroad is somewhat ahead of TTAD, having already referred a ffirst batch of non-p[ayer cases to the justice of peace courts.

CTRMA has ended cash toll collection and does all tolling open road with a mix of transponder and camera-based toll collection.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-07-14