Unfair Toll System Leaves Many With Unjust Fines
Another toll road, another issue. The purpose of a toll road is to pay for its construction, as well as needed repairs and maintenance down the road. However, as we’ve seen in the past, toll roads have a tendency of simply turning into a revenue stream for cities, counties and states. They become somewhat of a money grab with no one truly policing these agencies to ensure the toll system is being used ethically, in the best way possible and to the betterment of the people who use it.
This “money grab” has been brought to light in California, where there are several issues with its tolling system, specifically ones administered by FasTrak. When you use a toll road, a camera snaps a photo of your license plate and mails you a bill for the toll. The problem is that many times, these bills are being issued to the wrong person.
Millions of motorists pay tolls with Fastrak, and officials said electronic toll collection is accurate most of the time. But with millions of cars, even a small percentage of mistakes affects a significant amount of people.
An area that seems to have many of these issues is the Bay Area. In the Bay Area, driving across one of the region’s eight bridges is routine for many. The area initiated a new all-electronic toll collection system in 2021. The system is like the one used at the Golden Gate Bridge, which adopted all-electronic tolling in 2013. Automated cameras capture images of license plates, and the FasTrak customer service center processes the images and then mails an invoice each month to the address where the vehicle is registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Drivers who do not have FasTrak or a License Plate Account must pay these invoices within 30 days.
In February 2020, the Bay Area Toll Authority saw 201,371 toll violations. In February 2022, there were 880,759 violations, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. That is a massive increase, 400%, in violations. Why is there such a massive increase in people not paying their invoices? One has to reason that there must be an issue within the system rather than people just simply choosing to not pay.
ABC7 News reported that FasTrak said only about 2% of the photos the cameras take give an “uncertain” result, called “low confidence.” Those then go to a manual review where someone must determine what the license plate says, and of those, 2% are wrong. While 2% may seem like a small number, if you multiply that by millions of cars, that number is high. And SellMax questions whether 2% is even accurate at all. That number doesn’t consider the people who might receive an inaccurate invoice and simply pay the minimal fee — usually between $7-$25 — rather than deal with the hassle of getting it waived or corrected.
While FasTrak claims these “low confidence” photos are sent to a manual review, are they? If the reviewer isn’t 100% certain of a license plate number, why is that invoice being sent at all? The city also has the ability to run a license plate to ensure that it matches the vehicle in the photo. So, how are wrong invoices still being sent?
SellMax is not immune to this issue. It receives at least one toll road ticket a month for a car that is in storage and couldn’t possibly have used a toll road. Nearly every time, the make, model and year of the car is wrong. The photo on the ticket does not match up with the description of the car on the invoice.
Take for instance the photo above. The make of the car in the photo is clearly a Honda, but in the description, it lists a Ford. This is a blatant error that someone should have caught.
And what about those instances where the license plate isn’t even visible? How can a manual review be performed on an image where they can’t even see the license plate number? Yet somehow, an invoice was still sent. In the image below, the photo is extremely dark and the license plate number is way too hard to read. Makes you wonder how they were even able to issue an invoice. Did they just guess what the plate could be?
Another issue is that violations are being sent to a previous owner. In many instances, SellMax has received an invoice that was also sent to the previous owner of that car. So, two invoices went out to two separate addresses. The former owner is no longer liable for anything that has to do with that car. It appears FasTrak is trying to get its money one way or another.
When drivers cross one of those seven bridges, they’re charged a toll. Drivers can pay with a FasTrak toll tag or a FasTrak license plate account, both of which require registration and a prepaid balance. If drivers don't have a FasTrak account, cameras capture their license plate numbers and send an invoice to each vehicle’s registered address. The system generates one invoice per vehicle per month.
If the toll isn’t paid by the due date, a delinquent notice is sent. For state-owned bridges (Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland, San Mateo-Hayward), the first notice includes the toll fee and a $5 penalty per crossing; a second notice includes the toll amount and a $15 penalty per crossing. On the Golden Gate Bridge, the first notice is the toll plus a $25 penalty per crossing; and a second notice includes the toll and a $70 penalty per crossing. If the toll is paid within 15 days, the penalty will be reduced to $25. On express lanes, the first notice is the toll plus a $10 penalty; a second notice is the toll fee plus a $30 penalty. If the toll is paid within 15 days, the penalty will be reduced to $10.
If someone does not pay the second notice, they are at risk for additional penalties and their vehicle registration being withheld by the Department of Motor Vehicles or referral to a collection’s agency.
While the initial toll fees might be small, if it isn’t paid, those penalties are tacked on and start to really add up. And if you feel there is an error, it takes time and effort to correct it with FasTrak. Many people may simply pay the bill rather than go through the hassle. The back of the toll bill even warns of penalties or DMV action. (See image below)
The complaints about wrong invoices escalated into a lawsuit against FasTrak back in 2014, which claimed that thousands of motorists were due a refund on penalties they should never have received. The lawsuit began after the Golden Gate Bridge switched to the all-electronic tolling in 2013. During that trial, lawyers for FasTrak and the Bay Area Toll Authority tried to keep the public out of the courtroom and even tried to keep a public policy secret regarding how they enforce toll violations, according to ABC7 News.
Motorists without a FasTrak account were supposed to get a toll invoice in the mail. But the suit claimed thousands never received their invoices, mostly due to address mistakes. Rather than finding a correct address, the suit said FasTrak kept piling on penalties.
FasTrak said it changed its policies over the years of the lawsuit, to prevent unwitting violators from incurring multiple penalties. But it wanted to keep those policies a secret, so motorists couldn’t “game the system” and avoid paying tolls.
A massive number of complaints and several lawsuits have triggered some change at the state level. In September 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2594, a bill by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) that sought to reform the way outstanding toll charges were handled. The current system disproportionately impacts people who cannot afford the outstanding invoices that keep escalating for nonpayment, according to Assemblymember Ting. This led to people in the Bay Area, being able to pay their toll debt and have all or some of their penalties waived by calling the customer service center at 877-229-8655.
While this bill is a step in the right direction, it does not address the flaws within the system itself. It does not address computer and human error when it comes to issuing incorrect invoices. At the end of the day, we have one question: is the toll system taking advantage of everyday citizens?
ABC7 News:
https://abc7news.com/fastrak-toll-bill-mailed-invoice-wrong-license-plate/12091484/ https://abc7news.com/fastrak-violations-7-on-your-side-michael-finney/9572298/The San Francisco Chronicle:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/bridge-toll-penalties-can-be-crushing-for-17320966.phpAssemblyman Phil Ting:
https://a19.asmdc.org/press-releases/20220930-tings-bill-bringing-more-fairness-equity-bridgero ad-toll-penalties-signed